“Sanction the Nets... and Cull the Seals!”
I was living in WA when that dolt Boldt ruled that the words “in common with” meant that the tribes were entitled to 50% of the fish stocks.
I used to fish the Nooksack River, and catching 6-7 lb silvers was common. Sea run Cutthroats were averaging about 3 lbs, and it was nothing to fill a Steelhead card throught the winter.
Within 5 years of the “Boldt Decision” Silvers were averaging less than 3 lbs, sea run cuts were hardly being caught and you couldn’t hardly catch a steelhead.( about 100-150 hrs of hard fishing to even hook one.)
Of course it was all blamed on the loggers clear cutting the hills, which may have had some impact, but when you went down to the res, all you could see was nets, strung 3/4 of the way across the river, and staggered so nothing could get past that couldn’t squirt through the nets.
Some of the nets were left unattended for days and the fish just rotted in them.
That's why your fillet knife must be kept sharp! (Just make sure no one is watching!)
"I used to fish the Nooksack River, and catching 6-7 lb silvers was common. Sea run Cutthroats were averaging about 3 lbs, and it was nothing to fill a Steelhead card throught the winter."
I too spent many years fishing the Nooksack, Skagit, and many other rivers up here. I've quit trying for the most part. It's irritating as hell to sit on the bank (or in your drift boat) fishing with barbless hooks, where you can only "catch and release" most of the time! I'm a meat fisher/Hunter... what's the point?
To top that off, here I am, observing all the laws of DFG (which one has to be a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out) tossing one a barbless hook rig (which more than occassionaly tangles in the tribal net), while at the same time, here comes Tonto in his Hundred thousand dollar netboat, setting nets, pulling others up with twenty or thirty fish in it, glancing over at me and laughing! It's a preposterous place to be, and makes no sense in doing it...
BTW, Tonto keeps ALL the fish regardless of size, and the game wardens give a blind eye to all of it.