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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

As area lakes open for trout fishing some anglers have been breaking the law

Boaters motor across Waitts Lake in 2018. Trout fishing opened Saturday, but several anglers illegally got a jump on the season.  (Eli Francovich/The Spokesman-Review)

Some area anglers illegally fished for trout ahead of Saturday’s Washington trout opener.

As Randall Osborne, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife district fisheries biologist, prepared for Saturday’s opener, he said he encountered numerous groups of anglers illegally fishing. Over a period of three days, he encountered seven or eight groups of people fishing prior to Saturday’s opener.

“You know opening day is a big deal,” he said. “A lot of people wait and look really forward to opening day. And it’s very disheartening to show up at one of these lakes and here is someone that is starting to launch a boat or has a couple rods in the water fishing.”

Osborne said the most common excuse was ignorance, a defense he doesn’t give much credence, particularly considering the wealth of resources the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife provides anglers.

“You get up in the morning you should have two thoughts,” he said. “The first one is, ‘Hey let’s go fishing today.’ The second thing you should be thinking about is, ‘Oh, OK, once you choose your water, let’s see if it’s open.’ And that’s the piece that people are not doing.”

When he encountered folks fishing ahead of the opener, he said he informed them of the rules and they’d pack up and leave.

He did not report the infractions to enforcement.

“I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate,” he said. “I could spend all day doing nothing but calling enforcement.”

He’s also seen groups opening closed gates and otherwise ignoring closures.

As to the impact on the fisheries, he called the early fishing “essentially stealing” from those who wait for the legal opening.

Beyond simply removing fish from the lake, he said the scofflaws are also changing the behavior of the fish, making them more wary and thus harder to catch for opening day anglers.

“Don’t get me wrong, there are so many good people out there and it’s just the small number that I encounter that are not following the rules,” he said. “They kind of stick in your craw.”