Ok......foregone opportunity. Let me explain. A couple years ago, I attended a Chehalis Basin Steelhead Mgt Plan meeting sponsored by WDFW. For 2 hours I sat and listened to them use their well-rehearsed double-speak and squirm as they dodged answers to some direct(and tough) questions that were posed to them by those in attendance.

Near the end of the meeting, an elder Quinalt tribal member spoke up. He quietly sat during the meeting, taking in all dialogue and then presented the tribe's mindest regarding heavy netting. He focused on the Queets example. In his words, they viewed the Queets system as healthy and meeting escapement. Because Olympic National Park went to wild steelhead release regulations for the sporties, that left a number of(in their eyes) surplus fish available for harvest.....foregone opportunity by the sporties. The tribe is simply playing their hand so they figure there are enough fish available to support a 5 days a week gillnet fishery. He said, and I quote "If you won't catch them, we will. However if ONP relaxed there c-n-r regs on the sporties, we would scale back our net fisheries to allow for the sport harvest"

Now I'm not in the least implying that the Queets or any other river should be opened to wild harvest, nor am I condoning the tribal viewpoint. I don't. Just sharing the mindset of the Quinalts(and likely, other tribes) as it was presented to me that evening.

Here's a thought. Sticking with the Queets, it is a glacial river that is often out of shape for a majority of the season. If ONP relaxed the c-n-r requirement for the sports the tribe, theoretically, would scale back their netting to allow for the sport take. Because the river is fishable for such a short window wouldn't more fish escape to the headwaters to spawn during those long, unfishable conditions since netting would be scaled back too? More fish escaping versus the current 5 day-a-week netting marathon. Lesser of two eveils, if you will.

Ideally, I would like c-n-r to remain AND netting scaled back to just give the fish a frick'in break. If the tribal elder at that meeting was full of baloney and they would continue 5 days-a-week even with increased sport harvest than I guess the whole thought is for nothing.

Gotta say, this makes Oregon look pretty damn inviting right now. Sampled many of it's finest rivers while in college down there and yes, it was refreshing to fish rivers where your biggest worry was getting to your spot first and how many fish arrived overnight.......not whether any fish made it through the gauntlet of nets below.