12/15/2021
IT’S NOW OR NEVER!
ODFW fish commission meeting to discuss the South Coast Management Plan (where it is currently legal to harvest wild steelhead) is tomorrow. Please send a note to: [email protected] supporting “catch and release only” for wild steelhead statewide. This is the email I sent, feel free to use any of my language.
Hello Chair Wahl and ODFW Commissioners,
I felt it necessary to write to you to voice my strong encouragement to end all harvest of wild steelhead in this state. I have been a dedicated full time steelhead outfitter and guide in Oregon for the last 20 years and have been a dedicated steelhead angler for 30 years.
This past year, for the first time ever, we lost our entire Deschutes River guiding season due to drought, lethal warm water and the lowest return of steelhead to the Columbia River basin in history. This guiding season would normally provide my family and the families of our three employees the majority of our annual income. There should be state assistance funds made available to help us guides and outfitters recover our losses as we are experiencing a fisheries disaster.
To add to the unfortunate situation, this past Summer/Fall season was coming off of the worst Winter/Spring steelhead season on the north Oregon coast that we have ever experienced. Given the fact that we don't have real data outside of dam counts, we have no idea how many steelhead returned to our coastal rivers last Winter nor do we know how many will return this year. We DO know that we are at critically low abundance and the one "H" factor that we can most easily control is Harvest. We must end all wild steelhead harvest and immediately close ALL spawning tributaries to ALL angling. They must be left alone when they are in these vulnerable areas to conserve what remains of their energy for spawning.
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