Fishing is a sport to me and has nothing to do with food or economics. I can easily see how a person who relies on fishing for food can have different feelings towards fishing.

I do feel that both the sportsman and the subsistence fisherman share a lot of the same respect for the animal.

count, If you lived in WA ST. during the Bolt years, you should understand what I am talking about. I can remember specifically that sportsman were very concerned about the threat to runs posed by netting on the Chehalis River system. The tribe causing the problem were the Quinaults who had their own hatchery on the Quinault River. They not only netted their river, but went outside their boundary and excessively netted the Chehalis system to where the Satsop, and the Wynoochee runs were threatened. The Sportsman got the provision passed that they would hook and release Salmon on those threatened rivers, and the natives said, "We do not play with our food" If you don't want your portion, and want to let them go, we will add them to our totals. And that's a fact. This fly fishing thing is to provide them another source of income...guiding, and Lodge ownership I believe.

Those were depressing times for me. My life along with my wife's was into that Salmon/steelhead fishing. The Bolt decision consumed hours of my day every day. Even the lousy decision was interpreted extremely liberal in favor of native, commercial netting. And I know the argument from the other side of the isle. But that is the first time I heard that description said of anadromous fish...."they are not to be played with." The Natives held the upper hand, and wanted all the allocation if the sportsman was going to let his portion go. I had the hairiest boat ride of my life on the Satsop. Put in below the dam, and had to float down river in my small, jetboat fishing for Summer-run steelhead, because the water was so low. We got almost to the takeout, and there was a massive logjam above the takeout. Pushed the boat upriver to a fork, and tried to get down it, and no chance. Button up the hatches, strap everything down, and up river we went, just missing stumps, through bushes along the bank, and made it back up. Before the run up, I got out, and went to a home looking to borrow a chain saw, and try to cut my way through the jam. The takeout ramp was Black?.Black Creek?

"the natives I talked with could also understand the rationale behind my catch-and-release ethic..."
What about the another natives?

"Playing with your food" was a concept designed by Native American lawyers wanting to take a bigger piece of the harvest pie. Sportsman, over the years, would catch far less than their allotted half of a salmon run on the WestCoast, while the Natives took well over their half, and then more for "ceremonial" purposes which amounted to a take threatening the existence of runs of salmon up the rivers to spawn. The Sportsman said they didn't want to kill a portion of their allotment choosing to hook and release fish. The Natives said, "Fine, if you don't take them, we will include them on top of our allotment. The Natives set the definition of fish as food, and not to be played with.