Why don't they do it this way, or why don't they do it that way? This fracturing of sports fishers is exactly why we have had our butts handed to us for so long.

Recognizing that removing those nets,while not a panacea, will have a huge impact on moving the commercials toward being selective in their harvest.

Something every one of you C&R guys talk about when it comes to "wild/native" steelhead.


Fishy

That is more along the lines of the needed solution. The most popular commercial CR fishery is the springers, with about 170 licenses participating to take ~6000 mainstem fish - at least that's what they report on fish tags, (and call it on average an equal amount in the SAFE areas).

Just do the math .... look at how little $$$ it would take to permanently retire those gillnet licenses. All of them.

And then, IF you're concerned about the "supplying the public" argument, allow the commercials to fish those off-channel areas developed specifically for them using selective methods.

This is better for fish, and fisherman, and the economy of our lower river communities. Economic improvement for these rural areas is a powerful argument. The economic argument is what the netters have used and are using to keep the status quo.

Ah the sweet sound of a logical solution, better savor that one for a while.

http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/irr/2010/074text.pdf


Well there it is, interesting text and the part about processers not being able to buy a gillnet caught fish is going to be the interesting part.

they can just sell them in washington.

Just wonder if it includes tribal caught gillnet fish, if so should drag the processers and the tribes into the fight.

Best part is how there will be a fee attached to each sport license to buy new gear... That should go over like a turd in a punchbowl

Sports paying to switch commercial harvest gear, simply brilliant.

Actually the more I read the better it gets, it also puts a window on participation, so would get rid of alot of competition. If they threw in new boats to go with the new gear, I don't think this would even need to go to ballot

After reading that bill, I do not find anything in it about raising the cost of a sport license, just where part of the fee will go. Personnely, I would be quite happy to pay more to get rid of the gill nets. And as far as Washington goes, check out HB 2266. Two states working on the same problem from two different directions is what I see.

What i'm seeing is the future of the columbia river commercial fisheries isn't in CCA's or lower river gillnetter's hands but the tribes. Going to be interesting to watch this one unfold...Cheers

Guess i had to go back an reread 3 wouldn't apply to tribes..Thats good I guess

i agree, i`m looking forward to reading cca information that shows that modern day gillnetting is causing the decline of our native salmon and steelhead.

SBD+ Boater+freespool+Stlher1=0 pending legislation +0 pending initiatives for the new year. Past legislative and initiative resume ???

On the other hand, CCA has pending HB2266 in Washington and pending Oregon initiative for the new year. CCA past legislation over 30 years experience on state and national level with too many accomplishments to write here, you've seen them before. A track record that we can expect to continue as CCA stacks legislation year after year. While we can expect from SBD, boater, freespool, and Stlhdr1 only rhetoric for decades to come instead of doing something constructive about current and past issues.

There is a century of commercial interest to unravel and it is going to take time to get the results everybody expects. No magic bullet, just a lot of hard work now and in the future.CCA has the track record and the ability to get it done VS the fab 4 ability to wish for better days.

I'm for letting these two groups do what they do best. CCA to work the issues with legislators and share holders and the fab 4 to just flame on.

So I would like to especially say thanks to SBD, Boater, freespool and Stlhdr1 for helping bring CCA to the PNW.There not only here because of you but for you also.

Happy New Year

Dang, Lucky Louie, see you at the meeting thur night.........

Well said LB, I see too many armchair fisherman whining and crying about the state of things while not having the nads to get their hands dirty and do some of the heavy lifting.

I have stood by the boat launches and listened to too many people whine and cry about this and that all while complaining that somebody should do this or that and making sure that they don't get involved because they don't have the time,money,experience,interest,ambition,knowledge and they just might have to give up a life style of standing around bitching.

After 140 years we finally have the chance to turn the tide in our favor. Now is the time to roll the sleeves up, help your brother fisherman with the heavy lifting and help defray the costs to help our resource. We will not get all we want nor will it come with out some sacrifice but we can make advances where only a few years ago we would not even think about going.Look at this as the very beginning, not the end. The first in a long list of modifications that could impact our resource forever and you could be part of that. Now is that time, now is when we start to make it happen.

Now!


Fishy

Group to collect signatures on gillnetting ban

Commercial outfits vow to fight the ballot initiative

It's expensive, labor intensive and divisive, but a ballot initiative to ban commercial gillnets and tangle nets on the Columbia River was the only option left, said the head of the conservation organization that filed the paperwork to start collecting signatures.\

"Definitely going with an initiative is a lot more costly," said Bryan Irwin, the president of Coastal Conservation Association, which has 9,000-plus members in Oregon and Washington.
"And it's not a route that you want to go, but the inability to do this through the legislature and through the (Oregon Fish and Wildlife) commission has left us with no other choice."
The Protect Our Salmon Act, as the initiative is called, would require that commercial netters switch......


http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100101/OUTDOORS/1010328/1034/SPORTS

I`ve brought this up several times, on the other board and I was flat out told that I was wrong and just reading things into this fee explanation that were not true,quote, might as well hand the gillnetters a five dollar bill when we see them this spring, failed to get any response at all, the WDFW has packaged this fee as "helping" sports anglers. So the sheeple nod their heads in agreement and open their wallets. Am I trying to stir things up? Hell yes I am. It`s not about the money I`ll have to pay, It`s where and how it`s going to be used. Bill