Feelin' all warm and fuzzy now......seriously though I was speaking to one of the guys in camp up there and he told me the the guides were making $900.00/day PER FRICKIN PERSON!!! mind you this is without lodging. The guides are on a rod day system where only a certain number of days are alotted to anyone and their is a limited number of guides who own these rod days. Somewhat like our Washington Charter's licence. Anyway you can see how a monopoly like atmospere can develop.

One funny story I just have to add was a day OP and I were floating the river in my raft. OP (Justin) was just chillin in the rowers seat perfectly content on taking in the surroundings and fresh air. (he landed a 43.5" steelhead the day before) While pulled over to the side of the river on anchor while I was just 20 feet below working the run, a guide and two of his clents row up to Justin and the guide actually accuses Justin of guiding! Completely stunned and getting hot under the collar because I knew what the heck was going on, I was getting ready to lash out when Justin calmly just says; "I don't need to fish for awhile, it's a beautiful day and I recently caught the nicest steelhead of my life." The guide didn't say anything back to us and just mumbled something to his clients.

This kind of paranoia is part of whats generating these new proposals. The guides say that there is too much illegal guiding going on and too much crowding which I think there are times where it feels somewhat crowded up there but absolutely nothing compared to what we see down here in the states. If you get to run with people already there it just means you should have got up earlier or go somewhere else. Besides, the possibilities are mind boggling with the amount of rivers that don't get pressure up there.