I would be in favor of a statewide barbed hook ban - we do have enough studies to show that barbless hooks kill fewer released fish. I pinch my barbs down pretty much by habit for everything - I do a lot of saltwater fishing where it is required anyway. Barbs don't help the fish stay on at all unless you are in the habit of slack lining your fish all the time. I have been fishing barbless on the Columbia all spring chinook season - I catch at least a fish a trip, 90% wild, and I can't make them come unhooked even if I try.

I would also be in favor of a ban on trout fishing in anadromous waters - I know the rules more or less prohibit this already with the large minimum size and wild fish release, but still there are people "trout" fishing all the time - killing and releasing smolts in blissful ignorance. If this were outlawed then fewer people would be doing it and a few that do might even get caught.

I think a minimum hook size is appropriate also - nothing smaller than a #2 in anadromous waters. A big hook is not as likely to get swallowed by a smolt, and if barbless will do little damage most of the time.

I'm not in favor of banning bait - there is no evidence that more fish are killed biting a bait than anything else. And from personal experience a big chunk of bait on a big hook does not catch near as many smolts as a small rooster tail - I too was once ignorant of the anadromous life cycle when I first moved over here from eastern WA as a kid. Finally, if we ban bait how will anyone ever catch a sturgeon - never heard of the artificial that will catch one of those puppies, outside of perhaps dynamite or a lead-wrapped treble.