This has been a pet-peeve of mine for almost two decades. I usually post a rant on this BB every February.

There is no reason to allow folks to catch and keep an important fish species such as smelt without a fishing license. That should be the bare minimum. WDFW could establish a 'smelt only' license if they were concerned about it. I certainly hope they require a fishing license for all smelt dippers. It's long overdue.

And....... recall that smelt are ESA listed. It's really difficult comprehend that anyone from anywhere on the planet can harvest about 10 pounds of this ESA listed species, daily, in the State of Washington without a license. No limit on the number of people who can participate, and no way to know how many people are actually participating.