Gitxan call for ban on catch and release on the skeena
- Thread starter cohochinook
- Start date
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
I see steelheading is mentioned how ironic. Just remember all those groups were briefed by someone. Wonder who?
IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
Bob Hooton's Take on The Matter: https://steelheadvoices.com/?p=1957
Poppa Reelie
Well-Known Member
Lots of FN pissed off at the eyes on the river and photos taken of the massive net hauls. I have taken a few myself of massive nettings that could feed a city.
Keep the river open to catch and release, it helps moderate the amount of illegal activity that any other group or persons may do.
Keep the river open to catch and release, it helps moderate the amount of illegal activity that any other group or persons may do.
bryce
Crew Member
They don’t give a **** about conservation
You nailed it they want less eyes on the river
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting that Gitxsan video, Wildman.
I sat through the entire presentation. While doing so, I took StormTrooper’s “9 Tips” and kept them firmly in mind while listening to the points of view expressed by all the gentlemen sitting around that table.
I had my reasons for hearing these guys out.
Every year since 1976 I have gone to the Skeena Region to fish. In the 70’s I arrived in August and left in December—-no kids, no mortgage, no income...just a deep love for the Skeena and all her tribs. I camped out in the back of a pickup truck with my girlfriend and looking back at that period of my life, I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy and carefree.
In the early nineties with the advent of the internet I saw things rapidly start to change. It was no longer the idyllic place where you could spend a full day on a stretch of river and never see another soul. That all changed with the internet....One morning I saw a fist-fight on the Kispiox over who would get first water... that was a clue where things were headed.
In the late 90’s I lost spots one by one—-I’m a loner and one person on a stretch of river is too much for me. I resorted to driving farther and farther distances, hiking deeper into more remote canyons, just to preserve the experience I had grown used to in the 70’s and the 80’s.
Then in the new millenium, I forgot what year it was, I took my daughter to a spot on the Kispiox I’d been camping in for almost 30 years. I wanted to show her that place, mainly because she took her first steps as a toddler in that field 25 years ago.
There, in the headlight of my truck, I saw a huge sign hammered into a tree announcing the $ 100 per day fishing fees and $ 100 per night camping fees, compliments of the Gitxsan Band.
During that same trip I had a few drinks with a friend of mine who had become a guide. I bemoaned the New World Order—-having to pay a steep fee on top of the $ 250 I had already paid the BC Provincial Government really rankled me.
Reading in between the lines of what he told me, I figured out that he and a couple of other guiding outfits had helped push those fees into existence, then as a group they cut the Gitxsan Band a check to guarantee annual access to their Holy Waters.
It was a deft move: leverage daily fees to keep alien non-guided anglers from competing with their clients on the best water of the Kispiox, do an under the table deal to maintain that exclusive access for their guided clients, knowing that a dirt-bag like me would never pay $ 100/day—-I’d leave and not come back, which is what I did.
Then I heard the story of the Bass Pro guys who reportedly paid “research fees” and funded “biological studies” to maintain access on the lower Ecstall for their buddies so they could fish bait over endangered Ecstall springs.... I’m guessing that someone and his best 3 buds probably all bought new pick up trucks with those research fees...
So the talk I heard in this Gitxsan video was no surprise. The FN have sat back and watched the metastisized growth of the sports sector for decades. As long as they were left to gill net in peace, the two groups more or less put up with each other.
But still the lodges grew....out-of-Province groups started snapping up land and building even more lodges. Downtown Smithers became grid-locked with trucks towing jet boats at the crack of dawn.... it was clear something had to give... I literally saw an un-broken line of trucks and jet boats last year while leaving town....I lost count of how many there were
So what do the Gitxsan want?
If you peel back the layers of the onion, it’s pretty clear they want what’s left of the resource. In times of plenty there was peaceful coexistence with the sports sector. But the times of plenty are now behind us and now, they want it all back.
I’m guessing that if you sit down with them and bring up the $ 30 - 35 M in lost tourist revenue this agenda will promote in Terrace, Hazelton and Smithers, and remind them there will be huge unemployment and a possible recession if the tourist trade is lost, they’ll remind you that huge unemployment and a recession is the normal way of life for their people.
I sat through the entire presentation. While doing so, I took StormTrooper’s “9 Tips” and kept them firmly in mind while listening to the points of view expressed by all the gentlemen sitting around that table.
I had my reasons for hearing these guys out.
Every year since 1976 I have gone to the Skeena Region to fish. In the 70’s I arrived in August and left in December—-no kids, no mortgage, no income...just a deep love for the Skeena and all her tribs. I camped out in the back of a pickup truck with my girlfriend and looking back at that period of my life, I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy and carefree.
In the early nineties with the advent of the internet I saw things rapidly start to change. It was no longer the idyllic place where you could spend a full day on a stretch of river and never see another soul. That all changed with the internet....One morning I saw a fist-fight on the Kispiox over who would get first water... that was a clue where things were headed.
In the late 90’s I lost spots one by one—-I’m a loner and one person on a stretch of river is too much for me. I resorted to driving farther and farther distances, hiking deeper into more remote canyons, just to preserve the experience I had grown used to in the 70’s and the 80’s.
Then in the new millenium, I forgot what year it was, I took my daughter to a spot on the Kispiox I’d been camping in for almost 30 years. I wanted to show her that place, mainly because she took her first steps as a toddler in that field 25 years ago.
There, in the headlight of my truck, I saw a huge sign hammered into a tree announcing the $ 100 per day fishing fees and $ 100 per night camping fees, compliments of the Gitxsan Band.
During that same trip I had a few drinks with a friend of mine who had become a guide. I bemoaned the New World Order—-having to pay a steep fee on top of the $ 250 I had already paid the BC Provincial Government really rankled me.
Reading in between the lines of what he told me, I figured out that he and a couple of other guiding outfits had helped push those fees into existence, then as a group they cut the Gitxsan Band a check to guarantee annual access to their Holy Waters.
It was a deft move: leverage daily fees to keep alien non-guided anglers from competing with their clients on the best water of the Kispiox, do an under the table deal to maintain that exclusive access for their guided clients, knowing that a dirt-bag like me would never pay $ 100/day—-I’d leave and not come back, which is what I did.
Then I heard the story of the Bass Pro guys who reportedly paid “research fees” and funded “biological studies” to maintain access on the lower Ecstall for their buddies so they could fish bait over endangered Ecstall springs.... I’m guessing that someone and his best 3 buds probably all bought new pick up trucks with those research fees...
So the talk I heard in this Gitxsan video was no surprise. The FN have sat back and watched the metastisized growth of the sports sector for decades. As long as they were left to gill net in peace, the two groups more or less put up with each other.
But still the lodges grew....out-of-Province groups started snapping up land and building even more lodges. Downtown Smithers became grid-locked with trucks towing jet boats at the crack of dawn.... it was clear something had to give... I literally saw an un-broken line of trucks and jet boats last year while leaving town....I lost count of how many there were
So what do the Gitxsan want?
If you peel back the layers of the onion, it’s pretty clear they want what’s left of the resource. In times of plenty there was peaceful coexistence with the sports sector. But the times of plenty are now behind us and now, they want it all back.
I’m guessing that if you sit down with them and bring up the $ 30 - 35 M in lost tourist revenue this agenda will promote in Terrace, Hazelton and Smithers, and remind them there will be huge unemployment and a possible recession if the tourist trade is lost, they’ll remind you that huge unemployment and a recession is the normal way of life for their people.
Last edited:
Similar threads
