Several contributors to this thread (Superfly, Dogfish) have offered to show me the problems with Tribal netting at Hoodsport and elsewhere. Although I appreciate their generous offer, I am unable to take them up on it. Not because I’m not interested but life at home keeps me busier than I’d like to be. As I write this post, my eight-month-old is pulling at my leg and my two-year old is trying to jam a crayon into my zip drive. My weekends are spent trying to give my stay-at-home wife a break from the kids. In fact, the only time I get a chance to fish is between 5:00am and 8:00am on Saturday mornings before they get up. So, a trip to Hoodsport isn’t possible.

That’s not to say that I don’t believe what you’ve seen isn’t happening. I believe it is. I will agree that, at times, the Tribes take more salmon than they should and they waste a lot of fish, particularly if they’re only after the eggs. This is unacceptable and seeing lots of dead fish scattered across the river contributes to the hard feelings and strong opinions expressed on this BB.

However, our different experiences contribute to our different opinions. Here’s what I deal with every day - BPA eliminates spill for their hydropower projects on the Lower Snake River and mainstem Columbia River this summer and possibly the fall. The central Washington PUD’s eliminate spill on the Mid-Columbia hydropower projects thereby sending all the fish through the turbines. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) runs their turbines full bore on the Baker River project all spring and summer thereby emptying the reservoir. When they ran out of water, the Baker River and half the Skagit River went dry. In each of these instances, salmon were, and are, being killed by the millions. Millions! And for what? So they can send power to California and make hundreds of millions of dollars. So someone in Malibu can heat their hot tub and the CEO of PSE can buy another yacht. Where is the outrage?

The tribal folks, many of whom live below the poverty line, fish to supplement their income. Although I’d like to think they use the money for heating bills and food, I suspect too much of it goes into less noble expenses like a few cases of beer. Be that as it may, how many of them are buying yachts or big houses on Lake Washington? Not many. The collective decisions by the power companies to maximize their profits will kill more salmon in a week than the tribes kill all year.

Some folks see the Indians netting hundreds and perhaps thousands of salmon and get upset and enraged. Their reaction is clearly justified and appropriate. However, I see power companies getting rich, power being wasted, and our salmon dying by the millions and millions. That gets me quite upset. Perhaps I’ve gotten too jaded but after dealing with power companies all day long, hearing about the tribes netting a few thousand salmon doesn’t seem quite so bad.......

We see different things and have different opinions. That's okay. I'm done for this thread. Good luck on the water, hope the summer runs have been hitting.