cowlitz,

Your points are well taken. You are right that emotion plays a part in my opinions and actions, but that's the kind of value I place on these fish.

We may have put a man on the moon, but we can't cure the common cold or forecast the weather more than 2 days out. I still have reservations about the "science" being used to study these fish. The whole fish/ocean/river cycle is not a simple math problem with a known solution you can get applying provable methods. There is much guesswork in fisheries management, and I think we should always err on the side of caution.

Of course we humans are a "natural factor", but only to the extent that we CHOOSE to be a factor. We can choose to be a big factor in losses of returning adults, or we can choose to be a smaller factor. That choice is up to us.

I understand where you're coming from. My opinion is based, at least partially, on my experiences on the Satsop river. When I was a kid, my dad would take me there, and even as a ham-fisted kid, we caught native fish regularly. We also bonked them, because we thought the run was "healthy". As steelheading became more popular, and more and more fish were taken from the river, the numbers began to dwindle. After several years of poor returns, WDFW enacted a C&R only regulation on wild steelhead. After several years, the fishing rebounded to the point of being like it was in the "good ol' days" (maybe not THAT good). Every native in the Satsop had already run the net gauntlet, and the only thing standing between them and their spawning gravel was US. When we started releasing "our share" of the nates, they were able to make a pretty fair comeback. I believe the C&R regs helped to rebuild this fishery. Now that the numbers are better, should we go back to C&K regs? I don't see why.

I think the broodstock program on the Satsop could be a great opportunity to have a fishery where C&R and C&K could coexist. That keeps everyone happy, as long as there are enough returning wild adults to maintain the broodstock program. The C&R regs on natives will help to ensure this happens.

I appreciate your feedback, as it's wise to know what your peers are thinking. Sure I let emotion play into my opinions, but who doesn't. Decisions at all levels of government are based on emotion, as well as science. If you're accusing me of having some weird kind of "love" for native steelhead......what can I say? GUILTY AS CHARGED