I am a sportsfisherman. If I am allowed a full 7 day a week Columbia River spring chinook sport fishery, me and thousands of my buddies will descend upon your town from March through May. We will buy annual boat launch passes and pay top dollar for moorage space at the marina. We will fill up your hotels, motels, RV parks, and campgrounds. We will rent any available secure storage space for our boats and gear. We will buy tens of thousands of gallons of gas for our boats and diesel for our pickups. We will clean you out of ice and herring, we will load up on bandaids, asprin, chips, beer, and groceries at your convenience stores, we will frequent your liquor store and buy the good stuff. We will eat breakfast and dinner and load up the bars at night, and we will tip well. We spend $375 for each spring chinook that we catch according to the USFWS, although none of us believe it or will admit it, certainly not to the wife! If fishing is good we will brag to our buddies, it will be all over the newspapers, and you will have tens of thousands of us visit you next season. If the fishing stays good we will stay all season for summer and fall chinook, and we will start fishing in February next year.

If you would like the pleasure of our company, or at least the pleasure of our dollars, tell your mayor, commissioners, senators, and representatives that they had better do what they can to influence the Fish Commission to be sure we have a full and successful season. Thanks and see you with my credit card this spring.