Orr Named To Fish Policy Group

George Orr, former state legislator from Spokane and president of the Spokane Walleye Club, is one of 16 anglers named to Washington’s first Inland Fish Policy Advisory Group.

The group is made up of anglers from both sides of the Cascades selected by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department to help guide fish management policy.

“I hope we can make the department understand our needs,” Orr said. “One need is a warmwater hatchery in the state” to produce popular fish species such as walleyes.

“The department spends a lot of energy with salmon while warmwater fisheries go begging,” he said.

“As a group, I hope we can come together to protect water. If we do that, we’ll have room for all types of fish.”

Members - who represent fly fishers, and anglers who specialize in species such as walleye, trout and bass - met last weekend to set priorities for their discussions. The next meeting is set for July 7 in Ellensburg.

“I think that getting together representatives from different types of fishing groups will help us work out ways to get what one type of fisherman wants without sabotaging the needs of another type of angler,” he said.

Five other Spokane-area anglers were named to the committee, including Chuck Dunning, Frank Faha, Dick Lee, Dan Pfeiffer and Fred Shiosaki.

Disabled Vietnam veteran Jim McLellan of Tucson, Ariz., has received Safari Club International’s special hunter of the year award. McLellan, who can walk only with assistance, is a bowhunter who stalks his game by crawling. He expects to be filthy with South Africa dirt after his expense-paid safari, compliments of the organization.

Alfred Elder of Spokane has received the Citizen of the Year award from the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for his activity in preserving gun rights under the Second Amendment.

Lee Anderson, of Golden Valley, Minn., made the high bid of $67,000 for the 1995 bighorn sheep hunting permit offered for auction by Washington state.

Fishing in a lake near his home apparently helped Claude Fishburne win the $70,000 first-place award last weekend in the Bassmaster MegaBucks Tournament at Lake Murray near Columbia, S.C. Fishburne caught 10 fish totalling 27 pounds, 7 ounces in the five-day $474,000 event.

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