Smalma & Salmo, Please don't group me with the WSC. (Sorry WSC guys.) While I do agree with much of what they stand for as far as the love & protection of our Wild Steelhead goes, I disagree with many of the ways they're going about to protect the fishery & habitat. I know they keep saying, "baby steps" first, and the goal is "Wild Steelhead" with the group, but I also agree with Smalma on the Salmon issue as well. I do consider Todd & many others in the WSC as friends, but do not wish to be grouped with them at this time.

I challenged the WSC on the Excavation done on the Sauk this year in an earlier post, and also said it many other times including earlier in this post, "educate the masses first" on our resource. Offer solutions on somthing everyone has input on and can help with and let us make our own decisions. Let personal integrity make our decisions & not the govt, (that's supposed to be speaking for us.)

Integrity means, "To thine own self be true" from Shakespeare's Hamlet. In other words know the difference between right and wrong, and chose "right" over wrong.

I quite often, when not booked on the weekends, take local kids out fishing (many who fish the Skagit regularly have seen my sled filled with kids on many occasions). It's a huge learning experience for them along with mass amounts of fun. They observe spawning fish & learn why we leave them alone, they also learn about C&R techniques & principals and why it's so important to their futures among other things.

WSC...I put forth the challenge once again: (I think it would have a huge impact as far as public input & support go rather than having whole towns against what you are fighting for. i.e. the whole thing with the town of Forks right now) Put together a group of speakers to offer a class or seminar to go in front of town meetings & schools and educate the people on the value and preservation of the resource. Then put together work groups to work with the towns & kids to make a difference.

This would have been a great opportunity as I said with the Sauk Excavation Thing if instead of condemning, someone attended a few town meetings, "listened" to the concerns of the townsfolk and then offered educated solutions and hands-on help.

As far as the current regs stand for Chum right now;( I'm going by my fishing journals and what I've observed over many years fishing the Skagit.) I just hope that an emergency opener will be considered if runs do apear to be exeeding escapement by a fair & reasonable number. I also hope that our new area biologist will take an interest in keeping in contact with those on the river on a daily basis to find out just exactly whats going on as far as conditions, run timing, spawning, observations on current smolt migrations ect. While I know much of the decisions made are in the office and time is limited, you do have eyes and ears on the river with those that fish it daily.