You folks missed my point. The gear is not the issue. It's what some folks are doing with the gear (snagging) and the lack of law enforcement. I'm not going to criticize anyone for fishing with corkies. I use them regularly. But I will take notice that many of the folks doing the snagging have a similar set-up. That is, a large pencil lead weight, an oversized hook (7/0), and, perhaps most important, a corkie TIED BEHIND THE HOOK.

In my view, that last characteristic is a dead giveaway that the angler is engaged in snagging. That doesn't make the set-up illegal, nor does it mean the angler was, in fact, snagging. They may be completely legit. But I wasn't born yesterday. I've seen it too many times. The folks that are actively snagging know how to do it. They weren't born yesterday either. Many of them are quite effective with this rig.

Given the current situation in the Kalama, I'm not sure if snagging can be controlled unless a "flies only" section is established from I-5 to the lower hatchery (just upstream from Beginners Hole). There is a flies only section from Mahaffey's to the hatchery because of the snagging problem at Beginner's Hole so there's no reason why they can't extend it all the way to I-5. If things don't improve on the lower Kalama, a flies only section may be inevitable. That might be a huge loss for some anglers but as I see it, the ones that will lose the most are the snaggers. If that's the case, then so be it.