Thursday, June 21, 2007

I Did Not Know That!


Remember when Dana Carvey used to impersonate the late Johnny Carson? He would mimic Carson's famous line when Johnny's straight man Ed McMahon would say something profound.
Anyway while touring a few of the northwest's popular internet fishing sites I found these pearls of wisdom about various conservation and environmental topics.

Did you know that.....

It's perfectly okay to kill rattlesnakes on the Deschutes because they just might bite you or your dog that is supposed to be on leash ?

Coastal cutthroat trout are voracious predators that eat more salmon and steelhead smolt than terns,cormorant or heron?

Fishing ethics are not important enough to discuss in a public forum?

It's perfectly fine and ethical to use bait for cutthroat trout in a catch and release only fishery?

Steelhead broodstock programs are a good thing for wild steelhead and actually increases those wild populations?

A passing drift boat will cause salmon to go on the bite?

There are no "truly" wild fish left so it's just fine to kill a few?

The rest of the state should not have a say on whether or not wild North Umpqua steelhead should or should not be killed?

You can take the Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife at their word?

Dousing your fly with shrimp scent is still fly fishing?

Dumping millions of hatchery steelhead into a river with a recovering wild fish population is a dandy idea?

Oh and here is the best one.....

A former ODFW director/commissioner claims the north coast cutthroat trout population are healthy enough to harvest! It just so happens this person also works for the company that makes, are you ready for this? Power Bait!

I could go on and on but my point is just this. When a new angler/outdoors person logs into one of these fishing sites, desiring to learn about fishing and reads this stuff what are they supposed to believe?
Some old crank like me and others who give a damn about wild fish conservation and our environment or these other self appointed "prophets" of what is best for the resource namely the I gotta mine mentality.
I'm not patting myself on the back here because my evolution into a wild fish advocate was years in the making and I learn something new every day. So why not give the resource the benefit of the doubt huh?

No comments:

Post a Comment