Bummer? Yup! Bummer that you are flat out wrong! Bummer that you fell for the propaganda about anglers needing to check the web or dial a hotline before each fishing trip. The WDFW might want us to or wish we might but in truth a huge portion of licensed anglers are not connected to the internet and cannot be required to spend $1.00 or more per fishing trip in long distance charges to listen to recordings on a telephone.

Many anglers do not catch every radio outdoors report nor do they all read the newspaper daily and, believe it or not, they don't check in with the local sporting goods outlet on the way to the fishing hole.

Putting the changes on the radio, on the web, in the newspapers and in the hands of retailers' helps to inform many of us but will never provide that information to each and every angler beyond reasonable doubt.

Fishing law violations are criminal and must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. When you buy a license you are issued a regulation pamphlet and if you take due care to read that pamphlet and follow the rules printed in it you have fulfilled your requirement to act within the law.

Most enforcement officers are instructed to issue warnings and informational handouts to offending anglers apparently not informed of rule changes. That is because convictions for such violations would be nearly impossible to get.

Now you see why they must post any changes at the access where they intend to issue anything more than informational warnings.

None of my friends have been issued tickets for violations of changes because they choose to be informed and obey the law but if some of your friends suffered such a fate they should have had the guts to take up the matter with the courts. Then again they may have had hearts of liver. Bummer huh!

Let me make it clear that I DO NOT advocate breaking the rules and playing dumb as an excuse. I simply wish to point out that in this area the system needs repair. It is simply unrealistic for the managers to make as many as 200-300 rule changes in a year and expect to orchestrate compliance.

The "Fishing in Washington" pamphlet consists of 134 pages of rules without the errata or the hundreds of changes included. It would seem obvious to the layman that the WDFW has developed into a monstrosity of bureaucratic administration with the pomposity to think that they can micromanage not only their fishermen clients but mother nature herself.