Like I said in a previous thread, we gave up our right to fish when we damed all the rivers, polluted all the waters, cut down all the trees, overfished etc. etc. etc. etc.

We should consider ourselves very lucky that there are still fish to be caught and think that fishing is no more then a privelage we are luck to have.

BTW boater1-Would you be related to the boater that was banned!!!?!?!

RPetzold

Speak for your self! You may have given up your "right", but please don't include me and everyone else! I have been fighting the dam thing for the last 12 years, and I still haven't given up.

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

Oooops...I meant to post that in the other thread as I already posted my opnion in this thread.

Anyways Cowlitzfisherman, I totally forgot, you are not part of the problem.

Where do you get your electricty???...solar panels??

What is your house built from???...mud??

Being that you are not part of the problem, you must have great subsitutes for gas and paper products that we all consume in our daily lives.

No! no ban on bait, if you think fishermen using bait in the summer, kill alot of smolts, they dont even come CLOSE to what the cormorants take in one day!! been on the river lately??
yes, it would be a minutely small fraction of the smolts that wouldnt make it to sea, but bait fisherman arent the culprit.
I rarely use bait, but that has nothing to do with it, it should be our choice.
for years my favorite river allowed bait in the summer, all of a sudden a few years ago, some upity fly fishermen got into somebodys pocketbook, and now there is a ban on bait, June 1 through Nov 31st
I for one have had enough! with all the gillnetting, mismanagement,smoke and mirrors and finger pointing.
sport fisherman using bait seriuosly impacting adult returns?? hardly
NO!! Washington

Fuzzy

Silent Approach Jigs

I was speaking in general regarding any natives that are caught which swallowed the hooks. Again, I'm primarily talking about diver and bait

then you would be sturgeon fishing with artificials, could troll or mooch a cut plug herring. no summer nite dog/skate fishin at the docks. no more limits of TASY catfish fillets. but during march and april on rivers and any wild trout stream it should be banned. and more areas desinated for non bait chukers would be nice. Ben

Yes in selected rivers at selected times. In Idaho, certain rivers are closed to bait in areas where wild fish are common. As far as across the board. No way. However, we also have a zero retention of wild fish policy, and have for a long time. Also have no gill nets. If the tribe gets any fish its because there are a ton of them and they get them right out of the hatcherys.. the way it should be everywhere.

That is the very same arguement that so many of those against statewide wild steelhead release use-well if the Indians are going to kill them so am I.

Yes cormorants reap havoc on certain streams and yes I would love it if we reduced the population but why can we not take responsibilty for our actions???

We ***** about this, moan about that, complain about them yet do not take any responsibilty for our actions nor do we want to sacrifice anything for the fish.

No wonder we have no fish, so many of us do not give a [Bleeeeep!].

Preserving our wild steelhead is going to go way beyond just letting all the wild steelhead adults go, there is so much we must do beyond that.

I may seem radical but I am still young, I do not have any kids yet and when I am your ages, I want to have fish to fish for and be able to show my kids and my grankids that sport that I love so dearly.

Call me selfish then, see if I care!

Hmmm ... lots of conditionals here, but I'll say "YES" just to stir the pot

I like to use bait at times, but often see it used irresponsibly. Unfortunately, if people can't do the sensible thing on their own, you sometimes have to make a law ... for the welfare of a number of different species, it would likely be a good thing.

YES.

Ban bait for anyone over the age of 16.

Bait is for kids.

Rpetz

If you ORVIS loving urbananized ellitist snobs don't want to use bait, and just stick with your bug slingers, more power to you.

We have taken responsibility for what we have done too our rivers, and the bottom line is you will not stop development, you will never tear down the dams, you will never close the rivers for fishing.

So lets live with what we have done to our resources, and build some more hatcheries, so we can just keep on BONKING.....

NO in WA.

I've read every report in this unofficial study and have to say the majority are saying no. As far as taking responsibility for destroying our resources,in my job, which is water quality coordinator/salmon habitat restoration coordinator for one of the coast counties. The efforts are being done to restore the habitat and clean up the water. I talk to landowners and state officials all the time (every day) and the one thing that always comes up is the lack of common sense in the government. When the landowners took care of the resources,we historically had more fish. Since the Bolt decision and the activation of the environmental community, the fish numbers have dwindled. The government wants large buffers along the streams of an average of 180 feet from the normal high water mark, and wants 30% evergreen trees within that buffer. Now I challenge you to come to our rivers and show me a large number of old growth stumps along the waters edge within that 180 foot buffer. Our streams have historic deciduous trees in the buffer which are mostly alder and the average age of an alder before it starts to rot is 50 years and you will not usually find alders of different ages in a stand, so this means they will all start to die at about the same time. Thus the buffer will die off and then start over again. FACT. I just get tired of individuals from the big cities trying to tell the rural folks what they are doing wrong and how to fix it when they have destroyed everything in there area. Sorry for the long wind but sometimes you have to clear your mind.
Banock