Well, I see both points. Luckily, I do both, so no biggie. LOL. But VB, sorry to say but your account doesn't hold water. It is a blonde hair type thing. What would happen if someone who has been fishing a stretch for 20+ years suddenly is told they can't fish there unless they use a fly? I feel a "selective gear rules" would well fit the bill. I agree with Kris about the upper Hoh. I used to fish it myself alot, but ONLY with fly anyways. But would suck for those who would like to toss spoons or spinners. And just because one is fishing gear, isn't a guarantee they're catching fish. I can see flyfishing only lakes. But not rivers, especially navigatible rivers. If anyone can float them, anyone should be able to fish them (minus bait for those fish close to spawning).

Lastly, if someone is bound and determined to catch a fish on a fly in deep lakes/bays, then do it. But you won't be doing the traditional method. Go take a flyspool and spool it with straight mono. Then attach to your fly rod and hook that mono to a downrigger. That way, when your fly is hooked, you're playing on a fly rod. Isn't that hard. In fact I've fished a flyrod successfully at Dalco/Pt D. All I did was take an old Martin Saltwater reel (don't think they're made anymore, but are huge) and filled that sucker FULL of 30# backing. Then used a 15-20' of lead core flyline (can buy the sinktip kits for them). Then attach a small section of tippet and fly. The initial strip was worst part feeding enough line to get to bottom. After that, just strip into a stripping basket and recast. Worked great, and caught alot of kings and silvers in the salt that way.