Sol Duc report

[Dan Hall]

We spent 3 days fishing the Sol Duc from the hatchery to the Whitcomb Dimmel ramp.  We didn’t catch anything but there lots of fish being caught on gear.  I overheard several crabby anglers grousing about Bob Ball’s support of releasing wild steelhead.  Now, I don’t know what his efforts have been but there is a lot of animosity toward him.  One of the reasons cited was the retention reduction from 5 wild steelhead to 1 wild steelhead and the assertion the Indians have upped their netting to one more day per week further limiting the available fish upriver.  I don’t know if any of this is true although I do remember after the Bolt decision was rendered lots of talk that if the non treaty catch wasn’t harvested then the Indians were entitled to that portion also.   Does anyone know if the Quilliutes increased their netting schedule to take the 4 fish the sportsmen are not retaining?   Dan