I am a sportsfisherman. If I am allowed a full 7 day a week Columbia River spring chinook sport fishery, me and thousands of my buddies will descend upon your town from March through May. We will buy annual boat launch passes and pay top dollar for moorage space at the marina. We will fill up your hotels, motels, RV parks, and campgrounds. We will rent any available secure storage space for our boats and gear. We will buy tens of thousands of gallons of gas for our boats and diesel for our pickups. We will clean you out of ice and herring, we will load up on bandaids, asprin, chips, beer, and groceries at your convenience stores, we will frequent your liquor store and buy the good stuff. We will eat breakfast and dinner and load up the bars at night, and we will tip well. We spend $375 for each spring chinook that we catch according to the USFWS, although none of us believe it or will admit it, certainly not to the wife! If fishing is good we will brag to our buddies, it will be all over the newspapers, and you will have tens of thousands of us visit you next season. If the fishing stays good we will stay all season for summer and fall chinook, and we will start fishing in February next year.

If you would like the pleasure of our company, or at least the pleasure of our dollars, tell your mayor, commissioners, senators, and representatives that they had better do what they can to influence the Fish Commission to be sure we have a full and successful season. Thanks and see you with my credit card this spring.

Pure geniosity, Spawnout! (is that even a word?)

Spawn, you are entirely correct. Your letter should be copied and posted at every place on the lower river where we spend money.
The front page headline story in last week's Wahkiakum newspaper said that their county commissiners voted to ask the commission for the maximum commercial share of spring chinook because they could bring in 1.5 million dollars but sport fishermen have "already bought everything" and don't have an economic impact on the county!
BTW, this is where the Region 5 commissioner, Ron Ozment, comes from, and he is a strong supporter of commercial fishing and was the pivotal vote against approving wild steelhead release statewide.

spawnout.....that is an excellent composition. So true too....print that letter and pass it around the town down there.

Time to play devils advocate here.

What people are neglecting to realize here is that SW WA is nothing but small towns.
Small town people don't like out of town people cloggin the highways, making them wait in line at stores, etc.
There's a few commercial fisherman down there that don't bring in near the $$ the sporties do but they're locals and have more influence on the local politics than out of towners do.
Now if you got the idea across to the store owners and the campground owners they MIGHT be able to put some pressure on someone.
Last time I was through Cathlamet there weren't many stores that were gonna make a ton of money off of seasonal booms. I have a family member that grew up in that town and have spent alot of time in that town. An Ilwaco or Chinook it isn't.

I grew up in a ski town and hated it when winter came along. The roads were full of idiots driving way to fast or way to slow. The stores were full of rude obnoxious city people who figured you were nothing but a local hick.

It's not that I don't agree with what you're doing, I just want to show what the people you'll be pitching this to might be thinking.

So could you send the same letter to Castle Rock, Toledo, Mossyrock, and Kelso if they make the Cowlitz a "wild" river?

BTW Spawn, I like the way you think!

Crap, I thought I kept Cathlamet a secret. I didn't know you knew fish went through that area.

I spend money in that town everytime I go there or anywhere west of that area. But I know what people in small towns think of city drunks. Every year we get em here at Mineral Lake.

What hotels?

When I go, we commute from Longview -- 50 mile R/T.

(well, I guess there's that one little rat-hole motel a few miles east of Cath..)

What about Astoria, Ilwaco, Chinook, Hamond, Longview, Kalama, Woodland, St. Helens, and almost any small to large spot on the river that has a boat ramp. They all should be made aware of what it could mean to them. Not all drive down and come right back. I no i will make at least 3-4 full weekend trips down from seattle. Hotel, Food, Fuel for a big truck and sled. The weekend have to be spread out to keep the family happy so if the season is short i might only get 1 or 2 in. I know when i hit the river there are boats everywhere doing the same thing. Hundreds of them and they are all spending money the same as I.

Hi all, cute huh? I already decided to mail the letter to several business that I frequent when I am down there. I have lived in small towns all my life and fully realize what the small town mentality is that I am up against, and I too have heard the local drivel in the papers about how we never spend money down there, etc. We, however, know what we spend down there, the people we hand our credit cards to know it too, and enterprising people that are able to differentiate a buck from BS do exist in small towns. I'm counting on them to recognize that they can make a difference and make life better for them and their families. Wakaiakum County is the smallest county and economy in the state, if anyone needs our dollars it is them, and if the lure of our dollars can have a political impact anywhere it is right there. If any of you want to send something similar to the businesses in the area, feel free to plagerize at will.

Good letter Spawn!

And yes, rwgav8 Please send those letters off to places like Chehalis, Centralia, Castle Rock, Toledo, Mossyrock, Packwood, and Kelso, long View and tell them if Tacoma implements their proposed fishery management plan (the FHMP) that they you won't be spending your dollars down that way anymore.

And Sinker, the people in small towns may gripe about outsiders from time to time, but they do know that their small towns and small communities will dry up without that outside tourist money coming into there community from fishermen. Believe me, they would much ratter have the fishermen drive that 40-50 miles to go fishing, then for them to have to drive 40 or 50 miles away to find enough work to pay there bills and feed their kids when the tourist money dries up. Do you really think that these people would rather give-up their local jobs or spend that much more time and efort going to work in an asphalt jungle, if you folks will bring the money to them? As long as you don't move there.....they will love your money and business!

I do known how the people feel, because I do live in one of those "small towns"! Believe me, we would rather have you folks come here and spend your money on fishing, then for us to have to drive 40 or 50 miles each day, 5 days a week, to make up for the lost of local income that fishermen bring to our small communities.

That is one hell of a good reason to take legal action against Tacoma, and each of the members of the FTC/agency committee members who are bringing this economic disaster to our local area. Before these people are allowed to implement their fish management Plan (the FHMP) any further, the people are going to demand that they perform an economic impact study to show what the economic affect of their little plan will have to our small communities. You got to ask yourself; how can these FTC members propose such actions, without first considering the economic effects and actions that "their plan" will have to the local economics that depend on the Cowlits fishery for much of there local economics. All too often these pompous people just sit around in there nice cozy little meeting rooms, eating donuts and seeping there coffee, and make up plans that will ruin the economic of communities because "they think" they know what is best for us.

It's time for us to fight back, and spawnout's got the right idea!



Cowlitzfisherman

Spawnout;
Send that as a letter to the editor of any of those "Small Town" papers you can find.

I too grew up in a small town(1,500) and remember the attitude. Funny thing was that most of the "locals" would usually drive to the "city" to do their shopping. It was looked at as an adventure and a way of saving money. The city visitors would come in, throw their money around, and anger the locals with their city attitudes.

Of course the only businesses that did well were the ones that catered to the visitors!

The Oregonian is looking for your story!
http://www.ifish.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=003360

To put things in perspective, I believe it was estimated last fall that the opening weekend of clam digging was directly worth 1.6 million to Gray Harbor County.

One weekend, folks! And we're only talking clams.

Can't imagine what a full-length CR springer season would be worth?