Washington Outlaws Steelhead Fishing from a drift boat or raft!

[yubaman]

This was announced 2 days ago for all Coastal Steelhead waters under WDF & W jurisdiction. This went into effect yesterday. Fishing from bank AOK, you may only use the drift boats as transportation. After 4-1-21, ALL fishing is prohibited on Coastal Steelhead waters until further notice. Holy Cow! WHOA!

This maybe the future . . .



Bob

[Mr T]

Curious as to the rationale for the closure?

[John H]

Declining abundance of wild steelhead seems to be the rationale. Seems like this may not fix that problem but what do I know.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/news/state-announces-changes-coastal-steelhead-recreational-fishing-season-meet-conservation

[JayDubP]

A friend in WA state said prohibiting fishing from all boats/rafts/kayaks/inflatables, etc was needed so the WDFW could put in their biggest restriction- no bait and only a single, barbless hook.


Here is section for WDFW press release-

OLYMPIA – Fishery managers with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) today announced restrictions to sportfishing in rivers throughout the Washington coast to protect wild steelhead populations.

The restrictions will begin Dec. 14 and are expected to last through April 30 and affect all sportfishing in coastal tributaries. Among the changes:

Fishing from a floating device is prohibited.
Selective gear rules are in effect prohibiting the use of bait (including scents or scented materials), except only one single-point barbless hook is allowed.
Anglers must release all wild rainbow trout.
Updated closure dates for listed rivers.

Existing hatchery steelhead limits for these rivers remain in effect as listed in the 2020-21 Sport Fishing Rules Pamphlet. Anglers must release all wild steelhead.

[Rossflyguy]

This will hurt drift boat businesses if it sticks. Might as well make it fly fishing from boats only since it’s not as effective as gear setups. How can they justify this when fish numbers are more impacted by other things. Guess it’s easier to take the rights away from fisherman than to give corporations restrictions. First it’s hatchery reduction and now it’s restrictions on how to fish. Crazy.

[JohnR]

But gill netting at the river mouths is still OK, right? Asking for a friend.

Grrrr....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The only hope for wild Steelhead and wild Salmon is to keep taking down as many dams as possible in BC, WA, OR, ID and CA.

Many will stop fishing for Steelhead with these new WA regulations because it will be too hard to catch fish.

This will not really affect Spey fishers that much.



I am for eliminating all hatcheries, but others won't like it. Hatchies a not good for the wild strains of fish.

Long term hatchies don't work well anyway.

The choice is do we want to save and bring back wild salmon and wild Steelhead?


I would rather have my grandchildren and great grandchildren be able to wade in a river and catch a wild self sustaining Steelhead.

_____________________________________

Native Americans should only be catching fish for subsistence for their personal family's use.

Big jet boat and big synthetic nets were not part of their heritage.

If they want to commercial fish they need to go by local laws.

_____________________________________

If you feel differently about any of this it is OK with me but don't tell me how to think and feel.

I fished the Nor Cal river with a fly over 50 years ago with mostly wild Steelhead and that is what I want for the future.

[Mark Kranhold]

Many rivers in BC have this law too! Use your boat for getting run to run and swing away, It’s all good! Hopefully they will have a clause in there for disabled and elderly persons.

[JayDubP]

This will hurt drift boat businesses if it sticks. Might as well make it fly fishing from boats only since it’s not as effective as gear setups. How can they justify this when fish numbers are more impacted by other things. Guess it’s easier to take the rights away from fisherman than to give corporations restrictions. First it’s hatchery reduction and now it’s restrictions on how to fish. Crazy.


I was told the WDFW's real goal was to eliminate bait and to only allow single, barbless hooks. There are many more people who use conventional gear than there are people who use guides--- so WDFW had to give the majority (gear people) something in exchange.

Jim

[JayDubP]

BIll- I agree with what you posted, but the problem & solutions are even more complex.

British Columbia has declining numbers of spawning fish- on rivers where there has never been a dam; no tribal fishing and even on no pollution. BC has very tight regulations on sports fishing for Steelhead and Salmon-- and still is seeing declining numbers of spawning fish.

Off shore commercial fishing is another big part of the decline in number of fish.

[Bkane]

Mostly affects the drift boat bobber guys. Spey casters will be unaffected.��

[WLREDBAND]

The spey fishing community pushed hard for this restriction. No doubt about it. And therein lies the rub. When the spey community pushes for restrictions that impact their own community also (they have not done so yet, it's always the "other" guys fault) they may gain a bit more credibility with other user groups, to share the burden of conservation that they also are contributing to, who may then be more accepting of restrictions that are probably needed. Just sayin'.
<<<Mostly affects the drift boat bobber guys. Spey casters will be unaffected.>>>

[JasonB]

There is a fairly robust discussion on this over on Speypages, which includes some specific opinions from anglers a bit more involved in the overall process. My highly abbreviated take is that it won’t fix all that’s wrong with anadromous runs on the OP, but it’s better than either a complete closure or doing nothing at all. There are more detailed thought here from myself and others (who have far more first hand knowledge):

https://www.speypages.com/threads/op-bank-fishing-only.404221/

[stefanoflo]

believe the tribes gill nets are ok .as floating devices are banned .

[ricards]

Much of the problem is pelagic: The warming of the oceans and the decline of food sources that salmon and steelhead depend upon. Global warming is a much harder fix, I'm afraid. Still, we should do everything that we can, inshore, to prevent further declines. Bill Carter has some excellent observations on this in his book "Red Summer." Highly recommended reading.

[Rossflyguy]

Much of the problem is pelagic: The warming of the oceans and the decline of food sources that salmon and steelhead depend upon. Global warming is a much harder fix, I'm afraid. Still, we should do everything that we can, inshore, to prevent further declines. Bill Carter has some excellent observations on this in his book "Red Summer." Highly recommended reading.

Doing things inshore but allowing open season in the ocean isn’t gonna help anything. The sockeye hatchery alone (Russia, Japan, others) makes it hard for many others to compete for food on top of commercial boats from MANY countries. You can’t have spawners if they don’t return.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yes, there are huge super high tech commercial fleets from many countries out there vacuuming up all the oceans "protein".....

I am sure with all the new technologies they can find our salmon out in the open ocean.