There are so many springers going up the Columbia River this year that Fed., State, & Tribal officials have decided to allow Indians to sell netted Col. mainstem springers all thru May, for the first time in 23 years! The big prediction of 135,000 fish is now expected to near 200,000! No consideration has been given to us sportfishers to have even a small mainstem Col. quota on these majority hatchery fish, THAT WE MOSTLY PAID FOR! The only thing under consideration is to unfairly cut us off this years Col. fall chinook run. THANKS A LOT FOR THINKING OF US AGAIN! WE'LL BE THINKING OF YOU WHEN IT COMES TIME TO VOTE IN MORE FAIR LEADERSHIP! I hope the May 8th meeting of the new WAA will address ways to help deal with this situation. I have called for a write-in campaign ASAP on our BB down here in Oregon. Can somebody from up in Wash. get the right officials and addresses to write to and post them under this thread? Jack salmon counts have them predicting an even larger overabundance of Col. springers next year, so a protest campaign will also help for consideration toward a mainsten Col. sportfishing quota for next spring as well as this. If any of them say that we should be satisfied that we got an expanded zone off the mouth of the Wind R., explain that it is so crowded there that if someone accidently fell out of their boat they wouldn't get wet, because they would fall into another boat- it's hardly what a short mainstem fishery would fairly do! Any other ideas? - Steve

The mailing address of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is:
600 Capital Way N.
Olympia, Wa. 98501-1091
E mails (if they still work) are:
director@dfw.wa.gov
fishpgm@dfw.wa.gov
As they say keep those cards and letters coming. The only way to let it be know how we feel is to act like the "I love you" virus and bombard them with letters and e mails.
Tight lines, Jeff



[This message has been edited by salmonhead (edited 05-05-2000).]