I must say that I am terribly disappointed with the decision to reallow the slaughter on the Queets ... although I do not guide on the river, I do fish it every so often with friends and enjoy the river ... just when it seemed that our management policies were making steps(albeit baby) forward, they just took one giant leap backward.

Why ... because the magic formulas that the biologists use say that there are too many fish in the river ... personally I say BS.

This is the way I look at it: Mother nature takes care of excess ... those that are weak and diseased, don't make it, those that are strong do ... as it stands, we (humans) try to make it so that there is ample room for all of the offspring of a particular year's spawning adults ... no competition, just like a hatchery where they all get fed ... the weak make it, the stong make it ... you get a mix, and now you start getting a blend of fish that is far from what mother nature intended. I say let every last one spawn and let nature take care of the rest.

Don't like my thoughts? Perhaps because I'm not a "certified biologist" ... well so be it, but, where have the biologists got us in terms of the overall health of the state's fisheries?? I need say no more other than plain and simple: THE FORMULAS (MODELS) DO NOT WORK ... show me one watershed in the state where they have in the long run!

This is the one stumbling block to a C&R season ... and what will ultimately become the demise of our wild steelhead stocks ... the falacy that the runs in the current stae are healthy ... until the state feels that the numbers are too low, it will never happen. How to solve this? Simply change our models in use to those that allow for more escapement allowing nature to run its course instead of trying to maximize harvest amounts. While this is easily said, the implementation of such a management strategy will be a tough sell ... despite the countless collapses of fisheries managed by current models and the evidence and changes in management models used in other areas ... ie Canada and perhaps most recently, the Kenai peninsula of Alaska.

The time has come to stop trying to manipulate these runs as we have done ... let the fish spawn, and they will come back, in numbers that many of us have likely never seen ...