I obviously don’t post here much but for some reason I’m feeling compelled to. I’m sure I'll be called out for whining, sour grapes, whatever, and that's likely true, but I am also just so surprised at the reaction from many on here. Full disclosure, yes, I am one of those lowly fishing guides that this will majorly impact. I live in a town that rhymes with dorks and pretend to guide there year around. I understand that I am a commercial entity making a living off of a public resource. Many of you may not agree with that and I understand that argument for sure. I’m not here to change anyone’s mind in regards to liking or not liking guides and I'm certainly not going to waste my breath looking for sympathy in the way my livelihood is being affected. I would however, like many of you to consider WDFW’s role in these new regulations from another perspective and to shed some light on how I feel we aren't being properly managed.

First and foremost, as it relates to the Quileute system… WDFW has always managed steelhead fisheries under the maximum sustainable harvest model. Under those guidelines the Quileute system has a forecast of 9276 steelhead. That forecast is 3376 fish over escapement. Traditionally that would mean that sport anglers have 1,688 fish to harvest through a catch and release fishery and the tribal co-mangers have 1,688 fish to harvest in their commercial gill net fishery. The tribe has stated plainly that they see no reason for increased conservation measures and they plan to operate their fishery as such. Why is WDFW disagreeing with that stance? WDFW is using creel data that would suggest that anglers catch 4000-5000 steelhead a winter in the Q system (Keep in mind this comes entirely from 2014 and prior creel data before we moved to no bait, barbless hooks ect.). Using the 10% mortality figure (that again, has not changed since we went to no removal of wild steelhead from the water, no bait, barbless hooks, only 1 hook) agreed on between the state and tribe, thats 4-500 dead steelhead. Far below the number we would be allowed to harvest while still meeting WDFWs escapement goal. If all the shift in pressure from Grays Harbor led to twice as many fish being caught (I would hope we can logically agree that wouldn't happen) we would still comply with our management objectives.

So by those numbers, we clearly have the numbers to support a full season on the Q system. We fished on similar numbers last year and the year before on the Hoh and met escapement as well. WDFW justification for further restrictions would be the closures to the Chehalis system (which now aren't happening even though those rivers are under escapement?) and not the projected numbers for the Q system. They will not answer to why they have suddenly, for the first time ever, decided to make a coast wide blanket restriction when they have always managed system by system. For everyone agreeing with this change in management, I would ask if you will be supporting the Skagit opening this winter. By this logic, the Sky is closed so the Skagit must be too regardless of return.

Now for the many elephants in the room. This decision they just made is obviously a big one. At a recent meeting with the board of WDFW commissioners, none of the commissioners had even heard mention of these rule changes despite having met with WDFW fisheries managers in a meeting just 2 days prior. This rule has a large impact to the economy of some rural towns. WDFW failed to reach out to our state senator Van De Wege or our other representatives to inform them as well. Personally, I'm disheartened that a decision of this magnitude is being made extremely quickly with very little input from so many stakeholders and without any economic considerations. How about you?

And of course, the biggest elephant of all. Does it seem odd to any of you that a couple special interest groups that just so happen to only fish from the bank, have been pushing hard for no fishing from floating devices since 2015 and now for the first time ever, without any number or studies to back it up, WDFW decides that this will be an effective tool to save wild steelhead? Is it okay to you, even if this doesn't immediately impact you, that minority special interest groups seem to have WDFW pushing their agenda now?

It is disheartening to me that as a group of passionate sportsmen, we are okay with the department making new rules that aren't backed by any good science showing that they will really help wild steelhead. In 2016 we were told that no bait and barbs would really help. 5 years later we are restricting ourselves further due to low returns. We were told that we needed to go to all catch and release and that the tribe wouldn't take those extra fish. They did so there was again, no savings. I have no personal beefs with any of those rules but I sure think we need to start getting a little more return for our sacrifices. We’ve seen declines in wild steelhead sate wide, we have closed rivers to all angling and they still fail to come back. At some point we need to stop being okay with further restrictions that we know won't help and insist that WDFW re evaluates the escapement goals on our rivers. Thats the only way, under the MSY model, to restrict any harvest and let more fish spawn. Otherwise we could have 30,000 show up to the Q system next year and the state and tribe will still feel the need to harvest that run down to 9,000.

Does anyone here truly believe that not fishing from a floating device will lead to an increase in wild steelhead returns in the future? I mean REALLY? And if you don’t, regardless of your feeling on greedy fishing guides or wether you have always bank fished anyways, you should be outraged. As a community of fisher people we need to support each other better. We need to care that someone that fished the Sol Duc for the last 45 years and won't be able to wade is going to be cut out of the fishery. Im sure every Puget Sounder can relate to that pain. I’m saddened that some kids won't get into this sport because of these regulations. We should care about the tradition of some of the best oarsmen on the planet that have navigated those rivers, the plug pullers, and the elderly and the disabled losing the ability to participate in wild winter steelhead fisheries for no return on their sacrifice. The ones that aren't affected by this should remember that the next rule out of left field might take away a fishery they love. We need to care about the small communities like Forks that will be devastatingly impacted by rules that won't have any bottom line savings of our fish in the long run.

And finally, we need to let WDFW know that when further restrictions are necessary, they implement them in the right way. A good example would be that somehow, to protect wild winter steelhead, you cannot fish from a floating device on the upper Hoh above Morgan’s for hatchery summer steelhead. Why? I guess because the WDFW wrote it in the regs wrong and despite it being pointed out multiple times, have failed to bother to amend that. Sure its not a high traffic area in the summer, but that doesn't mean it should be regulated for no reason. In this current case, there is no science backed reason for restricting fishing from a floating device for Bogachiel hatchery steelhead which WDFW claims they want caught and retained that I'm aware of. Motels, restaurants, and yes, even those indicator using, bead dragging, public resource abusing god damn fishing guides that have suffered losses due to covid, and are about to lose out again, shouldn't face the additional loss that not fishing from a boat will have when only hatchery steelhead are present.

Food for thought…