It is no secret that I am a strong supporter of catch and release of all wild steelhead. I have arrived at my position based upon my more than fifty years of fishing in Washington rivers and a lot of others from California to SE Alaska. There is no question that our once magnificent runs of steelhead have undergone a nearly catastrophic delcline over the past several years. Saving the native steelhead is a way to ensure our gene pools, rebuild those important early-arriving winter steelhead and to allow the entire run state-wide to rebuild.
The economics of catch and release to communities like Forks, Naselle or Marblemount have the potential to be huge.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend my wife Carol and I decided to make a trip to the Olympic Peninsula to try for steelhead. We stayed at the Hard Rain RV Park ($60.00), purchased groceries at the Forks Thriftway ($48.00), purchased gas (34.00), shopped for Christmas gifts at local shops ($160.00)and stopped at Olympic Sports for a few flies (8.00). We did not take home a steelhead but had a wonderful time and added a gross amount of $310 to the gross economy of Forks, Washington.
I love to have a chance a big wild steelhead but I don't have to kill one to enjoy the catch. A photo will do nicely.
Conversely, I kill nearly every hatchery steelhead I catch because being an old Aberdeen boy I grew up on fish, deer, elk and oysters. There seem to be plenty of hatchery steelhead for me to catch.
Growing the economic bases of small communities such as Naselle, Forks or Marblemount can be very tightly tied to tourist/sport fishing dollars. This is going to become increasingly important given the fact that timber and commercial fishing industries are not likely to rebound to historical levels.
Catch and release of all wild steelhead in Washington is not the mantra of rich, elitist Seattle, yuppie flyfishermen. There are a lot of anglers who use all kinds of gear who are on board for catch and release. It is the future of our steelhead fishery.

Les Johnson

Amen Brother!

DON'T MESS WITH LES!!!!

I learned the hard way!!!

People were saying that the guides would be hit hard by cnr. It seems to me that people that go with a guide go fishing because they like it, not because they want meat. Otherwise it would be much cheaper for them to buy it at the store. Down the road if the wild steelhead have made a comeback the guides will be positively influenced by cnr because there will be more fish to catch. Just my $.02.

~ Dr Pepper

Bob made an excellent point at the commision hearings this past Saturday. He added up how much is strictly wild steelhead release guide business pumps in the local economy and it came out to $150,000.

The same applies to commercial gillnetting. Their contibution to the economy is very small compared to sportfishing impact. If they cut out the gillnets the economy improves in most places.

A great point Les, that I wish more business owners in communities like Forks would consider. Quite frankly, I don't think these folks know any differently. I would venture to guess that few of the biz owners have spent much time in the premier steelhead areas of the world and see the bucks that are dropped w/o any hesitation at all.

It may take some time, but people will see this fact eventually!