Help Protect Umpqua R Steelhead - C&R for Natives Petition

[mattklara]

Would you kill this fish?

If not, please consider signing this petition in support of Catch & Release for wild/native steelhead on the Umpqua River, Oregon.

http://www.petitiononline.com/umpqua07/petition.html

Signing this petition should take less than two minutes of your time. This petition is the same as the one that is circulating around Southwest and Central Oregon fishing shops and has the endorsement of the Umpqua Fishermen’s Association, a coalition of fishing guides on the Umpqua River. We have been getting support from both local anglers as well as members of the worldwide angling community who have experienced, or someday hope to experience, these magnificent wild/native steelhead. In addition to protecting the threatened antive run in the South Umpqua, the reg change will also mean more big natives in the fly only water of the North Umpqua.

Read more at www.sexyloops.com/matts/umpqua.shtml

Cheers,

Matt

[cphatts]

Done!

[rob allen]

Done... everyone on Ifish should sign this...

[SilverFly]

Signed, - can't believe bonking nates is still allowed ANYWHERE!

[Steelie Mike]

You got another!

[TallFlyGuy]

done

[mattklara]

Thanks guys. Please do everything you can to spread the word on this issue. We only have about 2 more weeks to collect signatures. We need all your friends to sign up.

Please continue to include your location/address. At least the city and state.

Should have posted here long ago.

Matt

[ScottD]

I'm #272 on the petition. That doesn't sound like very many. Hopefully a lot more people will sign it in time.

[mattklara]

272 currently on the online petition.

Many others on paper copies all over Oregon.

But you are right, 272 is not enough. I'd like to see 500. Tell your friends. Spread the word.

Matt

[Wingdam]

Done! Fished there last January and caught lots of nates and released every one. There where plenty of hatchery fish mixed in to keep if one wanted! Never made sense to me to allow retention of native fish on the Umpqua when so few rivers have that kind of return nowadays?

[C-lice]

Done!

I was at the public meeting in Roseburg when the biologist (David Harris) spoke about this issue in 2004. I was surprised to find that the science shows that half of the Umpqua's winter steelhead spawn in the mainstem, not the North or South.

Basically, ODFW's position is to manage fisheries like this (as well as the North Umpqua bait water) in such a way as to allow anglers to harvest something. They decided that allowing the limited native retention was the better option than establishing a hatchery program on the North Umpqua (The South Umpqua has a hatchery already).

IMHO, if we simply must have a consumptive winter fishery on the North Umpqua and main Umpqua I would prefer the hatchery program. Get all the hatchery fish to come up in January, let the meat hunters have their take, then get them off the river. The North Umpqua is the only river in this area where an angler (and thus a guide, or ten guides, or fifty guides) can reasonably expect to catch bright steelhead than can be retained from late February to mid-April. If there were intense retention pressure only during the hatchery run then I think wild fish would ultimately be better off. Plant the hatchery fish at Colliding Rivers so they'll (for the most part) stay out of the fly water.

I really hate to think of a hatchery program as the lesser of two evils, but if ODFW insists on a consumptive fishery, then I think a hatchery program is a better option.

[FLGator]

Done