Where can you keep hatchery steelhead in Humboldt?

The regs are a little tough to sift through. It seems that some areas in Humboldt do allow you to keep hatchery steelhead on certain dates. Is it true that you can keep them in the Mad River and Smith River on certain dates? What about the Russian and other rivers farther south?

And a general question. Does anybody keep steelhead in the legal areas, or is it common practice to catch-and-release this species even when you are allowed to keep them?

There are people who keep them, but few who catch them!     In the Mad River you can keep any hatchery steelhead you catch I believe.  In the Smith I think you can keep a wild one - I'm basing that on a guide in a drift boat who kept one and confirmed when I asked "you can keep steelies up here?"  I'm pretty darn sure it was wild too.  Most other streams up here steelies are off-limits, but the Klamath-Trinity system does have some keepable ones too.

Good luck.

Eric

Thanks Eric. Not sure when I can get up there, but I have always wanted to give it a try. Looks like the water will be brown for the next couple of weeks, though.

After yesterday's adventure I'm ready for a comfy seat in a drift boat (not rowing!) with Mr. Heater in front of me and someone showing me how to catch one!   

I know what you mean. Coming from HI in DEC we actually took a picture with the heater because we liked it so much.

Ed