My point was that making all wild steelhead in our state C&R isn’t going to solve all our problems, its a good idea on the surface. The majority of our rivers are already that way, have been for quite a while. Maybe it should be kept on a river by river basis, as some are in relatively better condition than others. Some our coastal rivers are the best, being farther from population centers. Inland waters have suffered the most and are in more need of better regulation. As you know fly fishing C&R has much less effect on fish released then bait caught fish. The mortality rate for those fish isn’t very good because they tend to swallow the bait. Which is better letting fisherman have their one or two fish or letting them catch all day possibly injuring and killing many wild fish. I have seen this happen to many times, it’s a dilemma to say the least. As you point out there are many causes for the decline of our fisheries. The biggest are Native Americans and commercial gill netters, next would be environmental conditions, including logging, dams, pollution, etc. Something more extreme is needed to turn things around. Until all the agencies come together to reverse some of the damage done, I fear thing will continue to deteriorate. When 95% of the harvest-able fish is controlled by commercials, how much difference can we make. Look at what happened when we tried twice unsuccessfully to get the nets out. They (gill netters) threw lots of money at it because they knew it would make such a dramatic difference but people voted against it, why, because it didn’t include Native American’s, for them it’d still be business as usual. I don’t even want to get started on that issue. When have you ever seen a gill netter let wild fish go or non-targeted fish for that matter? NEVER! I repeat what I said before, “What you and I do makes little difference in the big picture”. You need to set your goals much higher if you want to change the status quo. You call me naive, I don’t think so, more of a realist. I’ve written letters to our elected officials and to the WDFW and yes I’ve gotten back some nice responses to my questions and opinions but what good has it done? Their going to do what ever they want regardless of what we say or think, its just good PR if they ask first. There is far to much politics involved in these decisions and to little scientific knowledge. You also seem to think we’re on different sides of the issue, fact is I agreed with most of what you say. Taking away more sports fisherman’s rights no matter how noble isn’t the answer, we have lost to many as it is. Next would be taking them all and not being able to fish, a real possibility! As fly fisherman, don’t take a mightier than thou attitude, we need to be united with those who choose to bait fish for the betterment of all, the opposition is counting on that. Until that happens they have nothing to fear. Every group has its own drum to beat, if you get enough drums together, they will be heard, one drum alone is only noise. And yet here we are again, arguing over who will catch the last fish! Shame, shame! We need to be fighting those things that have brought us to this, not against each other!
Jim
