OK. Maybe it's time for me to step out of the closet. My friends on this board know who I am, (duh), as do Bob, Salmo, and a few others.

I used to be an Assistant Attorney General, representing the WDFW as one of their lawyers. That was my only client.

I no longer work there, for many reasons, mostly personal, some professional.

While I was working there I was an active participant on this board, but stayed out of legal discussions for obvious reasons, mostly due to serious conflicts with my personal feelings and professional requirements.

I have been a steelhead fisherman since I was six years old, catching my first steelhead on the Sammamish River on my second trip ever. I'm thirty now. My personal list of important things goes as such: Family, Friends, Guinness (my black lab and fishing partner), then steelhead. Then salmon and other fish. The rest are all details that make those things possible.

My fishing friends on this board, some of which are guides, know what my feelings are about the usual "management into extinction" that has taken place in our state. I am a steadfast "fish first" person who would like nothing more than the opportunity to catch and release as many wild steelhead as humanly possible, using hatchery steelhead and silvers to pad both my freezer and bait box.

I am very tired of sportsmen bearing the brunt of the restrictions while being only a small part of the problem. I'd like to see the responsible parties be responsible for their actions.

I am very willing to at least sit down with several of this board's members to discuss our problem and possible solutions, some of which may be legal in nature. This would be mainly a fact-finding journey initially. I want to find out what our mutual goals and concerns are and how to address them best.

Everyone with an opinion is welcome to give it and attend a meeting to have a round table discussion. We may have to rent the exhibition center to get us all in!! That said, I find it very important to have all the fine souls who have offered to finance any possible legal venture be there to make their voices heard.

I am serious about exploring how to make our voices heard as sportsmen. Sometimes it takes lawyers and even lawsuits to get our state "representatives" to listen to what we have to say. We are not lobbyists with money, so we don't have the ears of the decsion makers. If we can't give them money to get them to listen, maybe the threat of taking their money and management schemes away will make them listen.

I'd like to hear from all of you. I can, of course, be contacted indirectly via this board, but if you have specific things to talk about, here's where to find me:

Todd Ripley, Attorney
1538 209th Ave. N.E.
Redmond, WA 98053

425-868-6565 (Home)

sumdumdog@aol.com
snork@chaosexistence.org

If you e-mail me, send it to one address and cc: it to the other to make sure I get it promptly.

Well, whattayathink? Are we ready to try and make this happen? I don't know, but I do know that we won't know until we all sit down together and hash it out.

Let me know.

Fish on...

Todd.

[This message has been edited by Todd (edited 11-18-2000).]