To make my position clear, I am concerned with the DFO's mismanagement of salmon and steelhead stocks, and I believe they are a major factor in the problems we face today. However...
We should be providing continued pressure via legal means (letters, meeting with MPs, MLAs, media attention, protests that don't break laws, etc.). My concern was the message it was sending to "occasional" anglers, and those who don't follow fishing news too often. The protest fishery sent a message to BC anglers saying that if you don't like the law, you don't have to follow it. Even worse, it was sanctioned and lead in part by Fred's Tackle. Fred's regularly deals with occasional anglers all the time, and was encouraging everyone to participate. To me, that is a poor use of a position of influence. Anglers who care about fish stocks, regulation, and laws should do everything in their power to promote compliance, not defiance.
Rules can be changed without breaking them. Remember that we're not fighting for civil rights, or women's suffrage here (ie, things worth breaking laws over). We're fighting for recreational fishing opportunities-hardly something worth staging a public show of defiance over.