Well, here we go......first post. I visited this site over a year ago on a tip from a local fella. I liked the site and visited it often for a couple of months, then my 'puter went South, and I never got back here.

I'll catch up on the personalizing at some other time, but for now, just let me say that I have lived in Western Washington since 1955 and over here on the Olympic Peninsula since 1971, and have fished since I was big enough to carry a rod. My knowledge of fish and fishing is from my own field experience and zest for knowing and understanding streams, lakes and salt, and the critters therein.

Bottom line.....I like to catch fish. Looking at them, understanding their life cycle and all that affects it, is fun and informative, but......catching is where it's at for me. I have no trophy's on the wall and I don't own a GLoomis rod, my vest is worn out and I'm a hip boot kind of guy. Was known for years as "Slab Happy" when I salt chucked a lot, but mostly fish the rivers now, and frankly, all this pop culture hoopla about the sanctity of wild fish is, in my estimation, a lot of hooey. And what's more, my state wants ME to pay for their inability to maintain even minimal fish runs!

The answer to the problem is simple....If you don't kill Mom and Dad, there will be plenty of kids! (But then we wouldn't have that Federal Funding coming in, would we? There's a delicate balance to be maintained between extinction and controlled endangerment.)

Has anyone ever thought about the dangers of altering their children's ability to survive by leaving them with a babysitter (kid hatchery) until they are big enough to take care of themselves? Might possibly even alter their DNA. (A little tongue-in-cheek for those who can handle it.)

Right?/Priviledge?......who cares......let the lawyer-types busy themselves with that political football......just keep the fish coming. And if the State can't handle it (considering they now employ some 800 biologists, I doubt it), then turn the fishing future over to those who can and would make it happen.....the fisherman and land owners!!

Heh! Almost a rant....