Welp, it's happening permanently. I guess I should be happy we're getting an extra weekend out of it.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/feb1115a/

As a resident of Bellingham and an avid blackmouth angler, I an truly, truly devastated at the MA7 closure. Arguably, the closure is for artificial, bureaucratic reasons and not because there is any real danger to fish.

A HUGE swath of our accessible saltwater wilderness is now off-limits for 2 1/2 months! Our rivers close in February, Puget Sound and the Strait are distant and/or very exposed to winter weather...this is essentially the death knell of fishing opportunity for those of us up in the San Juans region. And these are the months we need it most!

Pumping lakes full of stocker trout, and saying we can still go out for greenling and flounder are not appealing prospects for the serious angler.

Is not WDFW mandated to provide opportunity? We've been dealt nothing but bad news over the last year. And the San Juans region has been hardest hit: Steelhead smolts going into lakes, the Skagit closed to Steelhead for TWELVE YEARS and now this. And while our opportunity vanishes before our very eyes, the fishing is actually pretty darn good.

Throw us a bone, will ya?