Oh boy, what a hot topic this could be!

I participated in the fall "take" of salmon. I won't call it fishing, because anytime I have to bring a rock to have something to stand on and then cast into a stream so crowded with fisherman (and fish) that you can hear the lines tangling, I just can't call it fishing.

I know why WDFW pretends that there are fish biting, when everyone else knows that the only thing going on is the attempt to foul hook a fish in the "potential bite" zone of somewhere West of the gill plates.....it's called money. The tickets written generate the sorely needed funding to continue on continuing on.

I personally killed quite a number of released bright, beautiful hooknose by the ridiculous hook-and-release requirement. Disgustingly wasteful, I know. The fish that died were left to the seagulls and whatever other critters living in and around the river happened along.

Since the river is only two miles long, with a fish barricade at one end and closed waters at the mouth, the fish were doomed. The hatchery at one end was plugged with fish and the excess were to be clubbed and dumped un-spawned back into the river. So, thousands (yes, thousands) of fish were slaughtered. And the wardens wrote their tickets. It's all about money, nothing else.