Cowlitzfisherman, if your motivation is to make people think in order to strengthen our debate skills and perhaps make sportfishermen a more formidable foe to deal with, I commend you. I've written and deleted more on this one thread than in my last 10 posts to this site.

I disagree with your opinion, though, and question whether or not this whole debate is even worth the time it's been given. Sorry, not a slam, just my opinion.

It seems to me that any time you have laws governing an activity and you have to pay and follow rules to perform that activity, you're executing a privilege. Someone can stop you, and that in and of itself classifies it as a privilege, not a right. You may think and/or say you have a right to fish, but unless you're executing that activity as if it's a right (in other words, you fish whenever, wherever, and however you d@mn well please) you're already acknowledging it as a privilege.

Personally, I don't give a rip what classification it falls under. I also hope that you take time to consider all the well made points that came out of this. There are some sharp cookies in this bunch. \

Peace.