I have to vent (ODFW)

[wak'm&stak'm]

Sometimes you just have to vent and I feel a venting coming on. I see odfw may open a all depth halibut day, Sept 22. Are we supposed to be happy? First if you buy any tag as you know you have to purchase tags for all 3 species, even if you never fish halibut or sturgeon. And for those who do, you get drawn to the purchasing agent by lies such as the Aug. 4th halibut opener. OK now it is time to make long distance calls, hotel and charter reservations and don't forget the excitement of those who have promised their kids of the big deep sea adventure. THEN......just to have the season canceled, when there is NO shortage of halibut. NOW, that they have ruined the plans for so many, they want to look like your best friend and start publishing articles about what "WE MAY DO FOR YOU". %@#&**!$%....stuff it...
Now I see they will have meetings whether do close archery season, &*(^%$@##....due to dry conditions, every year it is dry in eastern Oregon and why not put the screws to a year of planning, hiking and spending.... the kill joys get off on throwing their wieght around. I MAY regret saying this BUT...I don't pray for rain , I pray for lightening to strike a few offices of the ODFW, (of coarse after closing hours).
I real believe they should cultivate a better relationship with the sportsman, and get their &*$# together.
I feel a little better now, Thank You

[Bait O' Eggs]

Wak
breathe one two three, breathe one two three, feel better?

I to am very discouraged with the management of our wildlife in this state. I was told recently the ODFW has switched to managing tolerance levels, rather than managing the animals (a semi-joke that has a lot of truth in it) . If enough people complain ODFW makes modifications, to put a little grease on the squeaky wheel. I have seen where farmers complain about the numbers of elk and suddenly a special hunt appears to cut down on the number of elk competing with his stock. And because of this mentality I believe people like RT (and others) can make a difference by putting pressure on the right people to manage the wildlife in a way that is fair and equitable, yet not hurting the breeding stock, leaving the population in tact.

I called the Ochocco forest service office last friday checking on the conditions, and trying to get a feel for whether any talks were in progress to restrict my access to the forest. It looks good so far, but if they cancel my access to the forest, you will hear me in Newport and you may even blush a little with the words I will be using. You referred to meetings to closing archery season. Do you have a specifics, I have heard of nothing, and would like to stay on top of that.

Well thought out, intelligent letters do get heard. The more letters the louder the volume.

I am doing my rain dance, so I wont have to deal with the state and federal employees in an unpleasant situation.

Thanks for caring.

[Pilar]

Hey Wak'm&Stak'm. Man, I hope your blood pressure went down, you need a fishing trip! It's worse than you think, big guy. It's not all ODFW with your ruined recreation plans on their hands. Don't forget about the Pacific Halibut Commission or National Marine Fisheries Service. These guys are supposed to coordinate the fishing seasons and bag limits regionally and nationally. They do this by dictating to ODFW and other state agencies.

I'm not defending bureaucracy by any means, my point is that the blame can be spread amongst many government agencies and individuals. That is their stock in trade. They can always blame the 'other' agency and avoid responsibility. Let's not forget the U.S. Forest service either. Their mission is to make timber available for commercial interests and make the forest available for recreational uses, including hunting. Hmmm..... lets schedule some timber sales and then make the same recently disturbed land available for recreation. Does anyone else see the contradiction here?

As long as the squeaky wheel gets the grease and compromise by the government agencies between competing interest groups is the norm, we will see more of the same. Ask yourself why it is so hard to solve or even acknowledge the salmon shortage when everyone is blaming everyone else. The solution at present is a compromise that angers the special interests the least in total. Unfortunately for the fish the thing compromised is their recovery.

I think the trick is to squeak a little louder than the rest. So RT lets all go down to Snailem or Newport or wherever they hold the meetings and kick some butt!!

The bend is your friend!!

[wak'm&stak'm]

You are very diplimatic, and I agree with you. I guess what upsets me is that, I do truely love Oregon and the outdoors that I grew up in. Most the people I know are very supportive and respectful of wildlife and the habitat, in fact there is not a one who wouldn't throw down their bow to help fight fire if they were there, and one year they did do just that.
Freinds and I have attended meetings and I real feel those meetings were just a show and that the decisions were already made.
Here is a example: One meeting on their bull management program they said that their counts show that we are having a low survival rate on mature bulls. So they pulled out an example of one such count conducted in the Alsea unit. They flew one drainage and counted only a couple young bulls and a bunch of cows (I can't remeber the exact numbers). Then a local logger that lives for elk, and elk hunting just happened to be in the area with his video camera, he jumped up and said they were wrong, he told them exactly which clearing that they saw the elk and just how many cows were with each group, and he had dated video tape of 5 big bulls in the timber that they did not see. Now, mind you this was Dec. and big bulls are out by themselves. His point was well made and documented, but they did not amend their count and gave no notice that hey were WRONG. Kinda reminds you of their screwed up cutthroat trout count that closed the coast to trout fishing doesn't it.
Anyway...I feel it is always the sportsman that has to take the bullet for ever crisis, ever inaccurate study and ever special interest group.
I will get the hard facts on their meeting. Also, if you were to look east, down Black canyon and across the valley real hard you might just see us.
I am doing the breathing exersices, Thanks hee hee...

[wak'm&stak'm]

You are right Pilar it reaches far beyond the ODFW and I am well aware of the Halibut Federation. Years back they conducted a study on the halbut and to my knowledge they have not done anything lately. I grew up in the fishing community and remember the old halibut longliners back when they got 25 cents per pound.
I also recall when they started closing salmon season and told the charter fleet to find something else to target (another meeting I was at). Rob,a school mate and the owner of Newport Tradwindswas there and was a pioneer to the sport halibut fishery. Infact I often jumped in and personally caught 73 halibut in 2 years with him, (I didn't keep them all). Well they did do just as they were told they biult a halibut fishery, and look what happened to that.
Here is a interesting tidbit of info....did you know that they caught and housed most of the hailbut for the Aquarium in Newport last year before the Kieko tank was rebiult. Every fish that dies gets and examination as to the cause of death. Well just prior to the Aug. opener some halibut in the tanks started dying, the state, and federal boys flew into a panic and started running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off yelling "OH MY GOD, we are having a die off and all the halibut are deasesed dieing".
This is all true, they were just about to close the opener when they found out that they were tailing the halibut when they landed them and sperating their spines.
Guess who about got the bullet again?...#$%&#@
I have to go visit my folks for a couple days perhaps I can cool off....