So the Skokomish tribal nets are out 24/7 again on lower Hood Canal. Tied to my beach, and the points up and down the canal. Catching silvers and chum. It got me wondering...

I have not caught a single silver from my boat or beach this year. Well, I caught a lot of pound size fish but none of the larger ones. I heard folks weren't doing well overall sportfishing.

But the nets that are left out and barely tended to (checked once every 24 hours) seem to pick up the bigger fish just fine. And I wondered - how can the tribes be catching 'half' the allocatted fish ? I sure don't think the sportsmen are catching half the allocated fish? How can this be right? If the sportsmen aren't catching half is the tribe catching more than their share? And if I understand things right the coho populations are so small compared to historical numbers - is 'half' of what we have now acceptable to even catch? It's like saying - the pie was 1000 pounds 100 years ago but now it weighs 1 pound - so non tribal folks can eat 2/5 and the tribe can eat 2/5. leaving 1/5 to escape back to a hatchery somewhere. Meanwhile the wild fish that were around continue to be swallowed in gillnets. Seems to be lousy calculations to better a species populations...

More often than not, in my observations, living on the Canal, sportsfishing for silvers in Hood Canal is poor. Every 5 or 6 years we'll get a good run. But man, I'd really like to see fish populations improve.

Please don't get me wrong - I support the tribes right to fish, but it seems we really need to end gillnetting, lock down on the allocated tribal fishing licenses, start troll catching and getting the numbers back up. (and if elected, I will...)

I know - historical practices have hurt salmon (logging, mining, dams, fishing, etc) - but the tribal commercail gillnets really can't be improving things. I just wonder who the hell is saying sportsfishermen are catching half the fish? Becuase it's been obvious to me they don't seem to be and the tribe is taking a whole lot of fish.

Again, I respect the tribes right to fish but it seems like they have just replaced poor fishing practices of the past by non-tribal commercial fisherman. The canal used to be GREAT fishing. now it's really usualy very poor.

I just want to see the fishing improve...