There is just a remant left of what you where used to back in the ''Golden'' days of Vancouver island streams and rivers.
They are taking the trees like there is no tomorrow. If they keep mowing the forest we will be lucky to catch a steelhead in another ten years on the wild streams. The forest companies are right out of control.
Major drought this yr. is really going to impact fish stocks four to five yrs. from now.
You got that right, can't believe how close they are logging to a lot of rivers right now. One of them the other week it was literally about 50 feet from the edge of the river to the edge of the big clear cut.
I think I would disagree with the drought statement. If anything, it will impact next year stocks or the year after (as the low water would have effected the fry/pre smolts that would have been going out this next spring). Right now, the water is more than ideal for fish to enter and spawn. Salmon would have had no problem this year as all October and November have had higher than normal water.
Honestly averaging 1 fish isn't gonna get you 100+ in my opinion. How many trips can you realistically make. Personally I can get in about 40-50 trips between weekends the odd day off and 3 hr trips after work in march on when I feel like going out(and i live on the river pretty much). Unless your guide and take the whole winter off jobless.. There's gonna be the odd days in jan and feb where you just can't connect no matter how hard and well you fish. Not to mention if you get a bad year fish number wise like last steelhead season on the vedder. Mix in the growing crowds on the river and growing number of capable quality rods on the river . I can guarantee you won't be hitting triple digits unless your out there everyday. If your not getting 2+fish trips frequently throughout the season and the odd banner days 5-7+to help with the tough times its a pretty slim shot. Somebody who fishes with others frequently can also lower their odds. Obviously your a decent rod but saying is one thing and doing is another.
Yep, I totally agree that saying it's possible and actually doing it are two different and difficult things. I only fish it in December now on my breaks, with the odd day in Feb/April. My average of 1 fish/trip is in mid December when I get out to fish. Years past I definitely had a number of 3-6 steel days between Feb-April. When I lived right on the river before moving to the island, I use to get 40-50 steel a year out of the Vedder, and I didn't have a fraction of the knowledge I have now. Really, it doesn't matter to me overall for numbers. I use them as an indication of how stocks are doing. I keep track year to year of hours/trips/numbers of fish. I can tell you that this year was incredible based on previous years, and I sighted probably 5X as many fish as I had ever seen on any of these flows. I do believe a number of these rivers are coming back... many of them have much better returns now than were documented back in the 90's (I have buddies that swim, and looking at numbers from back then compared to now, numbers are up 50-100 fish on nearly all the big summer rivers).