Unfortunately, I'm now of the belief that there is almost no path that will/can help the fish AND still allow much sportfishing. And that isn't because sportfishing is the problem.

The problem is that if the hatchery is closed down, which would help fish, netting and sportfishing will cease to exist in the same way they do now. The reasoning for the existing fisheries is to justify the hatcheries. The reason for the existing hatcheries is to justify the fisheries.

For example, as you can see by the WDFW's actions, they don't believe there are enough wild steelhead to support a CnR season. The only reason we're allowed to fish the Nooksack is because people are "fishing for hatchery fish". Anyone with much time up there knows that the wild fish outnumber the hatchery fish by a large number. So really what we are doing is living this lie.

The most frustrating part to me is that there are 2 runs of fish up there that the WDFW seems unable to find even though I could show them. The first are the wild kings that come up the NF in the summer. The other is the wild steelhead run.