Last summer I saw him glow balling at blue creek and he would coil it up on a big rock behind him.

Spawnout - I agree with you. If the fish doesn't take it voluntarily, I personally don't find that as rewarding and sporting. I've found when fishing those same spots, the fish just won't bite - so I usually move on. But I've fished many deep pools loaded with fish where my slowly sinking fly gets nabbed (i could see it happen most of the time) by a fish breaking free of the others. Just because they school up doesn't mean they won't bite. If I find that I snag and\or floss fish too often in a particular spot, I either switch to a spinning rod with a float\jig or with my fly rod - use a shorter leader and a big strike indicator (float) to keep the fly or jig well above the fish. Then when a fish rises up and slams it, there is no question...

You guys have hit the nail on the head as to why I do not fish the terminal fisheries,it does not fit my defination of fishing.It is all about CATCHING NOT FISHING.I will not look down my nose at somebody participating in the catchery but it does nothing towards satisfying my obsession.

I get a kick out of the guys down at the chico creek chum run every year.Every one of them are dentist pretending to be fishermen.Unfortunately the worst are the fly fishermen.I fished it this year for the first couple days of the run with my new 8 wieght and I was part of the club but as soon as I went and got my noodle I was a snagger.cracked me up!

Yeah Cleo, I hear ya. I fish the Combat zones quite often and here's my take on it all...... Yes, It's all about the catching, not about the fishing, but that's OK. I dont fish the Combat fisheries because I want the sport or because I want to comune with nature.... I fish at the Barrier Dam and Blue Creek, etc. because I want to harvest some fish. I fish the combat zones for the sole purpose of bringing home meat/ eggs and that's it. When I want to really get out and fish (which is the majority of the time) I head for the smaller, less populated water. Anyhow, my point is that there's nothing wrong with the "Flossfest" fisheries around here, they serve two purposes, #1- they provide those of us who need to load up on eggs/meat for the freezer with the opportunity to do so. #2- Fisheries like the Barrier Dam tend to attract a bunch of Mouth breathing inbred white trash....... When all that Inbred White Trash is busy snagging fish above the deadline at the barrier dam, they're not out on our smaller, more valuable streams, killing our native fish...... Let people do what they want with the "disposable" hatchery fish.

Amen, brother!