Quote:
Originally posted by eddie:
Jacob, I would not be so quick to say that the sportsfishermen have nothing to do with the decline in wild steelhead. I'm not saying that we are the primary reason, but without question we have an impact. I would recommend that you look at what happened to the great late winter run on the Nisqually. In that case, I don't think that there is much doubt that the sports pressure was the main impact on the decline of wild steelhead.

The other issue that has been brought up here is one of credibility. If we, as a sportsfishing community, say that we have no responsibility for the recovery, how can we expect the other user groups to make effort for recovery?
I'm sure a catch and kill season has some impact, not enough to really have an effect though. Look at the Skykomish and the Snoqualmie. They went to C&R years ago and the runs still and are still declining. That's why they had to shorten our C&R season to the end of February. I ask again, what's the next thing that can be done to improve the wild runs? The state won't do anything that impeeds commerical or tribal fishing so the only thing left would be to limit sportsmen even more. Once the sportsmen can't fish at all and the runs continue to dwindle to non-existance, then what?