I leave in a few minutes to go fish a sleactive gear lake. One thought - whenever I fish lakes like Lenice, Nunnaly, Beta, etc. they are always busy. Waaayy more angling preassure on these than on any other lakes I see. Maybe selective gear rules INCREASE angling opportunity.

I will not be here to refute any arguments, so just remember that I am right and all who diaagree with me are wrong.

DJ:

"you guys realy want to help steelhead start shooting Commorants....you know the ocean dwelling bird that is now finding its way inland to sit on that little block of cement near concrete that eats its weight everyday in fish,,,,,"

Got a great little "blind" on the back porch...so it will have to be wrist-rockets at 50 yds. Can of BudDummer, can of Planters and a couple lawn chairs...bring 'em on!

Those cormorants have been thick in the Skagit for a few months now, along with oodles of mergansers (fish eating ducks), and they have been hammering the smolt hiding out around the rocks in the frog water areas down below the house. Run them off, but they come right back as soon as I go in the house.

Off to Portland and Boise for a few days (working, damnit) and will be back Thurs.

P.S. FWIW: I don't flyfish, I don't keep wild steelhead, and much to my disagreement with some of it I do follow all the laws, including that stupid "fish not out of water" release law. (Until they change, that is).

See ya all on Fri.

Mike B

Mike dont live far from the block I was talking about...I have noticed the commorants dont sit there when the eagles are around...but not that they are gone the slaughter of smolt well continue.....DJ

"One thought - whenever I fish lakes like Lenice, Nunnaly, Beta, etc. they are always busy. Waaayy more angling preassure on these than on any other lakes I see."

You can't be serious.. Obviously you have never fished Mineral lake Dave. I've fished Lenice, Nunnaly etc for years which by the way have a one fish limit and while I do agree that angler participation is good. I don't agree with your comparison. Those lakes are small and usually you will only see a handfull of anglers there at one time. Have you ever seen the hundreds of anglers fishing some of the put and take lakes? You want to see angler participation go fish Mineral lake on opening day... I also think comparing this type of fishery to statewide WSR does not have any merit.

Killing Commorants! Now theres something I think we can all get behind.

Cormorants and Sea Lions (aka seals) are in the same boat, me thinks. Federally protected.

Fish eating birds gotta eat too, I guess, and Mom Nature probably takes into account their predation on the runs...but adapting to these nets (salt and fresh) and overfishing (in some spots) seems to be the problem that nature has a tough time taking care of.

Seen a lot of ideas postulated here...some backed by science, some merely opinions and innuendo desired to be taken as fact.

What we do seem to all agree on is that, in some river systems, the steelhead runs have declined and we (as a community) want them to flourish once again. Can't say as I have any answers, but a lot of hope that those with the proper education and higher pay grades can AGREE (it could happen, ya know!) on how best to help these wonderful fish recover to their historical high numbers.

Mike

(Ok, now I am really leaving!)

That's the management plan that has been used up until now. You know, the one that has been a miserable failure? Yeah, that's the one.

Excuse the F out of me for being gone a weekend. I'll email you next time I'm going out of town so you don't worry. These issues have been beaten on for months now and it's always the same $hit. I get a little tired of seeing the same questions and accusations come up, get answered, then get asked again. I swear, you and CFM need to start a bowling team together.

Cupo,

You've got a lot of nerve.

.


Is it, you're just tired of being proven wrong? You and the rest of the guys have been crowing your crap for months now. And it's not looking good for you. Grow some gnads and admit you're wrong. No. You'd rather Attack CFM, who cannot respond to you. Because he was right, and wasnt afraid to say it. He's banned from here, which erks my gerkin bro. He has more to add than you could ever, and we cant hear him. But we have to listen to you? Gimme a break.

It takes one heck of a wennie to attack someone who cant respond. Way to go!

todd, here is a copy of the news release from the state, where does it say you cant harvest wild steelhead ?

NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091

March 17, 2004
Contact: Craig Bartlett, (360) 902-2259


Wild steelhead retention moratorium
will take effect May 1 statewide

OLYMPIA -The effective date for a recently adopted statewide moratorium on wild steelhead retention will be May 1, consistent with the start of the next fishing season, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

The two-year moratorium, adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission during a Feb. 6 meeting, originally was to take effect April 1. The moratorium - which is scheduled to run for two years - requires anglers to release any steelhead that is not marked as a hatchery fish by a missing adipose or ventral fin and a healed scar.

"On review, the timeline for implementing permanent fishing rules of this complexity made it impossible to have the moratorium in place by April 1," said Larry Peck, WDFW deputy director. "This was an administrative decision by the director's office, which will make the rule change consistent with the beginning of the annual steelhead management cycle."

Shifting the date to May 1 also allows additional time to get word of the moratorium out to steelhead anglers and other stakeholders, Peck said.

Biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife stressed that no significant impact to wild steelhead would result from continuing with current regulations on those rivers currently open to retention of wild steelhead.

Wild steelhead retention already had been permanently banned in much of the state, but has been allowed on several Olympic Peninsula river systems where stocks are relatively strong.

"We are confident that the decision to move the effective date of the moratorium will have no significant impact on the resource, but will provide for better notice to anglers who fish for steelhead in the affected rivers," Peck said.

.
You certainly got that right boater.

Just don't "retain" any wild steelhead...
Constipation can ruin your appetite.

That is WEAK attacking CFM when he cant defend himself here...

One thing CFM didn't do was ask the same old questions. He always found a different angle to attack an idea with. Unfortunately, his arguments this time hit a little too close to home and he was booted. Since that time I have seen a half a dozen or so people get WAY more personal and abusive to others than he did on this topic. I didn't always agree with him, but he was interesting.... and could hold his own in a debate.

I just wanted to point out that that was pointed at DJFISHS2XS not written by me...I like and respected CFM and his sometimes different viewpoint......DJ