La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

There is only one area of the North Fork of the Skagit River used by the tribes for gill netting. It is from Blake’s Resort downstream of the mouth.

The tribes have found the river above Blake’s Resort to the forks is not conducive to netting because of the snags and underwater pilings driven in the 1920s and 1930s on both sides of the river for produce loading docks.

When the Hatchery King season is open for king salmon above the Mount Vernon bridge for hook and line fishermen it should also be open for the North Fork from Blake’s Resort to the forks: There is no conflict between tribes and sport fishermen in that six mile stretch of river because the tribes don’t fish there.

The Department of Fisheries is asking for input to their fishing regulations from sport fishermen, but this same suggestion has been ignored since the Boldt Decision and any change beneficial to the non-tribal fishermen would be a surprise indeed.

Denny Sather

Mount Vernon