To me this thread is beyond ridiculous. Has anyone even looked at the runs over winchester over the last 10 years? THE NATIVE RUN IS NOT IN TROUBLE ON THE UMPQUA.

Take a look: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/fish_counts/winchester/2008/april.asp

The north alone averages nearly 10,000 natives/year. Besides those, ODFW figures all the lower tribs of the mainstem support at least that many or more. Add those to the south umpqua and you're talking about 20-30K/year. All the lower maintstem tribs are closed to fishing.

As freespool already pointed out, ODFW is, and should be, trying to manage our fisheries to recover to a point that allows sustainable harvest. Native fish advocates were up in arms (and still are) about the broodstock program on the nestucca. Some said the run was big enough to allow limited wild harvest rather than let the broodstock program go through. The run is estimated at around 10K (which is probably optimistic). This situation shows what native fish people are really about... If we cant have a limited harvest on wild steelhead on the umpqua then every coastal trib should be closed to harvest of any species. God, what a utopia that would be. The Native Fish Society could finally rejoice and all the fish would be saved, forever, and for everyone.

Oregonians should be proud to have a river like the Umpqua that is healthy enough to allow harvest. Washingtonians should remember we dont have indians running around trying to kill the last steelhead and try not to act like experts regarding a river they know nothing about.

Dom