I am by no means an expert on the Trinity fishery. I just know that overfished means something different than overcrowded. As far as whether so many hatchery fish means the fishery is hurting, that depends on the management goals of the particular fishery. If it is to get fishermen fish, than I don't think you can say the Trinity fishery is hurting (it is quite successful, hence the crowds). If it is to have a wild steelhead fishery, than yeah, the fishery is probably hurting and the hatchery probably makes it worse. I don't feel bad at all about fishing the Trinity as far as the fish are concerned. If I feel bad about anything about my fishing the Trinity, I feel bad about not keeping my limit of hatchery steelhead every time I fish.
As far as the crowds go, from what I have seen from driving 299 the last 4 weekends is that the crowds that I can see from the road are too much for me to enjoy fishing. However, I also know that there is lots of river I can access, and the crowds encourage me to try to find new spots. Crowds on the Trinity are nothing new, and the last few years, the hot spots on the river are always hard to get pre-dawn. Most steelhead streams in California are as crowded or more crowded than the Trinity. What I would really like to see is more fishermen learn the ethics of rotating through a hole.
I have really enjoyed your's and Bruce's exchange on this thread. It is nice to see people with differing opinions disagree so agreeably. I just had to jump in with my 2 cents.
I have seen a lot of arguments over the years saying that because a river was crowded the fish were suffering, when that may not necessarily be the case. Believe me, I won't go any further into semantics!
There is no argument that the Trinity is very crowded right now and that a person's fishing experience can suffer for it.
Dawn
Favoured: 0
