10 years ago i was working swing shift, 5 - 1:30am, and had tues-wednesday off. often i'd be on the river 5 days a week, because there were a half dozen rivers within an hour's drive from home that i could run out to, fish a few hours and come home for a nap before i went back to work. i'd venture further out on my days off, and usually take a break on the weekends. during the week there were very few people on the lesser fished rivers.

since those days, we've lost opportunity nearly all the puget sound rivers, and the cowlitz has lost its early run of fish, which combined, have ruined the quality of fishing nearly everywhere else within 2 hours of the I5 corridor. the fact that the number of guides has also exploded in that time does not help things either.

attitudes have changed. rather than going out fishing to enjoy time spent on the water, it's turned into a narcissistic ego trip for many. the worst of it are the "crews" of flat brim hat wearing douchebags who travel in packs, who post photos of everything they catch on facebook like a bunch of teenage girls.

the worst of that, is that these guys aren't afraid to go out off the beaten path and bring their hatchery meat hole mentality with them. it's one thing to have someone crowd you in a hatchery hole, it's something else entirely when you're 5 miles up a logging road with nobody else around.

just getting up early and going a bit out of the way isn't enough any more, i guess i'm just outclassed. most of the time i spend on the water now is to just unwind and i don't catch that many fish, especially winter runs any more.