Re: Fishing Stilly.

[The Coles]

I have been a 'silent partner' in this list up 'til now but I just can't help myself any longer.  It is very hard to witness stuff like the illegal (or otherwise) killing of wild fish and have basically no recourse other than risking a confrontation when you call people on their lawbreaking.  When I was in Alaska, I would often run across people breaking the law by fishing/snagging/killing species in places where the fish were supposedly protected.  Most of these lawbreakers did what they did out of ignorance while some were intentionally doing it.  After a few "up close and personal" discussions with these fine citizens a couple of things became apparent.  (1)  People do not read the regulations, (2) It doesn't pay to confront people who are intentionally breaking the law, and (3) the F&W enforcement types don't have the resources to actively enforce the regulations.    I finally took it upon myself to make enlarged copies of the regulations for certain waters and species that were getting pounded illegally and posting the information on trees.  I also began to take a camera with me to document some of the stuff that was going on so that there was some kind of documentation for the F&W types.    I think most people are good-intentioned and would refrain from doing this kind of stuff if they are educated.  Maybe that would be a good project for TU, FFF, and others to pursue?  As to the folks with sociopathic criminal intent, I would suggest carrying a camera or VCR, (maybe an audio recorder too), documenting the crimes and other pertinent information (license numbers, vehicle descriptions, etc) and taking the evidence to the authorities.  I would not suggest confrontations as these can and do get ugly.  What else can be done?  Close certain waters entirely, I guess or maybe deputize fisherman that care about the rules.  Anyway, there's my two cents worth....    PS  Mr. Lufkin... I am working on a response to your Alaskan Cohos in the Salt post.  I should finish it this weekend... had to make a couple of phone calls to fishing partners Up There. ----- Original Message ----- From: Les Korcala To: Washington Fly fishers Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 11:32 PM Subject: Fishing Stilly. Hello everyone:   Went to Stilly early this morning , I could not believe what I saw on the river.   I  was fishing Fortston Hole and saw 6 bait fisherman's fishing about 10' from each other. In same time two of them had a fish on , both of them big steelhead, one of them was asking other guy if he hooked wild fish , he said yes , he than beach the fish went for the stick and start hitting on the head , broke the stick he was all pits of of that.   Other guy killed he's steelhead with a rock ,  than he hooked the fish on the hook stand near the river , while the fish was still moving and fighting for it's life, this fish was still alive!   This whole thing made me very mad , did not want to get in between this bunch of cruel assholes.   I went to other place to fish, a little down stream and saw two other guys fishing , and one of them look to me like he was very young , he hooked big fish , beached and the did not know how to get the hook out of he's mouth, started sticking huge stick in to fish mouth, I went by and said : nice fish it looks like wild run , in fact it was,  than I said: " to bad you have to put it back" The older guy said : no, no, you can keep one from now on, than he started biting fish with a stick , another asshole on the river!   All of those people look like locals from near by, the had no appreciation for steelheads or any other fish which swimming in that beautiful river.   They also look at you like you don't belong here, go home!   So here we have , if we are getting less and less wild fish , well today was Thursday ,  and I saw in 2 hrs fishing 4 wild steelhead killed! In order to protect this great fishery at " Forston Hole"  Fish authority should pay more  attention at this and other spots ,specially when the bait fishing season starts.     Thanks for your time .   Les   Ps: Sorry for my bad English.   Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com