This month's "Fishermen's News , Vol. 55, No. 3, March 1999(The voice of the Pacific Coast Fishing Fleet)" has a wonderful editorial about the anti-wading bill proposed by the Bonkers. The fella writing it, John Jovanovich, can't understand how recreational fishermen can be so selfish and not support such a great bill.

He cites a study of Montana trout streams for the damage that wading does to redds. If you flyfish in Montana, and walk back and forth across a small stream all day, you may step in redds. This study says that there is 43% mortality for a trout redd that is stepped on. Period.

While I may not dispute that number, anyone who manages to stand on a steelhead redd on the mainstem Skagit better either be twelve feet tall or better be swimming for their lives. You can see the redds in late spring, and they are in six to ten feet of heavy water, damn near in the middle of the channel.

He also cites to the "tens of thousands" of sportfishermen walking around on these redds, and later to the "hundreds of thousands" of sportfishermen, recreationalists, and boaters who are ruining salmonid redds.
While there are a few more, a lot more, fishermen on the Skagit than I remember fifteen years ago, I'd say that tens or hundreds of thousands may be overstating it a bit.

He next discusses the damage done by jet propulsion boats, and how they would be banned by the bill. If I remember correctly (somebody help me out if I don't), jet boats were not covered by the bill.

Lastly, he can't understand why we just can't fish from the bank or from drifting boats (assuming jet boats are banned).
Duh. The bill outlaws your boat, anchor, truck, or trailer from touching the riverbed. If you can get your drift boat in the water, fish a day, and get it out, without having your feet, anchor, oars, boat, trailer, or truck, touch the bottom of the river, then you are a magician indeed.

This bill is just part two in the Wildcat Steelhead Bonkers quest to end fishing on the Skagit due to the "rough" treatment they took over the Grandy Creek hatchery project.

Wah.

The last part of the article is an appeal to all commercial fishermen to call their legislators and support this bill so that sporties like us don't ruin all the fish that they do so much to save by netting them up.

The Fishermen's News
4005 20th Ave. W., Suite 221
Seattle, WA 98199-1298

1-800-258-8609
206-283-5125 (fax)
www.fishermensnews.com
FN5004@pop.nwlink.com

Send them a note and say "thanks, but no thanks". Encourage them to get their facts straight before they start printing next month.

Fish on...
Todd.

Does it say anything about the F&H News(Liar's Gazzette) backing the bill or is it just one of their editorials? I can see this leading to a lot of cancelled subscriptions...

[This message has been edited by Kev (edited 03-17-99).]

This doesn't have anything to do with Fishing and Hunting Lies. It's a commercial fishing trade magazine. They have all their own lies, they don't need to borrow any from FHN.