Havent logged in for a long time. This however, got my attention enough that I feel like posting.

First: Reading Comprehension 101- This seems to be lacking in a lot of responses. Read what individuals are saying. Read it a couple times. Bruce, a lot of your questions have been answered, yet you ask them again and again.

Second: Communication- Being an emotional topic, it makes it a bit harder to get across what one really intends to say. Take time to read what you are posting. There is nothing worse then weeding through posts of jibberish posts lacking facts.

Third: Thank you, thank you Smalma, Todd and Salmo G. Its not easy teaching about a subject that on the surface may seem cut and dry but at the heart, its insanely complex.

Now for my take on it, since you asked :p . A dead fish cant spawn. Plain and simple. Yes CnR can result in dead fish. But not like taking a fish and bonking it with a rock. The main fear here seems to be not if harvesting a fish is bad but will it encroach on our overall "rights" to fish.

Nets. Yes they do have impacts on runs. Agree or disagree with them, there are governing contracts that allow tribes etc. to harvest. Nets are another issue that are being dealt with on a continuing basis. More progress is needed.

The attitude " Dem bas**** are nettin all my fish, I want my fair share!"

Good attitude. 2 wrongs dont make a right.

"Well geez, if I cant harvest wild steelhead, and netters can, that just means they will get more and I wont be able to fish!"

Thats a narrow minded un-educated assumption. This new rule does not apply to being able to fish but what you can do when you do catch a fish. If there are more Wild steelhead, will netters harvest more? Maybe so. Then think about this a bit more. More fish in a river means more fish for both sides. We just cant kill our portion.

Finally, "CnR doesnt work. Steelhead populations are still declining".

Oh my! I would hate to think what fish populations would be like if CnR was NOT in effect. This is were it becomes a highly complicated issue. CnR is just a small portion of the big picture. You have water quality, growth and development of human populations, upper watershed habitat degradation, lower watershed habitat degradation, ocean netting river netting etc etc. You see, the amount of variables involved makes managing fish runs a very difficult science, far from perfect. (READ NEXT STATEMENT). Now with being said, we DO have factual, scientific information that allows us to make better decisions overall. We know that sportsmen harvest of Wild steelhead DOES have an impact on runs. WE know that CnR DOES have an impact on Wild steelhead runs BUT not near as much as catch and kill harvesting.

Keep in mind CnR is just ONE portion in this complicated science. Its a partial fix to helping maintain future fishing oppurtounitites. Yes there are other areas that need repair but we have to do what we can with what we have and do it when we can. Will this take away our so called "right to fish"? I know this for sure, low steelhead runs take away my "right to fish". Having more fish to spawn, decreases the chance of river closures.

Its good to see individuals so pationate about steelhead. Even on both sides.

Go out a fish! Enjoy the outdoors.

Later

P