I got up early on Friday and went to the Skokomish and as luck would have it, I hooked a nice king on my very first cast. (In the mouth) Now, if you have fished the Skokomish, you know that several fish get hooked in other places then the mouth and everyone was being a sportsman and releasing foul hooked fish and everyone was having a good time. About 11:00 am, a Skokomish Indian showed up, or so he said, but he did not look to be native American. He had a huge piece of lead below a treble hook and just started snagging fish on almost every cast, and then as the fish got in everyone elses way, wanted us to get out of his way. When he landed it he threw it on the bank. As the pile started to get bigger, everyone was so mad they started leaving. It was pretty sick. If I would have had a cell phone I would have called the game department to check it out. I then thought I would go to the Carbon to see how opening day was going. I went up to Voights Creek and there must have been 250 guys there. I started looking for a spot to fish and all I was seeing was white guys hooking up all over the place, and nearly everyone was snagged. It didn't matter, they tossed them on the bank. I said something to a couple guys and got told to f/o....I was there for nearly an hour and probably saw 30 fish landed, almost all snagged and kept....pretty sick. Is keeping a fish that important?....sure wish I had a badge Friday, I would have generated alot of money for the State.

I hear you on the snaggers. The guys around me were good on releasing the foul hooked fish. I release at least a half a dozen fish that came a calling at my feet from guys running down river trying to beach the snagged fish. I just grabbed the fish by the tail unhooked the fish and let them go. They didn't say anything about this however I really didn't give them a chance. I was fishing down river by the first man made dyke, rock bank, down river from the major snag fest. It is pretty easy to tell when someone or yourself has a fish snagged. If the fish goes up river or stays reasonaly close to where you hooked the fish, chances are it is a legal hook up. It is when the guys come running from up river and the fish is at least 30 yards from them with the line coming off the mid section of the fish that the fish is foul hooked. This used to piss me off a lot also, but hey, the run must be rather large for the Carbon to be consistently open for the number of years it has been with a two fish limit. Salmon fishing like this always brings out the yeah-whos. Thank god they don't have the endurance or patience to steelhead fish!!!!!!!! I fished the Carbon this morning and it was a lot slower than the opener.. I guess this can be good and bad. The lower river is looking really good for kings and if the silver run materializes it will be incredible. Down by the X_Mas tree farm , by the mouth, there is some great looking tail outs this year due to how the river is shaping up. Well good luck, I hear you man, the snaggers like you encounter suck, oh well, let them fill their freezers full of fish and this will keep them off the river during the river. Tight lines, SteelyDan

That is probably the most stupidest thing I have ever heard. That is plane bull S***. That is just stupid. The other day I drove along hood canal and the indians have the nets up right outside there house it makes me mad. Randy, buddy, that sucks that you had to see that. I would of been pissed. Tight lines.

Hay Randy, it was good to meet you down there today. By the way how many more did our little buddy with the treble hook get after we left?

He was down there again... That just pisses me off. he should go play in the highway or something like that.

It is sad to see the Indians snagging fish in the Skok but to be honest I would rather see that then when they bring boats in and sweep the hole with nets and get every fish. All this while your watching. This will never stop and there is nothing you can do about it as long is there on Indian Land. All you can do is call Tribal enforcement. (Lot of good that will do)

[This message has been edited by jg (edited 09-04-2000).]

Hey Chris

So one snagging Indian pisses you off enough for you to post but 250 white guys on the Carbon doing the same thing doesn't bother you?

For what its worth, no need to call enforcement, I think its legal for the tribe to snag. I'm just glad they're not netting below the bridge where the brightest fish are. A tribal fisherman told me they were restricted from fishing below the lower bridge.

[This message has been edited by obsessed (edited 09-06-2000).]