mountin' man. what is wrong with the current regs that allow a conservative harvest? this is not an arguement of going c&r vs. a virtual unlimited harvest. it's about staying the course on a set of rules that many of us fought very hard to get implemented. these existing rules provide limited harvest opportunity for those who must harvest wild fish if they fish, but also manage harvest conservatively (golly, what a wierd thought in WDFW). these existing rules provide a good balance imo... in that nobody is 100% happy with these rules. the harvest only people must cut back their harvest and those who want full c&r on wild steelhead (count me among those) didn't get the rivers on the north coast 100% wild release.

we need to stay the course with these existing regs and make sure they are not weakened. another thing, in the state's reasons for dismantling these regs they cite higher than escapement escapements in the quillayute system. i believe that this "over-escapement" is the reason these runs are so strong compared to others in the state (besides the obvious better habitat). if the state managed to get escapement down to 5900 fish (that's the goal for the entire quillayute system) these runs would not be as strong as they are.

high escapements are a good thing, not a waste like harvest managers would like us to believe. lets work hard to keep the existing rules on these rivers the same and provide multiple opportunities while managing for higher than MSY escapements. we all know MSY has been a total failure in this state (namely because they purposely set escapement goals too low) and that we shouldn't place our wild stocks in jeopardy just because some groups must kill more than 9 wild steelhead in the quillayute, hoh, and clearwater (where the annual limits are being dismantled)

chris