Steelhead Report Card Full

[Larry S]

Shawn,
Understand what you're saying. I used to turn mine in at the local DFG office when I bought a new license. It
no longer accepts them. A friend of mine has gotten letters reminding him to send it in. He filled out last year's
over the Internet and is now getting warnings(?) that he forgot to enter the "hours" fished. Remember the early years?
You didn't send it in unless you received a letter from DFG. We'll probably see the hatcheries place a bar code
on each smolt soon.
Are your OP rivers fishable?
Best,
Larry S

[T-Ball]

we must fill out the card prior to commencing fishing and if you fish a different river in the same day then you are required to make a separate entry for each! Totally asinine.

Not sure if anyone noticed but last year they split the Mad river into different reporting zones. The fish ladder at the hatchery is now the dividing line and one shall mark their card twice if they fish above and below the hatchery in the same day.
Charlie

[KillBill]

T-Ball, thanks for the heads up.....didn't know that!

[JAWallace]

I know what I am about to say is against the law and anybody taking my advice is subject to a ticket. But when I lived in California I never filled out my card. It's not likely you will get a ticket for not filling it out. I was checked several times on the Russian and Eel and they didnt even ask to see my card. They were more interested if I had a barbless hook or not. In WA they or will cite you for not filling out your punch card if you don't fill it out after you have killed a fish. I subscribe to the theory that all hatchery fish must die a painful death.

I don't know if I'd take that risk right now. DFG is perpetually underfunded from the state, and is on a mission right now for income. They are tagging anyone they can find. They are focused on the salmon poachers right now but that's about to change as the run is winding down fast.

[ycflyfisher]

Shawn,

I’d agree 5+ years ago if you didn’t have all your i’s dotted and t’s crossed, but you had the card, unless you were stupid enough to talk yourself into a ticket, most sensible wardens would simply tell you to fill it in and they’d let the issue go. Things have definitely changed. I don’t fish as much as I used to, but still need to get several report cards a year. Everytime I’ve had a conversation with a warden in the past 3-4 years they’ve checked everything. Once I got off with a warning for not transferring the license number info to the report card and vice versa (the card was otherwise filled out). Once I got off with a warning for not filling out movement from the T to the Klamath on the same day. And on another occasion, one of the new fresh out of the academy wardens on the lower Klamath wrote me a ticket for being in possession of multiple report cards while the one I was currently still fishing off of still had several blank spaces left on it. Being in possession of multiple unfilled report cards is now apparently illegal and most wardens seem to be enforcing the regs to the letter. Had I not had a rapport and a past history of compliance and exchanging of information with the other wardens, I’m pretty certain I would have gotten a second or even a third ticket.

Even the old warden from Happy Camp who patrols the mid river section whom I’ve had numerous conversations with over the years who I never remember ever asking to see a hook or a card, started checking for enforcement. He was extremely apologetic that he was asking for that info. It definitely seems to me to be a management directive.

I personally don’t have an issue with the requirement of more data being recorded because I know they utilize that data to refine CPUE and other things. It does seem to be rather curious that the “card” went from being about 6 inches in length to about 27 feet long and there’s still only 30 spots on the card. For the last several years, anglers have petitioned the PPRC process to get more than 30 spots on the card. Comments are always noted, never rejected.

It also would definitely would help if they got rid of the fast fade, thermal printing.

[JAWallace]

The increased enforcement and paperwork is also a reflection of our litigious state. DFG is constantly getting sued by environmental groups, and save the earth fly fishing groups too, apparently. That's one reason we now have a statewide triploid requirement for truck trout. Plant a brown in a stream and a dog gets sick from eating the eggs and *poof* no more brown trout planting programs for the forseable future.

Funding is complicated too. Locally we have the Nimbus Hatchery that is 100% federally owned and funded next to the AR Trout Hatchery which is almost all state and user fee funded, and Region 2 with a little of both but mostly state. The federal funds are categorical, and the state funds are always under fire as to which department gets how much. So, the fines become significant income. Combine that with 58 cube dwelling state attorneys demanding full documentation on everything including warden patrols, and it does not make for a warm and fuzzy regulatory agency.

[Tim P]

This post got the better of me - I cracked open my license holder to find out what's in there, and lo and behold...

... a blank 2012 steelhead card.

Irrational January exuberance, I suppose.

Right about now I'd gladly trade for a full card even if it meant that I had to provide the DFG with a wheelbarrow full of data. Practically speaking, I don't know how the DFG/NMFS is to supposed to understand angler effort and harvest without it - guesswork?

Perhaps in a perfect world, there would be field biologists on every stream in the state, every day, doing research so that recreational anglers wouldn't need to be bothered by 40 seconds of effort per day of fishing. The only time I've ever seen anything approaching that though, was on water controlled by LADWP - and they too were responding to a lawsuit on that specific piece of water - 12 biologists in less than a mile of creek (see LocalCenter's comments)

yc - always the voice of reason - thanks for your post.