Well since this seems to be an on going topic I thought that I'd put my expierence out there and let of a little steam! I'm still in shock about it all, what a disapointment. and now the rest of the story...... I took my vacation with the high hopes of hooking a fishie or two without the 2+ hr drive to some of the other premier salmon fisheries. Well it turned out to be quite a bust.My friend and I fished the lower Yakima today and it was a real eye opener.We saw people using sturgen rods, people using rattle trap bass lures, and people using nightcrawlers for salmon. All of which is perfectly legal albeit not the most effective way to hook a salmon so while it was a bit humoruos to see this going on it didnt rankle me to much! I 've tried some crazy things while tryying to learn the sport as i'm sure many of us have. What really got to me was the blatant snagging that was going on!I watched one guy hook a 35+lb buck a precede to fight the fish for 25 mins, not to unusual except that it was obviously "butt hooked". He finally got to the net and pulled the hawg in tail first! Then he bonked it and punched it! Not even a bit of hesitation! I was a bit disgusted to say the least! We ended up calling the poaching hot line but I'm not to convinced that it will do any good! My friend told me about a family a few days before, throwing spinners and jerk retrieveing them, they caught five! This guy was even teaching his nine year old son on the correct technique to perfect this way of fishing! Then to top it off the guy said after his fith fish that heyed better go because he didnt even have his liscence! Nice huh! where are the gammies when you need them! Truthfully, Ive only been fishing for salmon and steelhead for going on three years and I have never been checked by a fish and game officer, not even once!
If they dont enforce the rules it will ruin fishing as we know it and be a serious detriment to the run itself!
All of this was enough to make me more than a little grumpy, but the garbage and trash was almost as disgusting! I could have filled up three garbage bags with all the trash.( broken beer bottles to feminine hygene pads) And every thing in between!
You know, i've read the post about the same actions taking place on other rivers and was actually getting a bit annoyed hearing the negative all the time! Now that I've expierenced it on my "home" river I totally understand! It really sucks when you see everything trashed!
Question how often are you folks checked by a gammie?
Do you think that putting in and getting drawn for special permits to fish for salmon like we do for deer and elk is a good idea?
Sure I like to fish when ever I want but after this trip I would almost be willing to subject myself to that for the good of the river and it's fish!
What do you guys and gals think?

Dude!

You are resenating the frustrations that many of us feel. The poaching hotline is one of the biggest jokes I'v ever seen. Infact has anyone had any luck calling in one of these scum? You don't want to confront these people if you are not armed. Don't worry, the WDFW will just close the whole thing down again.

If ther is one town in this state I would like to see blown into a big piece of glass it would be yakima what a sh** box that place is. It doesn't surprise me a bit that you saw such a trashy scene.

That's a pretty strong opinion, someone have a bad experience in Yakima???

From the sounds of it, you live in Utopia and have everything you want, live in a beautiful home, drive wonderful vehicles/boats, and have surroundings only a guy like me from the Yakima Valley could only dream of. After all, I only live in a 3500 sf house, drive a lifted 2500HD with a Banshee in the back, and fish out of a Weldcraft with my St. Bernard.

Hopefully when you blow Yakima up you miss my stuff so I can salvage it!!

Ive only been to yakima once, but im sure its like most towns. I drove by the mall and wouldnt have dared to get out of my car unless i was armed thats for sure. It probably has its good areas as well as its bad but I dont think I would move there.

My Grandpa moved to Yakima in 1917 and is considered one of the pioneer familys. I think you guys are a little hard on the city of Yakima. What's this thing about the Mall? I can only guess you are talking about the Yakima Mall and not the Union Gap Mall. The Yakima Mall is just about out of business. As far as the people they are no differant then the people that live in your town. Yes I do love Yakima.
Jim Marquis

My bet here is that Yakima wasn't to blame. The "lower" Yakima would be Prosser, Benton City and the Tri-Cities. This is also where the majority of the "fishing attrosities" occur. I live here and also have seen such behavior. Seems that every time I'm out in the middle of no-where, there's a Gamey standing next to me. When in a big crowd of wrong doers, you can't find one anywhere. One thing that would be useful would be to put a bounty on turning in the a-holes and getting points for special seasons, or something really attractive... I'll bet there would be a video camera behind every bush and the honest guys would have a better time fishing. The bad guys would probably give it up...

Don't blow up Yakima! I don't think it was them...

45/70

PS: I GOT A DRIFT BOAT TODAY! YEAH!