Proposal Deadline Nearing

The Fish and Wildlife Department, now seeking public input for the 1996 fishing regulations, will get an ear-full.

Many anglers are unhappy with present regulations and will express their opinions.

They had better hurry. The deadline for submitting proposals is Sept. 1, and the department is asking persons who want changes to submit their opinions on a special “proposal form.”

Howard Gallion of Moses Lake likely will suggest that the state try its best to eliminate walleye populations by removing all size and catch limits on the species and stop raising and planting walleyes in many lakes and reservoirs.

Gallion is convinced that walleyes are decimating the populations of other game fish, including perch, trout, crappies, bluegills and bass.

He blames walleyes for eating perch, bass and crappie fry at the Potholes Reservoir and Banks Lake. Mike Meseberg of the Mar-Don Resort doesn’t blame the walleyes.

“You should see cormorants clean out small fish in a bay,” he said. “I’ve seen 100 to 300 cormorants work on the crappies and other fish, and when they’re finished, there are few left.”

Pelicans, he said, also are effective predators: “They’ll herd the minnows into the shallow water and eat all of them.”

Maybe Mike Mielke, owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, will suggest the Fish and Wildlife Commission require anglers to release all bass they hook at Sprague - and perhaps a few other lakes and reservoirs - during the spawning season.

“You can’t kill all of the spawners and expect to have a thriving bass population,” he said. “When adult bass are spawning, they’re extremely vulnerable.”

Bass fishing hasn’t been as good this year as in the last few. So far, no one is publicly blaming walleyes for the perceived drop.

Anglers fishing for bluegills at Sprague the last few years usually caught a few smallmouths. Not this year.

Catch-and-release bass fishing during the spawning season is required in several states, including Idaho. All bass hooked at five Panhandle lakes during the first six months of each year must be released. The lakes are Anderson, Chase, Granite, Hayden and Kelso.

Inasmuch as bass don’t spawn until water temperatures rise above 60 degrees, some Idahoans wonder why they can’t keep bass the 3-4 months of each year.

One of the regulations that fly fishers are almost certain to challenge is the one for Bayley Lake, a fly fishing-only lake on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge. The state’s fly fishers were stunned to learn early last year that regulations for the lake had been changed to permit anglers to keep two trout more than 14 inches long. The fly fishermen had assumed that the limit would be only one a day.

District fish biologist Curt Vail said he is recommending that the limit for next year be one brook trout between 12 and 16 inches or one rainbow longer than 16 inches.

A tiny lake that’s planted with only a few hundred trout, Bayley is highly susceptible to over-fishing. Because most trout in the lake are more than 14 inches long, it’s possible for meat fishermen to decimate the trout population. When the fishing is good, it’s easy to catch two keepers.

Vail also said he is recommending that tiny Muskegon Lake be designated fly fishing-only for next year.

To express an opinion, write for a “proposal form” to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sportfishing Regulations Committee, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501; or call 1-509-360-2700.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review