Todd

You asked me;
Quote:

"Are you indirectly suggesting that sportfishermen who participate in the Columbia R. spring chinook fishery ought to have a rescucitation tank on board to revive the fish they release?"
The answer is a big NO!

The reason is a simple one to explain. Sport fishermen normally catch a single fish at a time. They have plenty of time to undue a single fish and release it in a timely matter. Now gill netting is a whole different story! The nets may have up to 100 or more fish in it at a single setting. These fish are gilled and die within minutes at times even when left in the water. When they are pulling there nets, many fish are left "standing" in the air while they are trying to remove their fish. That's not even including taking snags, drift wood, and other by-catch out of there nets at the same time.

Gill net fish spend far more time "out of water" then that of the sport caught fish the majority of the time.

You say;
Quote:

Non-tribal commercial fisheries aren't allowed to harvest their quota from upstream portions of rivers
The reason for that is that they are not allowed to compete with the tribes in the upper sections of the river after they have already had the "first opportunity to catch" there quota in the lower river.

Finally, you say;
Quote:

Lobbying for additional time, place, and manner restrictions on commercial fishing is necessary, just realize that the exact same ones we as sporties are restricted to are not the same ones that the commercials should be restricted to.
I do not understand your logic on this one…can you explain it a little more clearly?

Cowlitzfisherman
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Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????