FORKS — Some West End fishing guides are planning to protest Quileute net fishing Thursday, saying ongoing Quillayute River harvest by tribal members proves they “don’t care about the fish runs.”
Guide Pat Graham, who is organizing the planned protest, expects between 10 and 15 guides, mostly members of the Olympic Peninsula Guides’ Association, to be on hand for the afternoon. Other sport anglers may also show up.
“We’re not doing it against the state, we’re just doing it against the Indians,” Graham said Tuesday of the planned illegal fishing in protest of tribal netting. “We don’t plan on keeping any fish, we just plan on fishing to get a point across.
“If the Indians are going to be able to net, then we should all be able to fish.”
But Quileute Tribal Council Executive Director Walter Jackson believes if sport anglers are upset with anybody, it should be state officials.
“The state is the one that shut them down,” Jackson said.
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The rest of the story appears in the Wednesday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.