As noted previously, the future of hatchery winter steelhead fishing in some Puget Sound streams is bleak. The following is a quote from a letter sent by Ron Garner, President of Puget Sound Anglers State Board to NOAA Sustainable Fisheries in Portland, Oregon. It specifically notes that by putting this year's winter steelhead smolts in lake systems that do not on have access to the ocean (done for the second year now) leaves no returning adults for future hatchery programs. Here's the quote (made by Garner in Reel News Magazine) written before the WDFW made the decision to not release the smolts to anadromous streams:
"It is my understanding that the smolts must be released into the respective rivers by June 1 to avoid residualism" (which was not done). Dumping those smolts into select lakes for trout fisheries, as was done in 2014, is unacceptable and almost guarantees that sufficient adult brood stock would no be available to continue the hatchery steelhead programs."
