When we first heard we were being shut down, it was fresh on the heels of an extremely irresponsible decision on the part of WDFW to allow the NT gillnetters a couple days ahead of the closure they knew was coming. That was pretty $hitty, and I had no problem letting them know it.

Looking back on what has transpired since, it seems clear to me that the QIN has been the entity calling all the shots. When I look back at the overall catch data, there's no question in my mind whose managed fisheries were responsible for the early closures, and it wasn't WDFW's. The reason we're still not fishing is that the QIN didn't want us killing the wild coho they are continuing to target with gillnets under the guise of a "steelhead fishery."

When it comes to which co-manager is capable of disseminating more bull$hit, until recently, I figured nobody could touch WDFW. Lately, the QIN has proved me wrong.

Any reason we shouldn't send a reasonably polite letter to Fawn Sharp and Ed Johnstone (cc your local legislators and Governor Inslee), asking them what they intend to do in the future to ensure that exercising their treaty rights won't infringe on our rights as citizens of Washington State who pay for the privilege to fish?