The following was posted on the WDFW/NOF mailbag page. Do you agree?

I'm happy that public input is now really part of the North of Falcon (NOF) process. I generally can't make the public meetings but do have some different ideas that I feel are worth consideration. I've sport fished in Puget Sound for over 20 years now. I've seen the declines in stocks, the cod, salmon, sea-run cutts and rockfish, the reduction in average size of salmon, the loss of some runs, the loss of opportunity to fish for others. In all of this time, the NOF and the WDFW have managed these stocks and opportunities with a perspective that I would like to see changed. That perspective is always the same year to year. It's obviously getting harder each year to make the tough choices about who gets to fish, and where, and for how long, and for what species because we are always using the same perspective and that is the perspective on HARVEST!

As an avid sport fisherman in Washington, I would gladly trade any of my allowable harvest for opportunity to catch and release in areas that once were choked with big beautiful fish but are now closed to sport harvest, but not tribal harvest during the best times. For example Sekiu. I used to plan for weeks in advance to go there during the June and July runs, man what a great time that used to be. We've had several years of block closures during the summer now, and the town is nearly dead, only surviving because of the diving. Yes, I know that we get to do some blackmouth fishing during the spring but then it closes in April. Some of the best fishing in Sekiu can be in April and May, bigger blackmouth and early summer run kings.

My Area 4 & 5 proposal is to allow catch and release (C&R) during a longer sport season including the best/peak periods for an area and count the accepted mortality rate of C&R against the sport harvest quota for the area. If that means that we can't harvest any fish, not a problem, no big deal. I just want to fish! I'm totally in favor of zero harvest in most areas of the state, especially the rivers! Enhanced C&R opportunities are a future we can all live with. Opportunity enhancement can be an economic boom for the state. Remember the salmon charter business in the 70's? Harvest allocation will bankrupt everyone eventually and the salmon will be GONE!!!. FOREVER!!!

In the South Sound areas 10 and 11, my proposal is for an 8 month catch and release season from October to May, and a 4 month sport harvest season from June to September with a 1 punch card season limit and a 1 one fish per week limit during the harvest season. This approach conserves fish by reducing peak run harvest and limiting anglers to a 1 punch card season bag limit. This approach can reduce the harvest during the peak of the run by limiting harvest to 1 fish per week per angler. This approach allows for increased opportunity to fish, creating economic opportunities. This run may enhance future stocks by closing harvest of smaller/juvenile fish for 8 months of the year while still allowing for sport fishing C&R opportunity on those same stocks. Exactly where do the 3 million hatchery blackmouth we release each year go? Many are harvested at the 22" mark. I would rather harvest that same fish at the 22 lb. mark! We can let the blackmouth grow and still have C&R during the winter months with minimal C&R mortality impact.

Embark in a new direction this year. Manage the resource wisely, in a way that allows for the survival of stocks and gets the greatest economic return from the resource at the same time. Conservation, sport season bag limits, sport weekly bag limits much smaller than current limits, enhanced sport C&R are all ideas that will help to in the effort manage wisely if given a chance. I know that the commercial interests will be allocated opportunity and it's all about harvest. Real sport fishermen are tired of harvest allocation. Give us opportunity, C&R opportunity, PLEASE!!!