Hatcheries are esential to the survival of our sport.I have never said otherwise on this bourd.Believe it or not this is not the first time that this discusion has come about here in Bobs world.

To say that hatcheries relieve the preasure on the wild fish is far from the truth.Now that all the hatch runs are over has everybody quit fishng?No.They move onto the few rivers that are still open and continue fishing.I get to witness the hatchery fisheries over here on the canal and ethics is not taught r practiced by anybody.It is sick and unfortunately it is a first time learning experience for alot of new to the erea fishermen.It scares me to think that they are learning how to fish at a hatchery and then taking these ethics out after our wild fish.

Even if our wild runs were at historical highs I do not believe they would last an androminous generation against the sheer numbers of people fishing these days.Sports fishermen like to point there fingers and all the blame at the comercial and tribal nets but the truth is that the sport fishermen has a huge impact also.

I am going to fall back to my little world for a second and reitorate something that bothers me about both hatcheries and c/r as fish managing tools.

You looked down and saw that I am from B-town.When I look west I see the grand Olympic mountains.I have spent most of my 35 years exploring the hood canal and its tribs.The Dose,Duk,Skoke are my favorite rivers.Look in the regs and you will see that they are C/r exept for hatch steel.Now dig a little further and you will see that the northern two get a measly 10,500 smolt plants every year randomly dispersed into the system,i.e no final destination in the system just the river itself.The skoke gets more like 50,000.So the state has based a june through feb season on a few hatch fish returning in nov-dec.Also notice that there are no restrictions to facilitate the c/r part of the deal,i.e you can play c/r with a treble and a worm.Begining to see why you hit a nerve with your talk about wiping out the nates to make room for the hatcheries?

What happen to the steelhead on these rivers??Sportsfishermen followed the states rules and over harvessted them!!You can easily argue that the salmon were victems of the almighty comercial dollar but the steelhead on the north end of the canal were sim-ply over fished by the sports fishermen.when the numbers dropped what did the state do?Add hatcheries of course.Now it is 2003 and alot of very inteligent people are scratching there heads trying to figure out what is wrong?Some of the most pristine watersheds in the pacific northwest that should be teaming with wild fish and they are not.

To end this I will say that I am not against hatcheries and bonking fish.It is not my thing but I happily remember my younger days of wanting to kill the fish I caught.Do a search on this bourd and you will see that I am not a die hard supporter of wild c/r either unless it is a state wide all wild steelhead thing.I am afraid the state will use it like they presently are in my back yard.

As far as my pansy ars fishing the jarstad creek fishery,my friends got a kick out of that.Later this summer I wil be sure to email you my new website and I wil show you where my pansy ars fishes and invite you along for a guided trip,if you think you can.

pansy ars fishing.com