Poaching will happen no matter what the regulations are. Always has and always will.

In spite of the years of poaching, the years of wild fish retention, the years of netting salmon, the years of C&R angling, the bountiful years and the very poor years, the last three decades of ever increasing human encroachment, the ever more efficient angling methods, the numerous floods and a host of other things - the Skagit population of wild steelhead is right on par with where it was 34 years ago.

The main thing we are not doing now that has been done for the past several decades is C&R fishing. Of all the things I listed above, C&R fishing is the least impactful to the future viability of the run. But other than wild fish retention, C&R angling is the only activity that has been shut down. In fact, every year it is the FIRST thing to get shut down.

OCCUPY SKAGIT!