Proposal Angers Anglers

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Washington’s anglers don’t like the Fish and Wildlife Department’s proposals for the 1998-99 sport fishing rules requiring the use of barbless hooks for fishing the state’s rivers and marine waters.

And numerous anglers who have fished Columbia River tributaries above McNary Dam think the department went too far when it closed the Wenatchee, Methow and other tributaries to steelhead fishing.

The naysayers made their opinions clear at a meeting of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission last weekend at the Doubletree Inn. But so did anglers who believe that most of the department’s proposals for next year are good ones.

As a result of all the testimony, department officials told commissioners they’d take into consideration anglers’ concerns and come up with revised recommendations in time for the commission to make a final decision during its Jan. 23-24 meeting.

Before the commissioners heard anglers’ comments on the proposed fishing regulations, they made some decisions that will please bear and cougar hunters, anger animal rights groups and require trappers to use padded foot-hold traps.

They reduced the cougar tag fee from $24 to $5 for residents and the bear tag from $18 to $15. The department recommended the fee reductions to offset the anticipated drop in bear and cougar kills as the result of the passage of Initiative 655, which ended the use of hounds when hunting the animals.

As for the proposed fishing rules, if department officials expected widespread support for some of the major rules changes, they were disappointed.

Representatives of most of the state’s bass and walleye clubs politely but emphatically told the commissioners the proposal to require barbless hooks would make the use of bait virtually impossible, require each serious angler to crush the barbs of hooks on scores of lures and discourage non-resident anglers from participating in bass and walleye tournaments.

The department said that “requiring barbless hooks in all fisheries will enhance and encourage wild release programs in response to Environmental Protection Agency concerns, and in conjunction with the Wild Salmonid Policy and bring consistency to the rules.”

Several representatives of bass and walleye clubs told commissioners that their clubs are unalterably opposed to a barbless hook rule.

Chuck Dunning of Spokane, president of Walleyes Unlimited of Washington, saying he spoke for many of the state’s walleye clubs, contended that a barbless hook rule would require anglers to modify all their lures.

“If you’re a warm-water fisherman,” he said, “your ox is being gored.”

All walleye and bass fishermen have big investments in lures, he said. Many have five to six boxes full of lures that represent investments of hundreds of dollars.

He said that requiring barbless hooks would virtually end bait fishing for warm-water species as well as the salmonids. No one yet, he asserted, has devised a simple way to keep bait on a barbless hook.

Several other anglers who fish for warm-water species echoed Dunning’s remarks. One even contended that bass fight so hard that they couldn’t be caught on barbless hooks, a statement that evoked derisive remarks among steelhead and trout anglers in the audience.

A commissioner of a southeast Washington county, saying he opposed a rule requiring barbless hooks, told the commissioners he wasn’t threatening them but proceeded to hint that he and others would go to the Legislature if such a rule is passed.

At least a half dozen anglers, among them Boyd Matson, outgoing president of the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club, told the commissioners the club supported the proposed barbless hook regulation for trout and steelhead anglers.

Hugh Evans, an Okanogan County angler who has fished for steelhead for 35 years, criticized the commission’s closure of Columbia River tributaries to fishing to protect wild steelhead.

“You’ve completely taken away our opportunity to fish for steelhead in the Methow, Wenatchee, Okanogan and Entiat rivers without a demonstrated need,” he said. “When the Methow was closed to fishing, Pateros, which is at the mouth of the river, became a ghost town.

“We would like a limited catch-and-release fisheries.”

Both resident and non-resident hunters will benefit from the reduction in bear and cougar tag fees. Residents have been paying $18 for bear tags, non-residents $180. Fees next year will be $15 for residents and $150 for non-residents.

The biggest savings will be for cougar tags. The resident fee will drop from $24 to $5, non-residents, $360 to $50.

Department officials believe that cougar tag sales will jump dramatically.

Cougar populations seem to be increasing dramatically, with the cats being spotted frequently in many parts of the state. Wildlife officials hope cougar kills will increase, but a few biologists doubt that will happen.

Besides requiring trappers to use padded foot-hold traps, the commission also cut the trap check time from 72 to 48 hours.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

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