My fishing boat costs tens of thousands. My fishing gear...thousands in total. My money invested into the local economy because of my fishing interests.....hundreds every year if not more. I obey ALL fish and wildlife laws. I pay all my license fees as a good citizen and fisherman should.
Now....if I, or anybody else, decides to keep a fish or two while obeying limits set by the people we've put in charge to monitor and enforce the laws....what is wrong about that?

Yes, Quadfather, you are so very correct. Awareness of how to best to preserve our Lake Sammmamish "native" Cutthroat fishery for years to come should be on everyone's mind that fishes this lake. People that participate in this fishery need to know these fish are NOT planted from hatcheries by the WDFW. They reproduce themselves and that is what gives them their "native" labeling. If a culture gets started on the lake whereby no attention is given to protecting and conserving spawning size fish, that in my opinion is the surest way to destroy this wonderful fishery. It will be a fisheries death which will occur in noticeable slices over time. When one considers the egg laying potential of a 15 to 20 inch "native" Cutthroat that is killed from the lake, killing and keeping fish of that size in meaningful numbers can vastly reduce the following years crop of young fish since such a fish will tend to lay 1,500 to 2,000 eggs into the gravel of a creek bed which flows into the lake. I'm not at all opposed to catching and keeping a very limited number of such fish, however, when I see videos that glorify a boat load of such fish, that type of action on the part of some individuals tells me he or she does not care about this very special fisheries resource. The bottom line here is that we each need to police ourselves to ensure a good future for the "native" Cutthroat of Lake Sammmamish.

You said a mouthful, Smelly Cat. We need more people like you who understand just how very precious the "native" Cutthroat fishery is on Lake Sammamish especially for those of us in the surrounding area who like myself don't have the means to do expensive travels to other parts of our state or to places like British Columbia or Alaska. Very frankly just speaking for myself, I would like to see the WDFW, King County and other agencies directing their full attention to the "native" Cutthroat fishery at Lake Sammamish rather than wasting their time and effort on the long standing Kokanee rehabilitation project which has gone absolutely nowhere over recent years. With that said, my guess is it will never happen given the high priority the salmon receive via the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. I think they view the "native " Cutthroat of Lake Sammamish as a huge threat to that on-going program. Would it not be wonderful if the powers that are in place could change "Issaquah Salmon Days" to "Issaquah Cutthroat Days". I know I'm dreaming, however, its a nice thought.

Sharphooks, while I am sure your sentiment is well placed in regards to moving attention and priority to the cutthroat population, but shifting the focus and efforts off of the salmon would only push more people on to Lake Sammamish. Dwindling Salmon opportunities is largely to blame for more and more pressure being put on Lake Sammamish Cutthroat. Fix the salmon problem, and you will fix the pressure being place on native stocks of cutthroat. People are going to fish, and people are going to retain fish. In the winter, there are very few west side lakes that have any type of trout bite. Sammamish happens to be one of those few. Constant marine closures for 10, 9, 8-1, and 8-2 make it so that those that want to fish, are going to do it on Sammamish. Get salmon back out in the sound, and you will get a lot of the people fishing the lake in the winter, off. Winter time Rainbow Trout fishing on this side of the state is pretty much non-existent.

Sharphooks, while I am sure your sentiment is well placed in regards to moving attention and priority to the cutthroat population, but shifting the focus and efforts off of the salmon would only push more people on to Lake Sammamish. Dwindling Salmon opportunities is largely to blame for more and more pressure being put on Lake Sammamish Cutthroat. Fix the salmon problem, and you will fix the pressure being place on native stocks of cutthroat. People are going to fish, and people are going to retain fish. In the winter, there are very few west side lakes that have any type of trout bite. Sammamish happens to be one of those few. Constant marine closures for 10, 9, 8-1, and 8-2 make it so that those that want to fish, are going to do it on Sammamish. Get salmon back out in the sound, and you will get a lot of the people fishing the lake in the winter, off. Winter time Rainbow Trout fishing on this side of the state is pretty much non-existent.

The difference in this case is the reporter, Sharphooks, obviously invited and doesn't mind the discussion. It's the unwanted harassment comments on other reports that will get a person banned.

I think your comments here are spot-on, Finfinder. I'll say a few more things about the "native" Cutthroat fishery on Lake Sammamish and then I will leave it up to the rest of you here to finish this very important discussion. The thing that I want to drive home real hard and effectively here is the fact that our WDFW needs to wake up and give consideration to imposing special regulations on the Lake Sammamish "native" Cutthroat fishery. I contend it can't be treated in the same way as a fishery with a 5 fish trout limit in northeastern Washington. It sits in the middle of a constantly growing population center which now contains several million people with more and more sports fishermen demanding close at hand fishing opportunities as the result of area fishing closures. Now please don't get me wrong, folks, nobody here should feel guilty of doing something wrong at this time by killing a "legal" limit of these wonderful and very special fish. They simply need to understand the consequences. With that said, I think if the WDFW does not recognize the negative impact of killing off spawning size fish in high numbers, then I think this fishery in due course will succumb to over harvesting and then it will disappear completely. I can easily agree with you, Finfinder, from my experience over many years of fishing Lake Sammamish (since the late 50's), speaking soley about the "native" Cutthroat fishery, the degree of good outings and the degree of outings with lower fish connectivity saw its first slump this past fall/early winter. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to blame it on all the intense publicity this fishery has received from many different quarters. I know as Mike Carey has so well pointed out here at NWFR, putting the so called "Genie" back into the bottle is not going to happen. The media world that we find around us is not going away. That being the case, I think the WDFW needs to quickly evaluate the prevailing situation and they need to put together some "special" fishing regulations to protect it. My suggestion for starters is that a 5 fish limit of "native" Cutthroat from Lake Sammamish should not include more than one fish which is 17 inches or longer. Those are the fish that sustain this fishery from year to year. And beyond that, I think this fishery should be "barbless" hooks only. On that issue, no matter how carefully one releases a fish back to the lake, the mortality rate with barbed hooks can be extremely high, so from that point of view, simply catching and releasing is not going to get the job done. And although a certain degree of mortality does occur with barbless hooks, its nowhere near the degree found with the barbed type. I think if we could start from those two special regulations that it would go a long way toward ensuring this fishery is going to be around for all of us to enjoy. Okay, I know I've said way, way too much here so I will close wishing all of you enjoyment on lake Sammamish.

I'm not so sure all people are short sighted...but the fisheries folks might be. And while it's a decent idea to self-monitor and practice C&R, we are not experts or fisheries biologists. Obeying the limits is perfectly ethical. We pay the state fishery people to keep track of such things and adjust limits accordingly. But.....it's a shame that as our human populations swell here in the Puget Sound region, the fishing degrades. This is an inevitable result of too many people and not enough resource. As for salmon, allowing indigenous people to net is idiotic in the modern age. We are all Americans and should all have the same rights and responsibilities. But that's not going to change. And as for the native cutts in Lake Sammamish and Washington? It will eventually be gone in my opinion...regardless of a few fisherman practicing C&R. I fished Lake Washington several times this past fall and into winter....not a single trout have I caught. I am contemplating a trip to Sammamish and will, of course, obey the posted limits/rules. But in all honesty I think the future for trout fishing in the region is dismal for native fish. Our future will be planted/raised trout and spiny rays. I won't even get into the salmon disaster in the sound.
Just my opinions.

@ripleyboy so because you pay people to do a job means automatically they will do so competantly? Also the govt used to let you rape/beat your wife, was that ethical because it was legal at the time too? People were paying lawmakers (via taxes) at that time too. Killing limits of wild trout is not ethical in 2018 no matter how much tax money you pay. 5 million people live in washington state. No body of water can support that anymore. Those days are long gone. I agree with you about kill nets. The fact that people still use them is absurd. And lastly just because a fishery is nearly depleted doesn't mean we should have a race to the bottom to see who can kill the last wild fish. I in no way mean any disrespect here, but i violently disagree with your logic on almost every issue.

"Indians" don't have an agreement regarding fisheries in washington. It's 2018 get with the times, its not ok to call them "indians" anymore unless of course your talking about people from India. Aborigional/indigenous are the correct terms.

"Indians" don't have an agreement regarding fisheries in washington. It's 2018 get with the times, its not ok to call them "indians" anymore unless of course your talking about people from India. Aborigional/indigenous are the correct terms.

Great points JoshH. I know that the cutthroat population in Lk. Wash has been one of the most studied in the state. Years ago the UW spent a ton of resources netting, marking, tracking, and studying these fish. I remember a couple of their findings: the main source of their diet is insects and sticklebacks - NOT salmon smolts . They also determined these fish were not territorial - they are wanderers - which explains why you would return to a hot spot shortly after a great day and get zippo! I can vouch for the unbelievable size of these fish as recently as the late 90's - early 2000's. '98 was filled with 4 - 6 pounders. Our biggest was over 8 pounds, and I'll never forget a picture I saw of a legitimate FIFTEEN POUNDER back then. The consistency of the huge fish was never the same after '98. I also remember a year after this time where the surface was dotted with dead sticklebacks. The research on Lk. Wash cutthroat has already been done by the UW. The WDFW would be well advised to look into it and conduct some current studies as well. This fishery is too precious to lose.

Yea the study from 2009 talks about the large smelt and stickleback population in Lake Washington, but no smelt and a very low population of stickleback in Sammamish.

The study I am referring to in regards to Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230729894_Differing_Forage_Fish_Assemblages_Influence_Trophic_Structure_in_Neighboring_Urban_Lakes

And a bit more.
https://nwifc.org/w/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/understand.jpg

My statement is in regards to you calling them indians. Indians are from india (who have no agreement regarding fisheries in washington state . The people that have part in the bolt decision are indegenous people/aborigional. Or if you must "native". But not indian or injin or redskin or squaw. Because that is ignorant racist BS . There now ive spelled it out for you. Its 2018 quit calling them indians.

Well they are wrong. They aren't from india. Therefor not indians. Ignorant is still ignorant regardless of the source. It still doesnt make it ok to call them indians. This is kind of like the "N" word. Some might describe themselves with that term yet its still an unacceptable obnoxious ignorant term that shouldn't be used.