Every time someone asks me about the skokomish (which is a lot, because I grew up fishing it) I always tell them that it’s NEVER reopening to non tribal sport fishing. Period.

The state will not stand up for us. They’ll just continue to roll over. They see anything that could be misconstrued as “racist” or “unsympathetic to the needs of indigenous people” as their biggest hurdle. It’s simple, tell them to shove it. “Guy” is playing the the race card/us vs them really hard. Just look at some of his and the councils remarks. “We see this as an invasion of our sovereign land”. Such BS.

I’d honestly rather see them go scorched earth. Shut down ALL fishing in hood canal and take the 60% of the fish out of George Adams (the states share). Sell it to Tacoma power and move on. If the tribe wants fish in the river, they can make up the difference.

Shut the Hoodsport hatchery down too. Sell it to the tribe for as much as possible. Move those chinook to the satsop (from Hoodsport and George Adams).

Oh yeah, let’s not forget...they skoks want to net the upper satsop. The state is even making accommodations for them. I fish the private property that the tribe wants to fish (the confluence of the middle and East forks). I can tell you with certainty that the people that live there will block the gate and fight to keep it from happening.

I stopped by purdy cutoff to look at the fish I helped pay for go into nets. While talking to one of the Middle Aged “fisherman” about the satsop. I was polite enough. He told me the plan was to start next fall. The state is doing “riparian restoration” at the confluence but it’s actually to accommodate tribal netting. I asked him about the locals saying they wouldn’t allow tribal boats to launch on their property or even drive into the river on the gated road. His response “well, I don’t know how it works exactly, but when we have rights, the feds will help us”. I asked him “you mean with negotiating access?” He said “no like with warrants, bolt cutters and guns”.

I still can’t get a straight answer, can they just claim some sort of tribal fishing rights and access your property? Doesn’t private property mean anything? I really am confused on how this would work. You can’t just build a boat launch on private property without permission.

I hope I’m wrong, but they might just buy them out. That would be expensive. One small cabin today is going for $275,000. That would be a multimillion dollar deal.