Seahawksteelie,

Thank you for joining the conversation. I like your post, even if you are a lowly boat-rowing guide from a town that rhymes with dorks. Diversity requires the inclusion of some local input. I think you have WDFW by the short and curlies regarding this blanket, one size fits all, regulation when the status quo has been basin specific. Not that I support MSY/MSH as management models; I don't. Mainly because everywhere on the planet that they are used, fish populations decline.

As for that biggest elephant, my hunch is coincidence. The WDFW anadromous fish program doesn't like those fly fishing groups, not only because one of them is always suing the Deparment, but also because they release fish alive. The anadromous fish program identifies much more closely with Bloody Decks. It's the inland fish program with all those fly fishing lakes and quality waters that hang with the fly fishing crowd.

This particular regulation has a bit of science behind it, although not for the Quiliyute system. I posted earlier that about 70% of the steelhead encounters are by boat anglers. And the reason for increased restriction is to reduce encounters. This regulation should achieve that. As for helping wild steelhead, it should put a few more spawners on the gravel in 2021. It's not a steelhead recovery measure though.