The state is messing up early salmon fishing on my rivers. The Puyallup and Skokomish dont open until Sept. Wonder if the indians will be having a hay day

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/2004/2004sportregs.pdf

Yeah, that sucks. I usually catch my biggest ones in August before the crowds show up. Did you notice that the Yallup is now single-point barbless? I doubt that will reduce the amount of snaggers. You can probably count on seeing more wardens in plain clothes pretending to fish, just waiting for you to accidentally put that barbed hook that you forgot to pinch on your line.

Yeah, I saw that, but thanks for the heads up.

I don't get it. Hooks are cheap. Why not just buy some barbless hooks? Not only will your hooks be barbless, thus preventing the "accident", but you'll also pass the "barb caught in my flannel shirt" test the wardens like to do on pinched barb hooks.

A pinched barbed hook, technically, is not barbless. Unless you use a Dremmel tool and smooth off the barb (I've done that), there is still a "barb" or "nurb" on the hook. I've personally seen wardens ding people for this. The hook seemed barbless to us, or good enough anyways, but if the warden is having a bad day, or doesn't like you, have fun fighting that ticket in court.

Personally, when it comes time to use barbless, I just open up the box of barbless hooks. No fuss and no "accidents".

Just my .02, and not harping on you personally.

But that infringes on my opportunity to fish Parker.

Someone please tell me that I am reading this wrong...

No CHUM season in the Skagit this year?

After hearing of all the wanton destruction that took place from nets, now we have no season??????????????????

Say it isn't so!

MB

as usual, we're the ones who get screwed.

It doesn't matter what the subject is, be it clams, shrimp, salmon or steelhead. The WDFW does not give a hoot about your fishing rights. You will buy a license almost no matter what. What they really want to do is appear like wise stewards of wildlife to the 90 percent of the people that do not fish. That is why we have to endure, among other things, the big hoopla over the Lake Wa. sockeye counts as they try to go over WDFW's really inflated 350,000 fish escapement rule.

It almost hurts to sit down anymore

Parker I actually got popped for barbed hook once but I got it dismissed. I had pinched my barb and the warden did the flannel test thing. a few fibers struck to the hook so he wrote me up. I took the hook to court with me and the dismissed the case really quick.

" I dont have time for this get out of my court!"

With the kinds of illegal crap that I've seen, it's nice to know that enforcement is focusing on what's important and spending time running people's pinched hooks through their flannel shirts.

Gives a bit of reality to the phrase, "Can't see the forest through the trees."

Geez. I hope you were exaggerating.