Kind of an interesting visit to the Sol Duc Hatchery today. Was a lot of fun watching the masses of older summer silvers as well as some fall make their way into the hatchery creek (Spring Creek).

Loads of fish laying in the ponds ... some of them couldn't live with this being the end of their journey and were doing their best to jump the fence ...



If you'd like to see some video of fish milling around and trying to leap over the fence, click here for a 3.94 Meg video download.

The fish were still piling in as well ... we sat at the creek mouth and watched them work their way up the staircase of pools ...



On a depressing note. I witnessed perhaps the most blatant act of poaching and worst way to teach a youngster about the outdoors today. This too, right at the hatchery creek mouth ...



We had run across the guilty folks as we walked in. Initailly, we tried to be quite polite. We simply asked them if a river opener had been announced. The fella said "No, but the kid caught it anyhow." and laughed. I made mention that the river was closed to all fishing and his response was "I don't give a sh&*!"

I snapped this pic as they went back to their rig ... Kudos to the hatchery employee for giving the local gendarme a call with their plate number and description (of that tan Toyota 4Runner).



Hmmm, and we wonder why many of the kids today have such poor moral values??

To bad you did not get a snapshot of their faces. I know you were probably concerned about your personal safety otherwise you would have gotten a picture of their faces.

It seems kind of stupid to me to be carrying a fish through the hatchery parking lot while the rivers are shut down.

I saw the same thing sat on the Dewatto.I went to school with this guy.He had his boy,probably 4-5 years old.I showed up and while we were talking the boy was busy snagging fish.Dad finally tried to explain to the boy that you do not snag them it is against the law.The boys answer was "but dad you do!"

I fished that river three times last week and I have to say that the state opening it up for a silver meat fishery was a big mistake.It is not big enough for one guy to fish,let alone a horde.Every trip I run into guys filling the woods with blatentlly[pencil lead and trebble hooks] snagged fish.

Basicly said the state killed the major tribs to the hood canal so they turn everybody loose on the few little ones left that have any fish so they to can suffer the same demize.

This needs to be brought to the top.
I hope that a lot of people think about
the focus of this picture. Who breaks the cycle?