How about a river like the Lyre. The bulk of the river flows through the park so the habitat has been fairly stable. I could be wrong but I don't know of any tribal netting there. Yet the steelhead have all but dissapeared there. Can the lyre river decline be put mainly on the shoulders of sporties overharvesting? There could be other factors I'am unaware of but the Lyre really stands out in my mind as a river that has declined due to nothing more than harvesting with no tribes involved.
Uh oh.... Someone else is actually seeing what's going on... In all my years, I've wet a line in most tribs up and down the WA coast, inner Columbia tribs and Penninsula. I've seen some stellar fishing some years, other's it's sucked. Some of those rivers have had tribal harvest, some never a net in it's life... Some have had logging, some haven't in the last 30-40 years. But overall, ocean conditions have played the largest factor of all...........................
It's saddening to see everything deplete before our eyes. So many fingers pointing in so many directions. You have bio's who follow science in the best way they can telling us what direction to go. Then you have the arm-chair bio's calling for no hatchery fish, or habitat loss, predation, gillnets, overharvest, etc...
Too many groups pulling from too many directions. Too many humans and too few fish to support all the user groups. At some point it will be recognized but not before most fish nearly see extinction.... WDFW/ODFW have to supplement harvest or they don't exist and until there's another way to supplement WDFW/ODFW harvest/CnR will always be an issue....
When I "do" land a 30 pound steelhead, I'll be done with Steelhead fishing for good. That's my only goal and I will do it in the lower 48. Until then, I'll be CnR'ing and harvest all I can......
Keith
Keith
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