I sort of echo Steelspanker and TFF -- in that I think the biggest problem is our overall disorganization. We're harder to organize than the commercials or tribes, probably largely due to two related factors:

a) There's more of us (more opinions, more geographical diversity, etc)
b) We each have, on average, a smaller stake in this issue (i.e. for an average commercial fisherman, his entire livelihood is perhaps tied up in these issues).

Thus the tribal and non-tribal commercial groups are far better organized than us. IMO, the single best thing we as a group can do is choose/elect some representatives from our own community and support them. This should be a fulltime job of some group of smart, well-educated people. If indeed the financial impact of sportfishing is as big as we all think it is, then the fishermen, the tackle companies, the guides, and the retailers should *all* be supporting folks like this... Because 3 super well informed, well spoken, people who are at least reasonably connected politically (position papers/campaign contributions as Salmo G says), speaking on behalf of 1000's of us SEEMS like the right approach to me. Folks like this need our financial and other explicit support (e.g. our membership in organizations which give them clout). We in turn need to decide that being UNITED is more important than each of our pet opinions/theories. We should elect people to help us, and we should empower them to do their job.

At least to me, this seems far more effective than 20 of us showing up and speaking our piece. DO NOT get me wrong, 20 of us showing up and speaking our piece is 100x better than nothing, but I've been to meetings where the public speak, and at least it seems to me that we'd be well served by having *experts* speak on our behalf. Sad anecdotes about how you can't fish on the river your grandfather taught you to fish on are nice, but it's a little like bringing a knife to a gunfight if you ask me.

So I'm not smart or experienced enough to know why CCA is or isn't the right group, but at least if you ask me their approach vaguely matches what I'm saying here -- get orgainzed, get members, and put smart people in front of politicans. If they're the wrong group, then let's try to identify someone who is, and help them organize.