Not sure why this never occurred to me before, but I think (fear?) we're answering our oft-asked question of why WDFW seems to favor boat fisheries over bank fisheries, right here, in this very discussion:
Bringing the boat means you're injecting more money into those aforementioned local economies (in more markets, too) than bank walking. More money for the gubmint, too, cause you have to register your boat and trailer EVERY YEAR. I bet
that explains why they like their anglers in boats so much....
That certainly is a logical factor but not the only one. Another key ingredient is access. Saltwater? Used to be seasons were open literally year around and there were small boats available for reasonable rent everywhere and fish were available to those small boat/motor fishers. With the loss of those boat houses, reduced numbers of publicly available ramps, and a myriad of openings/closings one needs to be mobile both as to launch point and speed on the water.
Rivers? Bank access is being restricted by owners to include WSDOT and the railroads and WDFW has not kept up on obtaining and/or maintaining launch sites so river boaters are pushed to bigger and faster sleds.
Lakes? More of the same although WDFW won't stock a lake that doesn't have public access of some sort.
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