Doing some catch up here but I wanted to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving! Family, food, and the season makes it a special time of the year. Enjoy!

Recently I was asked a couple of questions, so first up why is the Chehalis Tribe fishing with the closure? Well the answer is the Chehalis are a non treaty tribe that has court mandated fishing rights. Their harvest comes from the non treaty share ( us ) not the tribal which is QIN. Once the Rec and Non Treaty Gillnetters ( us again ) went in the Chehalis Tribe will fish. Simply put if the agency screws up as they did this year they do not have to accept boo boo no fish left as the Rec fisher did.

The next question is a bit more difficult. The point this gentleman had was that he could see little difference in previous years compared to this year from a inland fishers point of view. So off I went with the spiel on the new GH Policy on how things were supposed to be different. To be honest he did not budge on his thoughts and kept coming back to the same place which was " call it what you will the end result was the same " He has a point and a rather good one to be honest. In the past WDF&W placed the vast majority of conservation on the inland Rec seasons and bag limits to enable the Non Treaty gillnetters greater harvest. With the new GH Policy this was not supposed to be how things worked. I pointed out the various things in the GH Policy that benefitted the inland fisher but kept getting nailed by this simple fact. Regardless of the intent of the policy the end result was that WDF&W placed the conservation needs on inland Rec which is exactly what they have done for nearly 30 years.

I pointed out again that the agency had taken action to address the failed preseason harvest by closing for conservation which had a lot of support and was given a atta boy with applause for it. His response was one I have to remember. " That is like giving bank robbers an award for making their get away without shooting anyone". The man has a point. If the end result is how you view something and not the process utilized to get there then WDF&W's failure in the Chehalis was the same as in the past, they just did it differently. Heck of a gotcha moment.

One thing I have noticed over the years is the lack of understanding of how WDF&W functions as a government entity which is much different than the private sector. You see agencies are about process while the private sector is end results. The agency can work their way through a issue be it harvest or whatever and feel they were successful even if they fail to meet the objectives if the process went as planned. The process being that important is really due to the interaction and criticism from us the public. Now the private sector does not have us on them twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Also you fail to meet objectives and profits disappear your toast in the private sector as it is about the end results, period. ( right after complying with laws ) The objective being to make a profit means failure is NOT a option. For WDF&W failure to make an objective is acceptable as they utilize our taxes & fees so there is always another day.

It is what it is.
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in