I don't know how many of you knew that there was a weir just above the pump house on the SolDuc for a lot of years. There were weirs on a lot of rivers on the OP and other areas because the Bio's determined that fish above a hatchery were a detriment to the hatchery.

I blame a lot of that thinking on the UW school of fisheries. They taught maximum sustained harvest as opposed to maximum escapement. Why???? It fit into the Commercial fishing aspect of the era. Now do not get me wrong, I was a commercial fisherman for a lot of years and still do a bit of it. I loved the extended seasons but it broke my heart of find Steelhead in my nets.

I was one of the ones in the 60's who felt I was not doing things right for my clients if I was not limited out by 10AM.

I guess this sort of my Mea Culpa.....

In the long run though, habitat, over fishing, and just out right degradation of fish has brought us to a point where we are wondering what will happen next. Snider Creek still is a viable option, originally we were going to do the same thing on all the rivers in the area.

Yet, when you have Bio's and executives telling you that you don't know what you are talking about, that sort of creates a barrier. When you are on the river for 200 or more days a year then you should know what is happening. It does no good to make graphs, or other visual aides that are based on speculation for the most part.

Years ago, my friend Eldon Windle and I went to the river above Snider Creek and he showed me where should have been 50 or more Steelhead. There were none. Same thing goes for the rivers. When I first started boating out there, the rains came, the rivers rose, but they never went out of shape. They would just get greener, not muddy. So what does it all mean?????

Times are going to get harder before they get better. That is the history of fisheries. Until EVERYONE comes on board to help the fish, things will not get better. It does not matter who it is, everyone has to participate......

Again, my 2 cents...