I feel for Bob, too... But I understand why WDFW can't afford to make exceptions in this particular case. They simply don't have the personnel to patrol all the rivers and check boat anglers to make sure they qualify for an exception, and you can bet plenty of non-qualifying people will take advantage of that circumstance and count on the high likelihood they'll never get caught.

This is not a knock on WDFW; they ARE underfunded and can oly do so much with the money they have. Especially considering the catastrophic circumstances our state and local governments are about to suffer due to COVID-19, it's absurd for anyone to expect them to "find" budget to pay for enforcement of a rule that applies to an EXTREMELY small contingent of the angler user group. If the rule is "No fishing from a floating device," nobody fishing from a boat has a legitimate reason to be doing so, and that's the most realistic enforcement scenario possible.

The spirit of the rule intends to reduce encounters with endangered or threatened fish. I absolutely think we should do everything we can to make sure disabled persons have access to any reasonable opportunity, but in this case, NOBODY should have any opportunity to fish over the fish we're trying to protect in those lies that are supposed to be sanctuaries. Lest we forget, there ARE accommodations in place for anglers who are disabled and can't afford boats to fish from or guides; some in some pretty choice spots. I don't think this screws over the few disabled anglers much more (if any more) than it does the many non-disabled recreational boat users. Seems fair enough to me, IF the goal is to protect fish, as opposed to individuals' ability to catch them.