I walked from Bonnie Lure to the confluence on Monday. I won’t go into detail about what I saw (one could assume) but I will say I’m glad they closed it.

 

I'm not going to suggest or debate the merits of shutting that section of river down. But I'm kind of surprised they don't leverage the outlaw behavior and just write tickets. Seems like it would be a great opportunity to generate revenue for the state game enforcement and use this as an opportunity to suspend fishing licenses of people that are abusing public resources. But maybe these folks that are not fishing legally are also not fishing with licenses? I have no idea. I just hate to see an area shut down just because of a handful of abusers. Seems like the general populace always gets penalized because of the bad actions of the misbehaving few.

 

They’d rather hand out tickets to legitimate anglers on the Columbia for barbed hooks. Those people are more likely to actually pay the fine than people who snag fish at Eagle creek.

 

This morning I saw a State policeman checking licenses at the “blacktop” - mouth of the Clackamas. I wonder if he was heading to the “ Bowling alley hole” next to check the 100 plus anglers there.

 

Hope so? That place is a mess. Everyone always trashes it too.

 

All in favor of that closure. The bridge at Bonnie Lure has always been a snag fest. Before the '96 flood we'd always walk down then upstream of the frog water on the Clack and come home with two limits everyday drifting a Jensen egg with a tiny gob of eggs.

Memories I'll always treasure.

 

I haven't fished down there in probably 20 years. So I don't have a bone in the fight so-to-speak.

My question is.... 'why not enforce the laws we already have'? Why do we need new laws (albeit temporary/emergency closure)? Not trying to start a debate here; just trying to understand why the existing laws are not enforced and the solution is to just create more laws. Just does not seem logical. I hate to see limited bank fishing access continue to get reduced because of a few bad apples and the fact that the existing laws are just not enforced.

 

Because guys at the bridge can't fish. Their only skill is putting a hook anywhere on a fish other than inside the mouth. That's why.

As far as enforcement of current laws, there isn't enough law enforcement officers available to spend day after day sitting at said bridge to enforce current law. That's why.

 

Never thought I would say this but I would be in favor of them closing that stretch permanently. There is not enough water in there for a legitimate fishery. It changed dramatically after the floods and it’s just been a snagging area for a long time. I hate to see access lost but when the only people accessing it are fishing unlawfully…

 

Odd, I’ve only ever seen the snagfest going on in the park itself.

 

There are no "fishermen" there. Just a bunch of low life snaggers. They should close it until the first of the year. Those people need to get hung by their balls on a pole. I hate snaggers.

 

They should just close that section permenantly.

I'll quote Obi-Wan;

"You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany"

 

The part that bothers me and I'll probably get flamed for this....... all those hatchery fish are now going to be wasted. Who paid for them? I'm all for protecting natives if there is such a thing but aren't hatchery fish stocked so they can be harvested? If you can't fish ethically or unethically for them then why bother raising them?

 

No flaming, only that section is closed, there plenty of other spots above and this closure actually has me tempted to do just that.

 

Its a real bummer, I've gone down there plenty an throwing eggs/plugs/spinners at the mouth is plenty productive. I stopped fishing the area because the snaggers would tangle my gear constantly and look at me like I was the a**hole. I've walked out at dusk many times and seen head lamps walking in. Not enough to snag in the day, seems like a nightime activity as well.
They would need a police station in the park to stop the BS that goes on in there. Until the penalty for snagging fish is big enough, they will continue doing it, and it looked like a family affair in most cases too. Unfortunate that their kids grow up thinking this is how to salmon fish.