Originally Posted By: sykofish
Oregon stopped a similar proposal 1 or 2 years ago.

IMO it will solve nothing. Smallies and walleye have been around the NW for 100 years. One only has to look at the Umpqua and John Day rivers.

The Umpqua is flat out loaded with smallmouth, yet Oregon decided that wild steelhead retention was fine.

Would there be more salmon and steelhead if there were no bass? Probably so, but removing them would be impossible and the bass fishery down there brings in alot of money to the local economy.

I do my best to eat as many as I can when I travel down there.

In eastern Wa. the number of warm water anglers probably outnumbers the salmon and steelhead anglers. I doubt this proposal will go far.


The southfork of the umpqua is [Bleeeeep!] with bass and it is closed to all salmon (the runs are tanking in it) Same with the John Day. The NF is okay because there are no bass in it. Steelhead seem to coexist with bass a little better though. I have seen small mouth crushing smolts on the willie in the spring.. Not a good thing for salmon IMHO.
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