I agree with we "should have done" for many years. The SAD, SAD fact is that we, recreational anglers have a lot of clout if we band together. But we continue to DISAGREE when we should be in agreement. We could have gotten gillnets out of the Columbia three years ago, but disagreed at legislature. On and on it goes. Bait bans are okay, but did you know that the mortality rate for steelhead with bait is negligently higher than artificials? (I use this as an example for illustration for the insistent bait fishing crowd).
"If Indians can kill wild steelhead I should be able to, too." The examples go on and on. All it takes is one hillbilly to show up at a commission meeting or legislature to screw up everything in the minds of stupid legislators and ignorant commissioners.
If fishing organizations could ever get together in agreement, and cough up twenty dollars apiece from members to pay a good lobbyist, We'd have over a million dollars and have our way. But we don't, and we won't. Now we have to fight the idiots that want to keep salmon and steelhead as museum pieces, so that the people living in million dollar condos in Bellevue can see wild salmon when they go to eastern Washington to see a wolf!