I went to the Samish River Friday to see if the rain had brought the salmon in.
The east bank is permit only $20 a day or $100.00 a season. West bank isn’t pay as you go ---yet.

I talked to a person that was pro-pay on the east bank and he said he tried to talk the lease owner into charging $500.00 a season. His assessment was the large crowd which deposited garbage, hypodermic needles, and human waste everywhere was the main concern.
As we talked another fisherman walked up and hollered profanities when finding out about pay to fish on the east bank.
As I was heading back to the truck I spoke with an anti pay for access fisherman.
He said that the state owns the property to the high tide level and the land lease owner is saying that they own to the middle of the river.

As we spoke the son of the pro pay walked over to the west bank and began to drive a no trespassing sign into the ground next to the river. The anti pay next to me hollered “you better take that sign down or you’re going to get sued. You have no right to put that sign there or anywhere else next to the river on either side”. The kid took the sign back to the other side.

He ended the conversation saying that the sheriff office has already told him that they are staying out of it for now and WDFW is looking into it.

Pretty close to prime time for salmon soon could seriously escalate hollering into who knows where it will end.

WARNING: This is unverified info from both of these people I spoke to.

The rain really didn’t seem to bring many fish in.