Like many here, I'm disappointed I won't be able to fish there this year. That obviously colors my thoughts on the issue. Selfishly, I want to be out there even if there are hardly any fish. I'm disappointed in losing what those days provide me besides having a fish on the end of the line.

Is it good for fishing? No. But is it good for the fish? Probably. It certainly isn't bad for the fish. The exception to this is not having steelhead caretakers, the fishermen, present to limit poachers and other river schmeg.

As for the heated discussions, I think there are people looking at this from different angles. Some primarily want to fight for the fish the that get pulled out. Others want to fight for the fish that are missing entirely. In this case, it is hard to argue the nets are the problem. There are plenty of places and runs in which that is not the case. In those situations, seeing the blanket of nets evokes a guttural, sickening response because you are watching the slaughter happen.

Twisted in all this is "management" and "science" (in that order). They both create and rely upon numbers which, due to factors such as wildly inaccurate netting numbers, number of fish poached, and sometimes wildly inaccurate fish counts, are highly questionable. In the end, even though I lose, it is good that the WDFW will close down the fishery. At least they are leaning towards conservation, which is something they have clearly failed to do in the past.

The question from me is, "What is with the WDFW's timing of these announcements?". Was this not predictable long before now? I'd ask the same question for the upper Nooksack closure. Where is the new information that warrants these special, mid-season rule changes that inevitably aggravate people? I pity the out-of-state fool trying to fish in Washington. Besides choosing a terrible fishing destination, he'd need to study detailed maps to figure out regulations and river segmentation (i.e. "from yellow marker at FFH barn in Deming") and a recent Internet connection to see which rules have changed.

Bummed,
Kaiser D.