TFF,

Neither Todd nor I or other experts will tell you that the gillnets are doing the fish any favors. If half the 60 fish you put in your boat had net marks, that only proves the fish encountered nets. Think about this, those fish ended up in your boat, not a gillnetter's, right? It seems to me that those fish didn't benefit any more from ending up in your boat than they would have in a gillnetter's boat.

I'm not sure what point you think you've proven. What's proven to me is that gillnets encounter a lot of steelhead, and the sportfishermen, taken as a fleet over the course of the season, also encounter a lot of steelhead. Only two things in that are important to me. Were the harvestable fish shared 50:50? And the sport fishery can have a far less impact on wild fish by carefully releasing them.

If it seems like the commercial industry has more political clout, it's because they organize better and present their position better to politicians. And they probably do some schmoozing and make some campaign contributions. It doesn't take a lot of money to influence a state legislator. A good interest and issues paper along with $2,000 or $3,000 to the campaign and they'll remember who you are and what is important to you. Sport fishing interests could do this. But we'd rather bitch on the internet instead of organizing effectively.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.