I think the whole prescription thing is a horrible double standard set by our society. Thanks, Baby Boomers. These days they dope you up for anything, even if you watched too much TV as a kid. The message this sends is that its OK to be loaded out of your gourd and that drugs solve everything. If you get your kid geeked up on Ritalin or Wellbutrin by the time he's twelve, then to him a little speed isn't any different. And chemically, they are no different. Kids aren't stupid, they have the ability to find out what Mommy has been giving them. I'm just waiting for the all the cases of 20-30 somethings with Congestive Heart Failure due to all the prescription Amphetamines they've been spoon fed since pre-adolecence to start clogging our health care system competing with all the geriatric baby-boomers and thier addictions to Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, Paxil, and Percocet.

Kinda funny and yeah, all too real.

Scenario: Mingo goes steelhead fishing on the Skykomish River.

1973 Mingo goes out for a day of steelheading on the Skykomish River. Mingo sees 3 other people the entire day and never does see another boat. A bob cat and deer quietly come down to the river for a drink and to checkout Mingo. Mingo catches a dozen nice wild steelhead and takes two home. Next year Judge Boldt will rule in favor of the tribes and not the fish.

2006 It's been 32 years after the Boldt Decision and the Skykomish is a nothing more than a barren waterway. Tribal netting, commercial fishing, and the metro-abuse of the watershed has been devastating to the Mighty Sky. Massive population growth ensures Mingo sees 350 of his closest friends on the river, and since it is June 1st, sees another 532 Alumaweld jetsleds. A rampant drug problem in America sees that a pair of tweakers approach Mingo for a drink and a fix. Mingo doesn't catch anything, doesn't see anything caught, and goes home with a tear in his eye knowing that the wild fish are all but a memory.

In 1973 people believed in God. 1976 they elected a damm fool Democrat as President, and its been downhill ever since. This is all Jimmy Carter the Lost Baptist, and Bill Clinton the Fellatiating Fornicator's fault.

Ronald Reagan with Alzheimers disease made a better president than those two.

F-

I remember when religion was ones own business. Then idiots started following the likes of loons like Falwell.

Parker,

You're such a kid.

Salmo did in fact go out for a day of steelheading on the Skykomish River in 1973. He saw 2 jetboats and 8 driftboats. Salmo got skunked that day, but did see 4 steelhead caught. Since hatchery steelhead were not ad clipped, and we hadn't learned to check for deformed dorsal fins, Salmo has no idea which ones were hatchery fish and which were wild. Catching a dozen wild steelhead in a day would have been a longshot, even in 1973. There were still good numbers of wild steelhead, but they were declining precipitously - but we didn't figure that out until a few years after the fact. And there is no indication whatever that it had anything to do with the Boldt Decision - for the Sky anyway. The Tulalip Tribe's interception of steelhead was pretty modest.

In 2006 there are more steelhead in the Sky than in 1973, however, they are predominantly hatchery origin fish. Reiter ponds came on line with returning fish in 1975 and 76, with increased winter steelhead smolt plants and the inaugeration of the hatchery summer steelhead program.

Ain't history cool? Do we ever learn anything from it?

Figure this link belongs here:

http://www.kirotv.com/holidays/10467838/detail.html

Salmo, I agree with what you said about the Sky. Things got pretty dismal but then really picked up in the late 70's until about 1985 or so. Now I'd say there are much less hatchery and wild respectively than in that 78 to 85 or so range. I seem to remember fish projections or counts back then putting the Sky as the top river in the state. No I still didn't catch a dozen but almost always limited and on the more crowded bars that used to exist you'd see many fish caught throughout the day during peak times. Plus the average hatchery was about 8 pounds versus today's five.

Dang. You guys are old!

It's all the Baby Boomer's fault.

I read a book called "The Way We Never Were: The Nostalgia Trap" or something like that. It was an interesting book about the way people tend to pine for the days of old, and why.

When my in-laws send me emails about how great it was in the good old days, I remind them that in the good old days, they'd probably be dead already. :p

There's no going back.


I liked the good old days too. I could pull a couple of steelhead a year out of Mill Creek in Shelton.....as a kid. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it now, and I'm a little more proficient now than I was then. That was in the mid-70's. I stopped fishing it once I could drive and get to "better" streams. What I wouldn't give to be able to hook a wild steelhead in Mill creek now with my kids.

Oh, well. It's everyone's fault. I guess none of us can dodge at least some of the responsibility.

Everyonce in awhile I also run into some old salt who mistakes Norman Rockwell prints for his family photo album.

I cant help but remind him that no matter what time period you pine for, you can dig up a newspaper, scroll, or clay tablet from that era and still read about drug problems, kids killing thier parents, crooked politicians, racist violence, nutjobs overseas that want to kill us, religious wackos, illegal immigration, and la maladie de jour.

I dunno about that. Used to be murder was a big deal around here. Now it's every day.