I have wondered in the past how many people have been scared away from a potential hobby by our fishing regulation?

I will always remember a guy I met several summers ago out fishing locally for searun cutthroat.He was retired from Hawaii,and had fallen in love with hiking the beaches casting for sea runs.He was genuinly exited.

Then one summer day the gamie came to do their thing with the clamdiggers on one of those summer extreme lows.My friend also happened to be out enjoying his retirement and there paths crossed.I was across the narrows riding my mountain bike just watching the game warden.From afar I could tell that my fishing buddy was getting upset with the game warden as the gamie was shuffling him towards his rig.I raced throught he colleage across the bridge to the park just in time to see the gamie drive off and my friend standing there with a broken pole and a dumfounded look on his face.

Turns out that somewhere in the regs there is a rule that to fish for searun cuttys in the salt you must have on your possecion both fresh and saltwater liscence and my friend only had the salt.Yay he got a ticket and I havent seen him since.


It has been awile but this rule was to seperate sentances on two differant pages in the booklet.

It seems everytime the wdfw mismanges to the side of the comercial then the sporty gets a new batch of "rules"