I thought I would bring this one back to the top because a rash of stupidity has broken out on the internet fishing forums again again.
I originally wrote this in April of 2008.
Sometimes the sheer ignorance of the fishing masses absolutely drives me nuts. This is the age of the world wide web for crying out loud! These fools must have at least enough intelligence to operate a computer so why do they have such assinine notions about anything from wild steelhead to indicators on spey rods.
Hey I'm no Einstein but I am capable of an abstract thought or two.
Anyway enjoy the reprise of this classic Shane rant.
Yes pretty blunt I know but hey when have I ever not been blunt on this blog?
It's pretty simple logic actually and so if you have ever taken the time to actually dig deeper than the need to fill your freezer and put aside your own selfishness then I'm not talking about you.
So hang on folks it's going to be a bumpy ride.
You are stupid if....
You believe that hatchery fish will be the salvation of wild fish.
You think that cormorants, terns and cutthroat trout steal all the salmon smolt.
You think that fin clipping parties and releasing bright hatchery steelhead is conservation.
You think the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has the best interest of wild fish in mind.
You think the elimination of sea lions will solve our Columbia river salmon problems.
You feel that allowing broodstock steelhead to spawn will help augment wild steelhead populations.
You think the way to get kids excited about fishing is to allow them to kill a few wild trout.
You think that simply creating more hatchery fish will solve the problem of diminishing returns.
Should I go on?
Apparently many of the anglers in the state of Oregon just cannot bear the thought of not having hatchery fish.
It's been proven time and time again throughout the decades how detrimental hatcheries are to wild fish but for some reason it just does not matter to a harvest drunk group of anglers and that my friends is stupidity at it's worst.
How did we get to this point of addiction?
Instead of beating on this topic endlessly here with just a few opinions I would invite you all to look at some of the discussion going on over at ifish.net. There are a few enlightened and thoughtful comments there but the majority are truly tragic....you can decide which is which.
I could fill this blog with the ignorant notions of some, even those that the sports fishing community puts on a pedestal.
Yes I am frustrated by some of the idiotic things I read and hear and my only release is to intensify my conservation efforts. You just want to grab these uninformed zombies and shake some sense into them.
Believe it or not I do think a reasonable and intelligent hatchery policy can co-exist with wild salmonid recovery. My only question is when will we see that reasonable and intelligent policy because we are not seeing it now especially on the north coast?
I also think the ODFW has some very gifted and talented folks working for them but it seems that this policy driven agency insists on wasting that talent.
I really wish I could be optimistic about the future but I am having a hard time doing that when I encounter the just plain ignorant forces on the stream bank and on the internet that cannot see past the end of their selfish noses.
So bear with me folks because the light of conservation cannot be hidden forever. There are many that just will not let it be hidden. Hopefully the light of intelligent management of wild fish and their habitat will shine....keep the faith!
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