The runs are nothing like they used to be. All the old timers are gone and now you have a fleet of $50,000 dollar boats being pulled by $65,000 dollar trucks all trying to catch a Salmon like the one they caught last year in a guide boat.
They feel that they deserve that fish since they put out a ton of money and when I net one right behind them that they missed in a 14' aluminum boat made in 1960, they don't understand it's the knowledge I've gained from 40 years learning from the old guys.
Those old timers are gone... now WE are the old timers!! Glad you are willing to share with a new member and carry on the tradition! Today I guess they call it "paying it forward", us old guys just call it "sharing" and don't have to make up new terms for every dadburned thing.
This is not the first time that I've read on here that the fishing is not what it used to be... makes me want to stay in my lil corner of the state and put up a big fence to keep others out. We don't have a fishable salmon run, but the Chamber of Commerce, and others, keep promoting how great the "Oregon Alps" are... my old backpacking area. I wish they wouldn't do that. Having hordes of elk hunters cross over into the woods is..... you get the picture.
I miss the Checto and Rogue River fishing. My friends that live there say there is still a fish or two to be caught (Rogue has springers, chinnok, winter and summer steehead but Chetco only chinook and winter steelhead). But apparently it's not as good as when I lived there in the late '80s and early '90s.