Often, the rules governing fishing in the state’s many freshwater laters, rivers and streams can be as murky as winter runoff.
But last week the Fish and Wildlife Commission of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife took steps to clear up the regulations.
The Commission approved changes to the Washington freshwater fishing rules in order to simplify them.
According to Steve Thiesfeld, the WDFW Region 6 Fish Program Manager and a member of the team tasked with simplifying the rules, the effort should result in a clearer understanding of the regulations by the public.
It has been a frequent complaint of many new and veteran anglers that the regulations made it difficult to avoid breaking the rules. The complex regulations were also seen as a deterrent to members of the public wishing to learn how to fish.
“This will make it easier for a kid or a new person to recruit into the sport,” Thiesfeld said. “That’s important if we want to have advocates for the sport in the future.”
The commission vote followed a lengthy process that involved WDFW staff developing the proposals and offering them to the public for comment. The proposals were posted online and the public was asked to comment both online and at a public hearing that was held in December.
After tweaking the proposals in response to the public’s comments and wishes WDFW staff presented the rules package to the commission which voted to adopt the new rules without any additional changes.
The new regulations will go into effect on July 1.
Some of the rules adopted by the commission include:
• Reducing the number of exceptions to the year-round lake season.
• Eliminating mandatory hatchery steelhead retention.
• Eliminating size and daily limits for eastern brook trout.
• Standardizing the daily limit and minimum size requirements for bass, walleye and channel catfish in the Columbia River (downstream of Chief Joseph Dam) and its tributaries, including the Snake River and its tributaries. This change aligns regulations on several rivers with a previously adopted rule that eliminated daily limits and size requirements for these species in most of the region.
A number of proposals were rejected by the staff and the commission after pushback from the public. Some of these include:
• Allowing chumming statewide. Chumming is the practice of broadcasting bait in order to attract fish. The commission voted to retain the status quo with existing exceptions that only allow chumming in select waterbodies.
• Eliminating panfish special rules. The rules will retain the status quo with existing panfish rules in select waters. Members of the public that often fish Moses Lake and the Potholes Reservoir expressed concern that eliminating limits on panfish species would reduce the amount of forge fish available for bass and walleye.
• A rule regarding fishing for trout with bait. This rule would have prevented anglers from continuing to fish for hatchery trout in stocked lakes and ponds after they had retained a limit when fishing with bait.
Some fisherman like to “upgrade” their limit by keeping larger trout and releasing smaller trout already retained. It was decided the new rule would have proven too difficult to enforce.
Enforcement was also one of the reasons for doing away with the mandatory hatchery steelhead retention rule on many Washington rivers. It was also reported that many anglers were releasing hatchery steelhead and then reporting those fish as wild to creel surveyors to avoid incriminating themselves.
The rule was very unpopular with anglers who had to travel to their fishing destinations. Many fishermen complained that after traveling a long ways to fish for steelhead they would be forced to quit fishing early if they quickly caught, and were forced to keep, a limit of steelhead. If allowed to release these fish they are able to spend more of their day fishing.
Some local fisheries were also made exceptions to the new rules. For instance, Coldwater Lake in the Mount St Helens Monument area will have a daily limit of one trout over 18 inches.
The new rules are expected to reduce the amount of regulations concerning freshwater fisheries by about 30 percent, and will undoubtedly ease confusion on the part of the general public. However, these new regulations will probably see changes in the years ahead.
When asked, Thiesfeld admitted that mission creep is a possibility. “Without a doubt,” he said. “This is not the first time we have gone down this road. The last time was about 30 years ago.”
Often new regulations are added because of concerns among the public, and that is unlikely to change. “As time passes people will forget that we did this,” said Thiesfeld.
The changes to freshwater regulations are part of a three-prong project. Next on the list are salmon fishing rules, which will be revised through the North of Falcon process. In the final year of the project marine fishing regulations will be adjusted.
Thiesfeld asks the public to stay involved with the process as it moves forward. Public input was important during the revision of the freshwater rules, and will be important for the rest of the project.
A full list of the new regulations can be found at the WDFW website at https://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2018/01/agenda_jan1818.html
