I agree with most of Bob's points, in fact, I think he hit the nail on the head on a few. But I believe it's unethical to intentionally target a closed species while saying your fishing for an open species. This is a gray area to be debated no matter what the facts are to justify it. If I remember right, I believe last summer on the Sky many anglers were fishing for "steelhead" using wrapped Kiwkfish and WDFW took some type of action. I would like to ask these "sportsmen" how much fun it was to release a big, thrashing Chinook with a large, barbed treble hook Kwikfish hanging from it's mouth. It will be too bad when more dummies who don't C&R correctly and don't use single barbless hooks decide to go "steelhead " fishing while really targeting Chinook, causing higher hooking mortality and WDFW decides to close a river. I like the idea of limiting the catch to one Chinook per day and limit the seasonal catch like Alaska. I bet you would see a lot more unfit table fare going back into the river, "it'll smoke", -right. It's also a true statement about the increased pressure the northern peninsula streams will experience this fall because of a Chinook closure on the Hump, etc. Look at the reason all the bonkers come to Forks in the spring because it's the only place left in the state where you can still legally kill a wild Steelhead. I still don't get why the WDFW won't impose the same regulations throughout the peninsula streams that Skagit, Sauk and Sky have in the spring, but that's a separate topic. The only problem I have with the seasonal catch limit idea (like the current regulation on the Hoh, which allows angler to kill 2 wild Steelhead per season) is it doesn't place any limitations on the guides who don't C&R. Each day they have new clients so the bonking of wild Steelhead to them is unlimited, anyway interesting topic. Bob, I'll be fishing the zipperlip the third week of Sept. I'll say Hi if we bump into eachother, good luck.

[This message has been edited by Rich (edited 09-02-1999).]