At the risk of being a bit political, the situation between the various groups listed above is not dissimilar to the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis: no one wants to take the first step towards resolving the situation, for fear that the other party won't follow along.

It's a fact of life that the indian nets are in the rivers. They are going to take 50% of the return, because that's their legal right. It it not in our power to alter that.

It is in our power to decide what to do with whatever is left for us to catch. You can make a choice as to whether to try to add 8-10,000 baby fish to the river whenever you have an opportunity to release a fish.

As to bonking chromers, I thin you're missing the point. Killing a chromer is no better than killing a dark fish, indeed is perhaps worse from a run impact standpoint, as the dark one may have spawned. I know that chromers are beautiful, and I want to take one home to show off as much as the next guy. But if the fish are scarce, then the fish are scarce, and they are all needed to spawn.

It's true that someone else may well kill the fish after you release it. You can't affect that either. But you can give the fish a chance.

In this year of huge silver returns, none of us should have any problem getting some fish for the table and some eggs. Why kill a king? You gonna eat 30 lbs of salmon yourself?

There is an interesting article in Salmon Trout Steelheader this month on the likelyhood that the wild runs of salmon will survive through the coming century. Basically, the author predicts they won't, because of the unlikelyness of us modifying our behavior to allow them to. He thinks people will continue to clearcut, net, kill every fish they catch, etc.

What do you say that we try to prove that guy wrong?