The program started in 1997. 24 years. How many adult returns is that? How many closures have they had? Restrictions on gear?

Their fish must be different or something, more rugged…considering fish that are caught with barbed and sometimes treble hooks are netted, put in a metal box, then in a tank, live spawned, tagged and released above the hatchery…are observed to only have 2% mortality. Just built different I guess.

I still don’t know why you think the program on the Wilson and Trask are only a couple years old. 2023 will be the 25 year of the program. Washington steelhead must be pansies, or the state refuses to except something that works because it’s driven almost entirely by guides and sportsman. It couldn’t be that. They even admitted to not knowing what rivers have summer steelhead in region 6 outside hatchery plants….

I’ve asked around, talked to people that fish the area and when I’m sitting at home with closed rivers, they aren’t seeing any reduction in catch. Fish keep coming back, they keep catching those fish and those fish go to the same ocean. Again…Washington steelhead are just bitches. Must be.

The fact that 10% mortality is used to shut down fisheries…is laughable. “An abundance of caution”…so more than twice the mortality rate than pretty much any study worth its salt is and abundance of caution? Including the most well funded and peer reviewed research. The Idaho study is pretty definitive. 1-3% 5% if the fish is bashed around. More agencies, universities, sportsman and groups involved in that study than anything done in Washington.

Recreational fisherman face all the blame when they’ve done almost none of the damage. The state is lazy and just controls what it can, us.

The fact that they “renegotiated” 50/50 for hatchery fish goes to show you they do not have our best interest in mind…just afraid of offending the minorities (fly fisherman, anti hatchery lawsuit groups, tribes and preservation groups).

If fisheries are public and owned by the public…then we should be fishing these rivers. Period. Maybe privatization is the way to go? Not saying I’m for paying the tribes or whoever to fish the Wynoochee or humptulips…but I can guarantee you this…I’d have fish to catch. I’ve had bad days with my buddy fishing on the Rez, horrible 4/5 days..for both of us. So I guess it’s not always good…