Recommendations Deadline Nears

Should Hog Canyon and Fourth of July lakes be opened to catch-and-release fishing a month before the regular season opens on Dec. 1?

Should selective fishery lakes be opened to fishing the year-around? Or should catch-and-release fishing only be permitted for a month before and after the regular season?

Should the walleye limit for waters other than the Columbia River be cut to three a day, with no size limit?

Those are just a few of the recommendations that fishing clubs, anglers and others are submitting to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for the 1986 fishing season.

The deadline for submitting recommendations to the agency’s Sportfish Regulations Committee is Sept. 1.

Fishermen, it seems, want fishing opportunities expanded, but they still want the kind of limits that will protect fishing populations from overkill.

For anglers who like to fish in open water, opening the winter fishing lakes to catch-and-release fishing on Nov. 1 each year would provide an opportunity to get in some fishing before ice fishermen take over the lakes.

As most anglers who fish during winter months know, both Fourth of July and Hog Canyon either are capped by ice on Dec. 1, the standard opening day, or iced over a few days after they’re opened. Consequently, spin and fly fishermen who do all their fishing in open water don’t get much of a chance to hook a few fish when the lakes are full of trout.

Most fly fishers either want the daily limit for Bayley Lake, a fly fishing-only lake southeast of Colville, cut to one trout a day or the lake be designated a catch-and-release lake. Until a couple of years ago, the limit was one brook trout between 12 and 16 inches or one rainbow over 16 inches. Two years ago, the limit was increased to two trout over 14 inches.

Bayley, a tiny lake that is planted with only a few hundred trout a year, is susceptible to over-fishing. Fly fishers believe the present limit of two a day makes it possible for anglers to cut deeply into the numbers of trophy-sized brook and rainbow trout.

Several different proposals are being made for management of Amber Lake, a selective fishery water. Some anglers would like the state to extend the catch-and-release season through Nov. 30. Many are in favor of designating Amber as a catch-and-release lake and keeping it open year-round.

The lake is now open to the killing of two trout a day from the last Saturday in April through Sept. 30 and to catch-and-release fishing in October.

Several fly fishing clubs and numerous anglers are recommending that selective fishery and fly fishing-only waters be opened the year around for catch-and-release fishing. Some fishermen want seasons for the waters lengthened.

Fly fishers say some major insect hatches peak before such lakes as Lenice, Nunnally, Dry Falls and Ell are opened in late April.

Anglers also argue that the presence of spin and fly fishermen at the lakes will discourage poaching. Each spring before opening day, particularly at such lakes as Lenice, Nunnally, Dry Falls and Ell, wildlife agents arrest many poachers. But the agents say they catch only a few violators.

Almost certain to be controversial is a recommendation by the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club that the Spokane River from Upriver Dam to the state line be restricted to catch-and-release fishing. Mark Pinch, the club’s Spokane River project leader, said catch-and-release fishing is necessary to rebuild the trout population.

Many walleye fishermen believe that present regulations for waters other than Lake Roosevelt target spawning-age fish. Only walleyes 18 inches or longer can be kept. The Spokane Walleye Club, wants the daily limit for waters other than the Columbia be cut to three a day with no size limit. The club doesn’t want regulations for the Columbia River system changed.

Cutting the limit to three a day, the club’s members believe, would cut down the killing of spawning-age fish in such lakes as Sprague, Soda and Long lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.

Walleyes Unlimited, political action arm for six walleye clubs, is waiting for all clubs to make recommendations before taking action.

Recommendations by anglers, clubs and others are the first step in a five-month-long process that will culminate next February with adoption of the 1996 regulations.

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