I promised a report so here it is. Got up at 2:30am and made the trip to Cathlamet. Fished Clifton Channel til 8:30am and only saw 3 fish out of about 75 boats. Pulled out and anchored up with quikies. Went 1 for 3 landing a 7 pound native steely. Lost a nice nook to a guy that was running downriggers in 20 foot of water....cut my line like a knife! I can't understand why anyone would want to run these in that shallow of water. Nice day on the water but not many fish around. Fish checker at the ramp checked 12 fish for 75 boats. Not what I would consider good fishing by any means.

12 fish for 75 boats... So it would take 50,000 boats to get the 8,000 fish the netters got last night.

I got one of those 3 fish on Saturday. I saw way more fish eaten by the sea lions than caught on hook and line.

The commercials were supposed going to stop after Thursday nights fishery but fish started to move and PRESTO the go out again only this time with smaller mesh nets. I bet they will go out again only this time they will go waaay over their quota by accident and BINGO the season will have to be shut down for sports fishers.

From the commercial fishermen's side of the argument he says we, the sports fishers are not able to harvest the fish. We are proving that by doing so poorly...So the commercial boats have to harvest the run so it doesn't get wasted. Don't you know that if too many fish are allowed to reach the spawning grounds it is a waste?

You hit it on the head gramps. They are going to give us a little deja vu from last year. I would bet a lot of money that they will get a portion of our quota. Sucks.

A down rigger in 20 FT of water. Now that sounds like fun.

I saw the downriggers on the Arima....I thought it was wierd but you have to learn some time. But then again some fishermen will never learn.

In defense of the guy using 'riggers in 20 ft of water, I do the same when anchored fishing Kwikies up here on the distant reaches of the Columbia. Beats the heck outta using lots of weight. Of course, I'm not in the middle of zillions of other boats either.

at anchor is not the same as trolling around in 15-20ft of water in the midst of hundreds of other boats who are flat lining.

I don't have a problem with anyone using a downrigger if they want to do it away from the congested areas. I still think it's more trouble than it's worth but to each his own. I just think it is inconsiderate to have 2 or 3 cables plus your anchor rope plus all your lines hanging below your boat when you are in very close proximity to a line of boats above you. I can deal with anchor ropes as they are a lot more forgiving but when your line hits those downrigger cables you might as well kiss your fish good bye.