land tuna,
I for one do want the hood cannal streams shut down.C/r is presently being used by the state as an excuse for keeping those streams open.Look at the regs and you will see that the rivers are c/r exept hatchery steel.The state supplies 10,500 steel smolt to the northern rivers.Is this a fishery or an excuse,using c/r,to keep from telling the truth and shutting these streams down?While this fishery is c/r to protect all fish but the few hatch steel that might be there two months out of the year,They have not put any restrictions {single barbless, no bait}to protect these fish.So what do we have a c/r fishery based on salmon and steelhead smolt using bait and trebbles.Usuing c/r as an excuse to keep from giving the public the wrong idea.That is what scares me about c/r.I am all for c/r to preserve our wild fish,but am afraid that it will be used as it is on my rivers.I stated on another thread that my WANT to fish is not a NEED.I am more worried about preserving our wild fish than I am being able to go fishing.I have given up anymore winter steel fishing this season because of the situation that has unfolded.

As it stands now the public is not really that woried about the state of our steelhead fishery.That leaves the sport fisherpeople to carry the weight.The smaller that group of people gets or the more divided we get,the less weight we carry.I am scared by the lack of kids on the rivers now.I watched the differant debates on other bourds concerning the statewide c/r issue and it looked to me like there were alot of good responsible fisherpeople that did not want this for all sorts of differant reasons.I am afraid of loosing there participation as things get worse.

Catch and release as the wsc wants it could be one of the best things for our healthy fisheries.I am just afraid the state will not do the right thing{close unhealthy fisheries}with your proposal.