The Grass May Not Always Be Greener, But the ‘Sides are Redder
Part I
"Let he (or she) who has not fished illegally ------Take the first cast!" Corinthians 7:11 (literal translation)

All we ever had to do to win the (Vietnam) war was tell them (Louisiana) boys that the North Vietnamese were good to eat, out of season, and the limit was two." (Senator from Louisiana)

There are supposed to be certain stages in the life of a flyfisherman. First, wanting to catch lots of fish, then lots of big fish,then the biggest fish, then the hardest fish, etc.. There are also inevitably certain intrinsic principles, such as the quality of the fishing is proportional to the number of miles you drove to find it; the quality goes down if you have to share it with otherstrange fishermen; and immediately cross to the other side of any river, if you can, before fishing it. This then is about that well known principle of
human nature,"the redsides are always redder on the other side (of the law, or river, or whatever divides you from it).
Some might think the following to be a confession; mea culpa, so to speak. Others might look on it as a revered remembrance. The most opportunistic will recognize it as a connoisseurs guide to some of the best forbidden fishing in the northwest. And, in the first case, totally guilt, if not panic, free!
Now I first must explain that breaking fishing and hunting laws was not something that was actually encouraged in my family. But, it took only a very few trips as a child with my father and my great uncle, listening to their storytelling as we passed through one isolated town after another in Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, to realize that my father was on a first name basis, and not for social reasons, with every Game Warden in that region. That is not to say that he, or they, were so much flagrant game rule violators, which they were, but rather victims of a cultural time warp that was out of their control.
Being new peasant immigrants from Europe, where almost all fish and game was the property of the landed gentry and poaching for subsistence purposes was an accepted necessity, at least among

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