to be honest I lean toward freds side ....for what ever reason the amount of fish sure appears lower to me and the fish generally are smaller ......in the 90's 15 pound fish were common , I think the only reason fisherman may be spoiled has nothing to do with steelhead populations its the newer tactics of fishing for them...... the average fisherman today is a lot better equipped then 20 years ago.... hell we had to tie our own rods just to get a noodle rod and most of them were fly rod blanks tied with spinning seats .....no one had any idea about pinning or beads .....even eggs were not cured as well ...I remember first time estaz was used for flies on salmon river ...... I agree with you fred ,it's my opinion the numbers just aren't there ....
why was the run so good in Oswego they drop the fish in the lake there ....
oh so the old farts with flyrods I control? shane excuse me for asking this but have you ever heard the term "delusions of grandeur"neither of us control or own anything here we are guest ...and I'm not being mean snag you jumped on me because I have a opinion that the salmon and steelhead run every trib and stream in lake Ontario ......my opinion isn't going to change ....and come sept the prove will be running the water ways again
so fish have never flowed over a dam before in high waters? I don't care about rice creek anyways.
Your timing might be off Trapper or maybe The States was lagging behind Canada back in the day. We started pinning back in the early 80's in Ontario with it really taking off in the mid 80's. It was then that we were using custom noodle type rods as well.In the late 70's we were using the old flyrods with either a Martin fly reel loaded with mono or a spinning reel.