Screw Everyone Else! I Gotta Get Mine

After reading what took place at a recent public meeting concerning the depressed runs of fall Chinook on the Nehalem river I felt the need to bring this blog entry back to the top.

For those of you unfamiliar with what has happened to the once huge runs of fall Chinook on this north coast river it's simply this. ODFW  has closed the river to angling for Chinook. Escapement of wild Chinook into the upper river was miserable last year and it's expected to be the same this year. It seems like a no brainer doesn't it? Close the damn river...zero harvest!
Oh hell no say many Tillamook county locals. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying to act like they are as pure as driven snow in all of this but they are far from it. Remember their mantra under director Roy Elicker? Identify angling opportunities! Sell tags and licenses because we need to keep some empty suits and bureaucratic assholes in this well paying jobs!
Anyway this was posted originally back in January 2009.
Screw Everyone Else! I Gotta Get Mine!!!! This should be the new motto of our country don't you think? Well at least here in the Pacific Northwest when it comes to our natural resources. We fight other user groups for what might one day end up being the last salmon or steelhead. We divert water from rivers like the Deschutes and so it becomes unbearable for summer steelhead to leave the Columbia for what used to be the colder water of this river!
Our land use laws are no longer in place to protect the wild places in our world but to make sure that "I gotta get mine!"
What happened to responsibility and respect for what should be the heritage we leave future generation?
Screw everyone else! I gotta get mine
As the powers that be divvy up the upcoming spring Chinook harvest for next year you can just imagine the coming outrage of those so called sports fishing advocacy groups and their members when other user groups vie for their share of the pie.
Little gets mentioned about wild fish by-catch and the like because why? Screw everyone else! I gotta get mine!This fall when that gentile sportsman on the north coast pulls a revolver out from under his rain coat because some other gents challenges his territorial claim to that dark salmon in the river how do you think he would defend his actions and behavior? "Screw everyone else! I gotta get mine"Go ahead and call me cynical and negative if you want and maybe I am but I've seen a general decline in activism among people about the things we should cherish. "Why does it always have to be about fishing ethics?" is a quote that angers me to the point of giving up!
Maybe it's the internet or maybe it's just a general malaise about anything that may inconvenience us is getting what we believe we are entitled to!
I'm sorry if I may have disturbed someones comfort zone but with the general indifference towards things that should matter it's hard to be very positive about the future of our waters and the wild fish that call them home. Hey there is too much money to be made and I'm gonna get what is owed me. Go visit some fishing websites that have ads plastered all over them! You can see where their motivation comes from.
Would I ever give up? Well why shouldn't I?  I could spend my golden years reminiscing
about the clean rivers and wild fish that I once knew.
I could take out my favorite old fly rod and lovingly wipe it down and remember the fish I caught and released with it. I could write about the heroes of those day who gave a damn about what was happening and didn't care about their reputations or the making of a good photo op! Those good men and women who believed that there were bigger issues at stake than a photo of them holding up just another dead fish or making a few bucks.
I can barely hold my contempt for those who selfishly make a profit on wild fish and care about little else. I said it many times on this blog and I will not quit saying it!
Greedy bait guides on the north Oregon coast sing the praises of using wild fish for little more than hatchery egg machines. What the hell is wrong with these people? What will these bastards do when there are no more wild fish to exploit? What will all the fishing stars of the last ten years do without wild fish to hoist out of the water for a hero photo. I care little about my own reputation as a big mouth and I won't shut up about the way these greedy people come up to you with a sweet smile on their face but their hearts and souls are green! Green with the love of money.
Goddamn these people! Sound strong huh? Makes you a bit uneasy does it? I hope you greedy bastards read this and get pissed! I'm talking to you jerks that yank a wild steelhead off of it's spawning redd where the fish and wildlife department has placed survey flags. Kind of like shooting fish in a barrel isn't it?
Sorry but it needs to be said over and over again and maybe one day these people will understand what knee jerk zealots like myself have been raging about all these years.