Steelhead Card Reporting Rules

July 19, 2012

Question: What are the rules pertaining to marking a steelhead card? If a fisherman is fishing on the Middle Fork Smith River at one location and moves to another location on the same fork of the river, is the fisherman required to remark his report card? If the answer is yes, then should boats also mark their cards with multiple entries? Every fisherman I know on the Smith River does not make new entries when changing locations on the same fork of the river. Please help clear up this question.

Answer: No, the angler would not have to fill out his card again when moving within a single location code. The location code for the Middle Fork Smith River is 2c. An angler can move any where within 2c during a single day without having to fill another row on the Report Card.

However, according to DFG Steelhead Report and Restoration Card Program Coordinator Farhat Bajjaliya, if an angler moves between different location codes within a single watershed during a single day, then that angler will have to fill out an additional row. A good example of this is the Mad River. It is plausible that an angler can move between location codes on the Mad River within a single day (codes 8a, 8b and 8c). Every time an angler enters a new location code boundary, a new row for that location code must be filled out.