Stlhdh20, going to change a few words of your first statment. "Which is why it is ironic for the same people who say they care about Native fish to complain about even the suggestion of shutting down a river to C&R". I guess to me there is no gray area, either you put your pole away and then stand up and say look what I've done for the wild fish, I don't kill any fish at all. If you don't, then you have no right to say anything at all. You still kill fish. No if, ands or buts about it.

Fishhead5

4Salt,
It is something I'm proud of.. One thing I don't think you realize is the people that put this law into effect probably have never touched the bank of the EF of the Lewis... Where as I have fished this river since I was kneehigh to a cowpie. I fish it all summer long from April 15th to July 30th and during that time span you might see 4-5 true Native adult fish and I still can't think of a time I've caught a native smolt, but have caught a share of hatchery smolt in the beginning of May. Is that the fish they're trying to protect???

I wouldn't disagree with a bait ban in the upper reaches of the river where the water stays cooler and the smolt will hang until they're old enough to make their maiden voyage to the ocean.. Remember the lewis runs right out of the mountains and only runs about 300cfs on average through the months of May-July and typically by June it's running in the upper 50's and July the low 60's through most summers as far as temperature goes.

So back to what I said in the earlier post, I will go about my ways and still fish bait until I can see a true reason to stop, as I'm a see it to beleive it kind of guy...

If a gamewarden writes me up, well he better stick around because my next cast will be with bait again...
Keith

Is there any way we can send a copy of this thread to the WDFW comission???

I think it's time for this one to go to bed as well.