you're right Rainbow, BUT, you forgot one little thing, right now the steelhead are fresh, they are very careful, they have roe, I'm almost positive that some of the fish caught will die before spawning, due to being, improperly released, now in the spring the trout are spawned out, they aren't very careful, its not rare to spot a dying trout, its not rare to find them swimming near you, when you are in your waders, they are much less careful, they've already seen everything, they don't get spooked easily, due to the fact they've been in the river for a while and got used to it, in the fall, already careful steelhead, turn into even more careful steelhead, the same fish get caught over and over again and they start getting stressed out, ounce they get stressed out, they start losing fat, the more fat they loose, the less chance they have of surviving and getting to spawning grounds, kind of like salmon ounce entering the river, they loose fat, or as some people call it "slime" they start getting darker and more and more tired, you can see this, when you catch a steelhead, take your hand and just rub it across the fish, most likely this time of year it will be very slimy and oily, now do the same in the spring, it will most likely be almost dry, not oily at all, if they loose too much before they spawn they won't make it, fighting stresses out fish and makes them loose fat, coming up strong currents also does, people touching the fish or placing it on shore also does, so yes this "tournament" will affect, them much more in the fall then in the spring.