Thanks Andy,
You are right about us getting off on the wrong foot. I hope that our past exchange of words and thoughts can put us both back on focus. I really appreciate constructive advice, and criticism. Fishing is my life and when you told me to "get a life", that really got to me. I am willing to work with anybody who has the time to do so. Let me tell you and the other BB readers what has happen today, and yes I think that the sheriff is addressing both issues in my letter. About 11:00 AM today, I picked up a friend and drove down to the Wallace Gravel Pit. It appears that the Pit Owner has dragged a large old dead tree next to the power line road so that you cannot turn off to the right where the old parking lot was located by the river. As it stands now you must park in the middle of the power line road easement.

We drove around at the very end and parked about 100 feet to the right of the power line road. This was the exact spot that the Deputy met with me when the pit owner had called in his trespassing complaint against me on May 11. About 5 minutes after being there a yellow and green truck came running out across the fields and pulled up along side of us and said, "You know that you are trespassing don't you". I told him that I did not think that I was trespassing and that I was pretty much parked in the state owned easement-parking area.

He said nope! That has all changed now, and you have to park back at the power lines. I asked him how that could be and he told me that they had met this morning with Friends of the Cowlitz, WDFW, and the sheriff. I said that I find that extremely strange, since I had just talked to Ray Croswell yesterday and he told me that he was not coming out to the site until Wednesday sometime. The person at the site then told me that "they have surveyed it" and that it was a done deal. I used my cell to call the president of the Friends of the Cowlitz (FOC) and talked to his wife. She told me that FOC did have sort of meeting with the Pit owner a couple of days ago. I told her the problem that we were currently having and asked her to have her husband call me back on my cell phone. I waited for more then 90 minutes with no reply. The guy also said that they (the pit owner) had made some kind of deal with the FOC to rear fish in the Pits pond. WDFW would never agree to any fish being reared in an active gravel pit pond! I know that for a fact, because I had been personally involved in years of rearing of hundred of thousands of the FOC fish. I also know that the FOC reads this BB and think that it way past time for them to speak up on this BB about this issue, especially since I had received an email from their office asking me for a copy of the easement map.

As it stands now, it appears that games may now going on by other parties. Well, they told me that they had called the sheriff's office and that he would be right out again to solve this problem. I told them that we would be more then happy to wait and stay to meet with the sheriff to resolve this issue once and for all since I did have my complete file with me, and that included the of copy of the original State Easement Map and parking area!

Guest what? After we had waited for well over an 1 hour, no sheriff, or deputy had appeared. We finally went home without even casting a line, that's what really makes me mad! I hope that the FOC will be open with this BB if they decide to cut any deals with the Pit owner. I know that I will be open with the people who have helped to support this issue on this BB!

Cowlitzfisherman,

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????