And yet, she lets you live. Nice lady.

What the current/recent changes have made me do is carefully plan trips. No more hope in car on the spur of the moment stuff. And, I'll buy into guided trips/charters so as to maximize the chance to actually encounter something.

As an aside, our daughter is developing a model in her dissertation that trys to predict motivation for two different commercial tuna fleets fishing four different species. Is it maximize catch? Minimize expense? Consistent catch? It would behoove our "managers" to delve into the motivation of hunters and anglers. What actually gets them out there in terms of expectations, opportunity, time in the field. I am afraid that WDFW believes that "If we open it, they will come"

I was at the commissioners meeting in April and pointed out to them that everyone in the room was gray-haired. If you live in the Skagit basin, and just got your drivers license, odds are you've never seen a Skagit wild steelhead. They might as well be unicorns as far as young folks are concerned. Hell, when was the last time anyone on this forum saw one? Who is going to care about them when we are gone? Do we want to leave them in the hands of folks that have never seen one?

Opportunity has fallen so much, it is becoming hard to justify the expense. I skipped hunting last year, as all my local areas are now pay to hunt, including the DNR land that now wants me to by the discover pass. Went from any weapon, any area for elk to choose your weapon and area. Several of the areas I used to hunt went from a open tag to a trophy tag, with no better opportunity. This year my local opportunity for salmon has just about disappeared. To add injury to insult, there are a couple of great clamming beaches near a rental I own. In the last past couple of years they have gone from being open all year to 1 month for one, and 2 months on the other. They stopped planting most of the local rivers, so if I want a realistic chance for steel head I have a minimum of an hour trip, more if I want to get into good fishing. The park I used to stop by at lunch and make a toss or two in, now wants a 3 dollar parking fee. It just never stops. I have probably went from being out doors around 80 to 100 days a year to around to 15, with only 3 or 4 of those being dedicated trips. I could go on, but it is actually quite depressing.