Bob,

You know very well how inflammatory this topic has become. All this talk about backward hillbilly folk, with their neanderthal mentalities, who just want to kill nates until they're gone is the very thing that irritates locals. I'm one. My friends and I have been fishing the west end for the last 25 years. And though we do keep some fish, most are returned to the river. We all know when this web site began, and when everyone from Sitka to Minneapolis started discussing holes on these rivers like they had fished them all of their life.

Sure, these rivers need to be properly managed, as does any river system. As someone on this topic stated earlier: 'I can't tell by looking at any of these charts if the fish are any better/worse off now than at any other time.' I agree, and with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering (UW) I've looked at thousands of graphs.

Are my opinions biased? Sure they are. But given any information(graphs,opinions,facts,etc...) found on this board I think that I should be able to continue to catch and keep a few fish per year without impacting any of the previous graphs.

Comments such as 'suing the pants off of some establishments' only adds fuel to this inflammatory topic. I was surprised when I read the comment. Despite all the boats these days you know how small the community is.

Despite what many on this board suggest, nobody wants to maintain healthy steelhead runs more than my neanderthal friends and I.