All right. I don't usually participate in RT's vain attempts to dis Washington in favor of Oregon, but this one's too good to pass up.

Good Things about OR:

1. Wilamette R.-Where else can you catch the elusive Open-ended Tube Salmon? (aka, used condom. Thank God the fishermen in OR use condoms, at least some of the time. There's already a glut of them on the market. OR fishermen, that is).

2. It's within easy driving distance from good fishing spots, like the Wind, Kalama, Lewis, Cowlitz, Elochoman, Naselle, Toutle, etc.

3. You can buy fishing gear with no sales tax. Then, you can leave it in all the rivers listed in number 2. Since OR fishers are good at efficiently using fishing time, maybe they can save ten hours by driving across the Columbia, hitting the beach in Vancouver, and then throw their tacklebox in on the WA side and go home. It would accomplish the same as an OR fisherman's usual day in much less time.

4. You don't have to waste any time worrying about whether or not you'll have a chance at an ocean coho fishery.

5. No one minds if you don't use stop signs, turn lanes, speed limits, or if you don't know how to parallel park.

Bad things about WA:

1. You stay up half the night wondering which of the two dozen rivers that are fishing well right now you want to go to.

2. Paying sales tax on a chest freezer to stuff with hatchery fish from a decent week in the fall.

3. Sunburns from fishing for Lk. Washington Sockeye.

4. You don't often get the *surprise* of catching a bass while steelhead fishing.

Whatever.

Todd