I'm sick and tired of seeing snaggers operating openly on the Feather, American and Sacramento rivers with seeming impunity. At a time when the spring run chinook and steelhead are in the process of being listed as endangered or threatened by the state and federal governments, while the winter run chinook of the Sacramento River and coho salmon along the California coast have already received endangered status, it is simply amazing that these law-breakers would be abusing our salmon resources like they are.

Jim Zanoco, an Oroville area angler and fishing guide, told me that the snagging problem is the worst he's ever seen on the Feather River in all his years of fishing.

"Anglers are snagging salmon like they're going to a runaway sale at a discount store," he said. "Right now I'm fishing as low as I can in the river to stay out of the mess in the afterbay area. People are getting out of hand, going as far as having sinker throwing contests between boaters. It's like a time bomb that's getting ready to go off." "The bank anglers are also being real rude, with no courtesy," he said. "They're line snagging fish constantly with beads and hooks on long leaders."

Although he said that the area game wardens are doing their best to deal with the problem of illegal fishing methods and overlimits of salmon, the amount of people breaking the law is taxing the capacities of both the DFG and local law enforcement agencies.

The solutions to this problem will prove complex. For one, it's difficult to cite somebody for snagging unless they're caught in the act of doing it. However, there are some things that can be done.

First, Zanoco suggested closing the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet hole for 250 feet below the outlet. I believe that this might solve part of the problem, but the problem is that it would penalize the legitimate fishermen as well as the law breaker, thus closing access to everybody. Right now, access on so many areas of streams is denied to anglers throughout the state that it would be one more spot that anglers would lose. I don't think this would solve the problem because many of the snaggers would move downstream or elsewhere.

Second, anglers should call CALTIP when they see people violating Fish and Game laws, rather than engaging in a potentially violent argument on the river. Call 1-888-DFG-CALTIP.

Third, I believe that the DFG leadership could call together a special task force, like those that broke striper poaching rings on the Bay and Delta over the past several years, to stop poachers in action in the Thermalito Afterbay outlet. After maybe a few hundred snaggers are cited for breaking the law, they might learn how to fish legally like conservation-minded sportsmen do.