Steelhead Numbers 16-17

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I do not have a problem with Joe Dupont as he is a nice guy and does a really good job. When I started fishing around Orifino in the fall of 1984 and subsequent spring there was only one guide on the river and he was fishing a boat that was 15 years old. There were a lot of boats with a huge proportion of them being 12 to 16 footers mostly props. It stayed that way for a decade but now there as many as 15 guide boats in a five mile area some days and most of the services have tripled their boats in the last ten years. I and others on the bank have been yelled at when we start fishing from the bank nearly a half mile below drift boats running divers and schrimp. Putting in at the bar at pink house there are six or seven boats lined up waiting for clients. Some boats have eight or nine people on board with two people tying rigs and baiting up the customers. Most of these boats are very expensive some running as much as a couple hundred thousand dollars. Most regular people cannot afford the 200 dollar plus tip daily guide fee's for the power boats. A very high % of the clients are there because of business or customer related tax write offs in scores of different industries and commercial ventures. These people are not buying much fishing gear and are no more valuable to the towns economically than the scores of boats that used to fish it back in the day. When is the escalation of the continually added commercial boats going to stop? Back in the day around north fork on the salmon only so many guides were allowed in a designated area and we need to find a way to get back to that on the Clearwater. I had some of my best fishing on the Clearwater a couple years ago when keeping fish was prohibited for most of the fall and spring and look forward to a poor run to scale back quides. My personel information is available with a click on these boards and as one who has fished the Clearwater as much as nearly anyone the past thirty two years I am to see the continued three of four guide boats a year added to this thirty mile river.
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