Although I read from this forum frequently, this is my first posting to the board. I have been a sportsman all my life, but have just recently gotten into salmon and steelhead fishing with any success. My fishing days this year have been more numerous than ever before, and I am thoroughly disgusted by all of the snagging and poaching I see going on on the rivers. I fished the Cascade on Sunday. On the Cascade, I saw one older gentleman (mid 60s?) tail hook an nice silver. No problem, right? Just unhook the poor thing and let it go. Nope. The guy's buddy helped him land it, and proceeded to whack it on the head, right in front of about fifteen other guys!! Thoroughly disgusted, I moved away from the crowd toward the mouth of the river to try my luck. Her I saw a guy fishing the Skagit, which is closed to salmon above Concrete. He hooked and whacked a very fresh, very fat, native silver! A beautiful fish, and one which should be on her way to spawn instead of in that clown's freezer. It is very discouraging to see this behavior. Friend tell me about guys snagging fish on rivers like the Samish in plain view of everyone on the bank. I can't believe it!! At the same time it is disconcerting to confront these neanderthals, because you never know how they will react. They know they are breaking one law, what would stop them from trashing your car, or worse?

The whole thing depresses me. I'm really enjoying salmon fishing, and yes, I am foul hooking fish occasionally. But I release them!! If you want to eat salmon that bad, stop at Safeway on the way home, you morons! Everyone complains about the commercials taking too many fish. What would the general public think if they knew how much snagging and poaching was going on? I doubt they would be in favor of an initiative like 696. I don't know what to do about the problem xcept to report offenders, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to be putting a dent in the problem. The whole thing is extremely frustrating to honest and fair fisherpeople.

Write letters to your local representatives and tell them to pull their heads out and fund WDFW the way it should be so they can hire more wardens.