Our BOF

Last Sunday, May 17th marked the 30th anniversary of  our friend Les catching that fish, the I.G.F.A. world record King Salmon. I've blogged about his catch before at this time of year. But the anniversary passed this year without much hoopla, I guess the town is like me, just kinda wondering how we got to this point where I'm not out fishing on 17th like I did for 28 of the last 30 years. I did it every year and I miss that. I really never expected to get as lucky as my friend Les but in my world just to be there, the same place , the same time, the same lure, every year....well that's magic of it's own.  I can remember one May 17th when I was trolling 'the Place' ( Honeymoon Cove) with Chris Simmons. A really young kid in a fancy boat named Casey Millepsy was new to the river and trolling next to me and asked if he was fishing in the good water. Out of respect I guess he was quite a bit on the outside of me and we often fish closer so when his prop fouled the bottom I said "mmmm, not really, you need to be in a little deeper water". ( Casey turned into and excellent guide and a neat young man )....but the reason I tell that story is those things are what we laughed about for years, it's what Casey, Chris  and I shared, it's what sport fishing is really about.

Us fish people have just  been astounded lately by the dysfunction of our Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF).  The BOF consists of 7 members that usually have fish type backgrounds are appointed by the Governor and then confirmed by the Legislature. They are big Ju-Ju, they make bag limits, fisheries allocations (both commercial and sport), new regulations and in general they are supposed to manage all the fisheries to remain healthy...well good luck with that deal.  Just recently a friend of mine who is by all standards the most qualified appointee ever with a fisheries type degree and fisheries habitat background failed confirmation. And never mind that he's sharp, articulate and honest.  Why ? Because, he wasn't enough of a sportfish advocate for some people when the board is historically divided into 3 commercial seats and 3 sport seats and one subsistence seat. That make up alone is a formula for grid lock. So to use a musical analogy just what kind of music would a guitar like this make ????

I went to my first BOF meeting in 1985 so I'd say there's few people around that have the institutional experience I have on this wacky way of trying to do things, and try is about all that happens. For years the show has been run by advocates for their user groups so it's a parry and thrust kind of deal. A little like when Hawkeye told Radar " their ringer just spotted our ringer". So now you have to be an advocate...but not too much...just right...ahh....Well let me tell you about just a few of the clowns we've had watching over the hen house or trying to. I'll just use first names here, to protect the .....well you know.

Roland.... what a guy. He was the head of a commercial fishing group and with a fisheries degree of some sort he thought he was qualified to not only be on the BOF but maybe even Director of the Dept of Fish and Game. So When the Governor appointed him to the BOF as a campaign payoff a reporter I'd guess looked into him after they had an exchange over Roland's claim that he discovered the Bull Trout in the Lower 48....well....it turns out Roland claimed residency privileges in Montana as well as Alaska. He plead guilty in Montana to false fishing and hunting license residency  and was fined 7500.00 and lost his hunting and fishing privileges in all the Western States that work together in these kind of cases. So, that makes him a cheat, maybe a liar. But we don't know yet what Alaska will do but seems to me that if  he took our Permanent Fund checks fraudulently, well I guess he'd also be a thief.  Just the guy we need on the BOF.

Bix....ahh so many years ago. He was on the BOF and cocktailed his way into an agreement that if the commercial guys on the BOF would vote for his proposed closure of our local commercial fisherman after a quota of 2500 Kings where caught....well he'd return the favor and vote for what they needed in their local area, and they did it.  I was sitting there as the vote took place and the Chairman of the BOF who was of course a commercial fisherman gaveled a recess and looked like he was going to puke. Well, the new regulation after a year or two of protest and procedure discussion (as well as a little legal work) got thrown out and so did Bix.

Tom...BOF member Tom was the President of the Alaska's largest Sport Fishing Group.  I knew this guy really well and when I asked him why he voted for an allocation of King Salmon in Southeast Alaska that gave 87% of the salmon to the commercial guys he replied " I got some chit's to call in".  Well, in Jeff's world there's two problems here, it's illegal  and HE DIDN'T CALL THEM IN.  Once during a complicated discussion about the math of setting escapement goals he put a number out for the BOF and when asked how he came to that number he said " just a little modern math, ya know, algebra".

Debra...BOF member Debra was so commercial fishing based that she just didn't seem to understand any of the wonders of sport fishing....maybe even the wonders of any kind of fun. At a break she told me that commercial fisherman feed their families on the fish they catch and sport people, well. it's only about fun so what has more value ?......mmmmm.....I bought her another beer, with sport money.

Jim....Now this was not BOF but it illustrates the system we're working in. I'll never, never, never forget when the 'Blue Ribbon' committee met to make the Kenai River a 'special management area' of  the State Parks system. One of the big issues with the public was to limit the number of guides ( and it should have been done) but.....Jim, a commercial fisherman when asked if one avenue of restriction was really fair he replied " we're not here for fairness, we're here to set regulations".

So that's just a sample, a small sample to fit this blog. Sometimes things just don't make sense....How's about something you've never seen before like this, three gal's on a pig. Ya know  you ladies have it going on....ever thought about getting into fish politics ????