Clint's chart is interesting though. Fishing down river on 2000, I was using an old lead 5 and two 3/0's (way more weight than I like but way more water as well). This adds up to 4.62 grams. I was legal where I was fishing, but would not have been up in the zone. But I routinely see people with larger shot than 5's and more of them than 1 lobbing away up in the zone, even at lower flows. And at 2000, this says you can't be 1/4 up, mend to sink,bottom bouncing into the swing in the zone, which then necessitates casting further upstream and allowing more sink, which then means I will probably do better with the Stonefly and rockworm type flies I hear so much about (and I've been carrying caddis pupa ties for over 20 years on the SR, but only using them in pretty skinny water), and a thingamabobber, which seems to be the most popular rig in the zones, than I will swinging wets, ironic because swinging wets is the traditional method for steelhead on the west coast (of course, no shot is allowed on many of the west coast rivers). It also means that it would be a good idea to weigh lengths of common weighting wire, and beads and other "eyes" because some of those barbells and things look as big or bigger than a 5, and even with lighter material in the eyes, addition of any shot could get you into the over 1/8 area when the fly is also carrying weight. And how much does a 1/0 Octopus weigh, all flies on the river have to be less than 1/8 ounce additional weight, and we've seen at least one report of an Encon officer taking that to mean the fly can't weigh more than 1/8 ounce? I've often wondered how these rules got "cooked" as I don't recall any comment period or preannouncement of any of this, but it would all be unnecessary except that many folks just had to over weight and start ripping even up in the zones. And as Pa says, I've never seen a hand held balance come out of a uniform pocket up there. Also, with much more than a couple of 5's, an errant cast catching you in the back of the head (or catching someone else in the back of the head) can be very painful.
L13