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The other day I was in the US Forest Service office, discussing the Dickson Flyfishing business proposal that would allow me the federal permit, to outfit on the rivers I have guided on, for the past twenty years.

In our discussion, I posed the question to the manager. "When did fishing gain the reputation as anti-conservation, on the rivers?" This kind man settled back in his chair and gave me a hard look. He thought about it for a minute and said. "I don't know, but it is definitely there."

I decided if we are going to eliminate river sport fishing in western Washington, we need to address these subjects.

Eliminate the hatcheries:
Years ago while working as a fisheries biologist for a local tribe, I found myself in the unique position of attempting to enhance wild anadromous stocks, while the state and many other tribes were all into mega-hatcheries. In looking back on how Fisheries management has been conducted in the past twenty years, I find it a bit amazing we have any healthy stocks at all. Some time ago, fisheries groups were simply pitted commercial VS non-commercial. Managers figured if there was a problem, we simply needed to produce more fish. Nobody really paid attention to the wild fish.

Hatchery stocks were inflicted on our wild stocks; all the fish were being exploited. Wild fish began to dwindle.

Now we have come the age where we realize many of the hatchery problems of harvest management to genetic pollution, have hampered our wild stocks.

Simple answer seems to be, "get rid of the hatcheries". Enter the Wild Steelhead Salmonid Policy. It is a pretty fancy write but the interpretation by managers is this: "If there is not enough steelhead to be killed, then there isn't enough for a river sport fishery." In other words, even if the river sportsman didn't cause the problem directly, he certainly will pay for it. This is how.

If we remove the hatchery production from most of our West Side streams, the now depressed wild stocks would have to carry the load. If the population isn't strong enough (most aren't) to meet within 80% escapement, the WSP kicks in, and the river closes. Ergo: You take the summer steelhead program off the N.F. Stilly, and you rely on the Deer Creek wild summers to carry the escapement each summer. Same thing goes for the winter fish. No hatchery production, Stilly closes for low escapement, simple as that.

The second thing I would propose in closing river sport fishing is something sport kill anglers have been proposing for years. Designate steelhead-spawning areas, and close these rivers reaches to all sport fishing. We don't have much documentation to support it, but we can use spawning harassment and stepping through spawning redds as anti-conservation. Heaven forbid we would educate. This would also eliminate most C&R fisheries, while closing many of the upper reaches of our streams. Shrink the playground, and question the ethics, glare at each other.

The third scenario ties directly into the second, and probably the most deadly proposal for the river sport fishing elimination.

Steelhead spawning/rearing units:
This one is a beauty. It basically says that steelhead not only spawn a location, the swim-up fry to smolt, rear and feed in the direct location. Most wild steelhead smolts take 2 & 3 years to smolt and leave the system. Ergo: We don't only need to protect these nesting areas for the spring spawning; we need to protect these river sections as nursery areas, year round.

Now, here is the really fun part. This concept penalizes not only river fishing the depressed watersheds, but the healthy rivers, too. Take the Sol Duc River steelhead as an example. Let's forget that for all its abuses, it is still a viable steelhead spawning stream. If you float the SD from the upper reaches all the way to the confluence of the Bogy, and do it in late April/early May, you will find steelhead spawning redds from one end of the river to the other.

Now imagine that some scientist comes up with a buffer zone for each spawning redd and calculates that if spawning density reaches beyond "X" then that will constitute a steelhead "spawning/rearing zone". All river sport fishing is to be eliminated in that stretch of river to protect the steelhead freshwater life cycle, throughout the year. Sport fishing is thus eliminated for those waters, in the name of conservation. Ergo: The run is strong, and the river is still eliminated because now too many steelhead use it for spawning. We will call it a "seed" river.

So what about if the historical steelhead spawning area is under utilized? Easy. We must take off any undue mortality (including C&R) the WSP kicks in, because we are under escapement, and Voile`! No fishing.

The fourth approach in eliminating river sport fisheries focuses on the perception that all fishing including C&R is bad for conservation. It is a little harder to achieve but I marvel how well we as river sports, fall into it. To accomplish this, we must take the focus off the real problems associated with harvest management, and I do mean conducting kill fisheries. It is almost political suicide to even infer the direct killing of our steelhead has anything to do with the fisheries depletion in this state. Now let me tell you what. You can micro manage the non-consumptive sport fishing into the dirt, eliminate it completely if you want, and you won't bring back one single stinking more steelhead, if you don't figure some handle on harvest management. You know it and I know it.

So now that we are all pissed off because our very best efforts in a steelhead kill moratorium failed, what do we do? We look around and start yelling and finger pointing at each other. Great.

We institute lame a*s fishing laws. We divide ourselves as sportsmen by accusing each other in such things, as, if you are not willing the release your steelhead in the water, then you are as bad as the guy who kills the fish up on the shore, or at the bottom of his boat. You must be a Poacher. (Somebody look up a definition of a poacher.)

My stand on that? If my releasing a steelhead without taking him *completely (poorly written by the way) out the water, will keep the guy from dragging it up in the rocks, or flopping it in the bottom of the boat....
So be it. It is a small price to pay, and like it or not, it is the law.

No, the problem I have with this level of micro managing is this:

a) We accuse good anglers as bad. Infighting never helped. We need each other more than ever, and yet we focus on the trivia, looking for the exception to fight about.

b) We wrongly concede our privilege to fish, even C&R, as harmful, while ignoring kill fisheries, because it is political suicide to say otherwise. We are the conservative river stewards. Why do we cower as anti-conservationists?

Summary:
So there you have it. Eliminate the hatcheries, and every stream that is not meeting spawning escapement goals will be closed to sport fishing, indefinitely.

Designate steelhead spawning/rearing reaches and we will close healthy and non-healthy streams alike to fishing, because "if we must error we should error on the side of the fish." Too bad we don't seem to use this motto every time we set regulations to kill the next wild fish. Kill the fish then close the stream, Yeah, that's better.

Take the focus off the real fishery problems, and convince each other we are the trouble, while we micro-manage our way off the river.

We are arguing about what color we should have painted the barn, while the frigging building is on fire!

Dennis Dickson Fisheries Biologist/Flyfishing Guide