well said bob!

i've been on the phone over the last couple days just trying to get some straight answers over what is going on in the queets, and i haven't been able to get any.

i've been told that a spawning figure of around 2,500-3,000 wild steelhead is fully seeding the queets... which i find very hard to believe.

what we have on the queets river is habitat as good as we're gonna find in this entire state. yes, some of the lower tribs have been impacted by logging, but the mainstem is entirely in a national park, and the upper tribs are pristine. if all we can expect is 3,000 wild steelhead and 5,000 wild fall chinook (both deemed healthy by the tribes and state) then i have to believe that there is no way we will ever see abundant wild fish runs in washington state.

the tribe refuses to mark the steelhead out of the salmon river facility, even with outside funding (which has been offered, and refused). because of this the park goes with an advise to release fish because only a tiny portion of the run is marked (coded wire tags).

so we sportfishers release fish, the runs start exceeding escapement by too much... and this is a bad thing because fish are being wasted... this must be some parrellel evil universe.

remeber too, we are losing selective fishery water on the queets. the entire queets below the sams river will be open to bait and kill fisheries the entire winter. the park might institute a 2 fish yearly limit from feb-apr, but they might not. this is a river who's dolly varden/bull trout population might be listed on the esa. this will be the only national park water in the nation managed not for the fish, but for the harvest based fishermen. a truly sad time in fish management.

i hope people concerned will contact the park service (452-4501) and let them know how you feel about these rule changes and anti- native fish management.

chris