Jo-Jo ... First off, Quillayute netting effort itself has increased dramatically ... three times the number of drifters of five years ago. It was so heavily fished this year that fights were breaking out amongst netters because of lack of room to set / drift.

Secondly, we're seeing netting in an area that has not been utilzed much (if at all) in recent years. It's above the area that has always been fished, thus we're seeing drift / set nets impact fish that a few years ago would have been home free.

I'll put my myself out on a limb here: a number of these fish are not being accounted for, those of local all know it. They are by-passing the fish house and going straight from the beach to an unaccounted for market. Prices are very good right now and just adds that much more incentive to get 'em all.

Creel reports and hatchery numbers for the Quillayute system say alot about what is happening. This apllies not only to the winter steelhead but fall salmon this year as well.

The tribes control the escapement data and I, amongst many others, belive that the data being put forth is skewed.

Bed ribbons are being dropped on either totally non-existent beds, or test beds and being counted. I've invited WDFW staff to come along for an afternoon boat ride to see this first hand, but no one seems to care.

Smalma ... There are a number of concerns. Yes, much of the traffic comes from a C&R fishery, but I can't begin to count the number of times that you saw fish whacked just beacuse it was still legal here, especially the larger mebers of the population. Also of concern is additional mortality ... especially in the rivers that most out-of-areas fish. Few will venture into the Calawah (for good reason), and many will beat on the Hoh which is undoubtedly the weakest in terms of stock health. ... it will add up.

Also of concern is simply the fishing experience ... doubling the traffic on a river is fun for no one. It dilutes the experience that many of our the guides' customers are lookihg for.

These rivers at at a major crossroads ... and we follow the same path as we've done for so many decades around the state, once again we're going to find a dead end around that next corner.