music man the primary purpose of hatchery fish is to supplement tribal and commercial harvest, sport harvest is to some extent a byproduct. of that effort. Most of the hatcheries exsist to supplement wild runs as mitigation for lost habitat. They are you could say a subsidy for commercial fishermen.

Having said that I believe hatchery fish should be harvested by sportsmen. I also believe that there is another issue here as well and that is the health of sportfishing. I personally believe that snagging is destructive to the sport. I grew up in the Washougal river where at one time people cam from all over the world to snag excess hatchery fall chinook, why people would do that is beyond me but never the less they did. Unfortunatly the act wasn't confined to the legal snagging area it spread throughout the river and this at a time when wild summer steelhead were very vulnerable. Now on an angler day basis there is more snagging on the Washougal than there is legit fishing. Snagging has destroyed the ethics of sportanglers in the Washougal area, visit the river in september and october and you'll see it. It's absolutely disgusting! and it ruins the opportunity for anyone who wishes to participate in a sporting manner. This is setting asde issues like litter and property damage which are both signifigant!

My point is that as sport anglers we need to hold ourselves to a very high standard because our sport and our fishing experience is being destroyed by lowering them. Snagging is just an example of that.