Grandpa,

I haven't met Dave C., but I have met Clint several times...I consider him to be a very conscientious supporter of both fish and fishermen. I also happen to find him to be a very nice guy.

I don't know if anyone above said anything derogatory about them, but I can say that any professional dealings that the WSC has had with the PSA through Clint Muns have been nothing but productive and pleasurable.

Hairlip,

I know that the WSC doesn't represent what you and perhaps your acquaintances think and feel, at least not on the WSR issue. However, this "handful" of members has grown quite a bit in the last month, and we are receiving communications of support from all over the steelhead community, from California to B.C., and over to Idaho.

Don't forget that this WSR regulation was also supported by TU and by the FFF, two of the biggest local, and national, fishing groups around.

While you may think that WSR has seen its day in the sun, it will be a reality everywhere in this state for steelhead soon, even if it were to end after the two year moratorium. The fact of the matter is that rivers in Washington have consistently lost the ability to provide a wild steelhead harvest, and the list that may still be able to support it are going down the same way as the rest, albeit a little later.

In 50 years we've gone from every river supporting it, which is well over 100 streams, to 17 a few years ago, to 11, to 5 or 6 now. Of those 5 or 6, only one is showing any increase in size, and the others are all showing a decrease in populations.

While I don't have the numbers in front of me, we've gone from harvests of 90K to less than 5K...

As rivers have closed, harvest pressure has moved and concentrated to other rivers. Every one we lose puts those fishermen on the ones that are left, thus expediting their population declines more.

How do you expect that to reverse and to have enough rivers with harvestable amounts of fish to satisfy harvest-minded fishermen?

Fish on...

Todd