Wow, we need a reality check. I don’t think you can blame “greedy sports anglers” and expect any improvements in the steelhead runs. This is the real world and we need to accept not every angler is as riotous as some of you appear to be. (That goes for tribes, sports anglers and commercial interests) Ron is right, there are many factors impeding the recovery of wild steelhead, including competition from hatchery fish. Do you think the majority of tribes would support closing hatcheries? I would.

But…. WDFW manages harvest by limiting “wild steelhead” mortality. Not how many fish return. The states have made it clear that they want hatchery fish to be harvested, by sports anglers, tribal and commercial interests. In area’s that support wild take, the amounts are supposively split between the two user groups. I am not in favor of stripping any fishing rights from one group and not the other, which is what you are proposing.

Todd, you seem like a knowledgeable person, but to suggest the tribes “have to use gillnets” to fish is wrong. How about a tangle net and target hatchery fish, this would allow greater access to hatchery, while limiting death to wild fish. Tribes choose to use gill nets, they choose to kill natives. Suggesting there are no alternatives is wrong.

The reason I believe the tribes will use up an allotment not used by the sports anglers, is because that is the way I have seen it work in the past, i.e. Columbia Springers. If the States can deny access of the tribes to the sports angler portion of the “wild mortality” then we can make some progress. Can this happen?

The states have adopted a system of C & R on all South West Washington Rivers and Oregon Rivers, why would it be difficult for the States to admit this protection should apply to Oly Penn rivers? Maybe its to appease the tribes and not a way of back peddling out of managment mistakes made in the past.

I have every right to be critical of fishing practices tribal and non tribal, and it doesn’t require an education to have an opinion. If Thomas Jefferson hadn’t fought for voting rights for every citizen, only educated individuals could vote today. Quote “Without being educated on the facts and issues surrounding c&r, no one can have a credible opinion.” Why do I need to know as much as you, in order to form an opinion?.