"Two weeks ago, I was fishing in vedder canal away from closely packed spot to a not-so-close spot - I noticed a lot of dead pinks (close to 9 or 10 ) not so colored fish, flowing away. They definitely didnt spawn but I think they died because of careless handling or fighting the fish for too long. I realized I may have unknowningly killed some too - even though I handled the fish in water and didnt fight it for too long, how would i know that those fish I released made it to spawning? - guess there is no way to know."
This is a tough one with no good answer.
I did very well on the lower system with the fly rod this year.
The majority of my fish were caught once the drift ended and I retrieved the fly back to the boat.
I was surprised by the number of fish that came, and when I would play them close to the boat and get ready to land them, significant blood was coming out of their mouth and gills.
Where in good shape, I kept a few of these fish to eat.
But, I noticed the pinks this year seemed to be quite aggressive and some of the fish had the hooks down pretty deep, and in those cases where bleeding quite a bit, had taken the hook in the tongue down deeper in their throat.
All when released (but one) swam away aggressively and full of energy.
My guess is some of them did not make it.
By looking at your time frame, we were likely in the same area on the same weekend.
Dan