Like many of you, I have paid attention to the situation of our fisheries in our State for a long time. I’ve participated directly (hundreds of hours of interactions) and in-directly (Campaign to bring more transparency to the process), in hopes of making some small difference for the better to our fisheries.

After some long soul searching, I’m wondering if it’s not time I wake up and see the truth? The truth that we will never see our sport revive to any degree, nor see any substantial improvements if things continue as they are.

Drifter brought up some very valid points in his post under the WInter Steelhead Escapment post. I’d like to add a few more that have a negative impact on the fisheries in general and more specially, any real chance of recovery.

In my opinion, we are circling the drain, and all we can do is post talking points and discussions on boards to each other. True, there are some small victories, but in the larger picture, the Sports Angler is being bulldozed over, and there is very little we can do.

We have State Representatives and Governor who are on the take. By that I mean they sell themselves and their values to the highest contributor. Unfortunately, we all know where a lot of that money comes from.

We have a Department that is bloated with leadership who encourage a culture of secrecy and bend over backwards to appease commercial and tribal interests.

We have a Commission who has become nothing more than a front for the departments attempt to trick the Sports Anglers into thinking we still have some say in the fisheries management decisions.

We have Fish advisory groups, or fish mafia as they are know. They get involved behind the scenes and make deals, to who’s benefit. Sometimes, their participation actually muddies the waters. And who are they supposed to represent, us? The sportsmen did appoint them.

Also, we have a number of groups, organizations, associations and clubs who refuse to work together for what ever reason.

I apologize in advance if I stepped on any ones toes here. I know a lot of guys put in a lot of hard work trying to make a positive difference. I don’t mean to take anything away from those efforts. I’m just doing some self soul searching and, at least for me, the future of hope for any substantial recovery is bleak.

Even with all the recent failures, catastrophic miss steps and the abundantly clear message of dismal fish returns there is still no paradigm shift to business as usual. All the signs point to continued demise of the fish we all love, and the citizen sports angler is going to continue to take the hardest hit.

As Einstein stated: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I don't disagree BW. I've had a couple of similar conversations this winter with long-time friends over here on the Eastside. Essentially we commiserated that we got to see "the end of the glory days", and we were lucky to of experienced it.

I booked a trip to the Situk this week...

NOF is little more than 6 weeks away... and still no meeting schedule posted on the DFW website.

Just saw on Fb that Ted's Sports Center is closing its doors end of the month. Sign of the times

Time to get out the little violin and play a sad song while the obese lady sings.

It's hatchery fish who are to blame.
LOL

This probably won't be the last one either.

I honestly don't know how the fishing/hunting retailers in this area can stay in business. I haven't been to Fisherman's Marine or Sportsman's Warehouse, or Cabela's in a couple years. No need to when fishing is really bad, and there is no incentive to get out. Why buy anything new when there isn't anything around to catch? I'm certainly not wearing out my existing tackle by catching all those fish.

My catch card has exactly one steelhead on it this year. No salmon. No halibut. Nothing else.

And given the dismal run-size forecast for 2020, I may not buy a fishing license this year (April), for the first time in my adult life. I know this hits the retailers hard (and WDFW), but I'm not sure it's worth the effort or expense.

He has been threatening to pull the plug for a couple of years and with his departure will there be anyone between John's Sporting Goods in Everett and Outdoor Emporium (the latter being an insane choice given its location)?

Sad to see the small shops disappear.
I hope Mike enjoys his retirement.
SF

I booked a trip to Canada. Not sure if I'll buy a license here. I'm sure I will. I'm also not sure why.

I bought a used sled in 2018, just bought new tubes for my cataraft. I've fished more the past two years than ever before and although it's been tough going outside of the peak run timings I'm still having a good time.

Ya it's looking a little dismal but I'm enjoying sharing the sport with my wife and friends.

I appreciate the effort you and others have put in BW.

MMMMMM, isn't that strange !!!!!!

We(3 of the local GH people) tried to schedule a meeting to "talk about local summer/winter steelhead, access, parking, …. things that never get talked about at NOF. Emails from Region 6 but always along the line, "very busy right now".....or in other words "we just don't want to talk about it"

I even tried to get a response during a "recent call in" with Director Susewind, to some of the above topics.....but my comments weren't not mentioned...………..Wolf problem got the majority of the time.

I realize that many sportsmen love to fish summer/winter steelhead, I also realize that many rivers are completely shut down or numbers of plants are to low.....I can tell when fishing is xhitty in other areas...poor Wynoochee, Satsop, and Humptulips, are "bumper boats, guide and sportsmen" or 15 to 20 guide jet boats on these rivers......grrrrrrrr

I took off my rose colored glasses years ago. Too much fisheries politics, too many warring user groups, too many complex factors causing the collapse. It's all broken and it will never be fixed. The fish are never coming back.

Call that giving up or being a chicken little - I don't care. The truth hurts and each of us, as individuals, are in different stages of the truth grieving process.

As such, I've rerouted most of my hobby time, money and efforts into other areas.

Will the last fish left in WA, please turn off the river?

Sad state of affairs for sure. Have to be thankful got my kids in on tail end. Never would of thought I would have seen it happen in my lifetime. No grand kids yet but all they will ever see are the photos of years past.

If the fishing-related retail climate was showing reasonable signs of life, there would be someone stepping in to buy that business in a heartbeat.

But it ain't, so there isn't.

Tough times ahead for our sport.

Ohhhhhhh. I'm going to commit suicide!! I'm going to just take up miniature golf!! You guys are now where California was in the 80s. Our fisheries were in utter collapse. Many are still in dire shape.

My local river is the most ravaged steelhhead stream in America. And yet,efforts still continue to save these fish,a dam was removed,spawning in the upper tribs last year was at it's highest level since 2001. Maybe I'm naive , but I for one an excited.

The Klamath dams are set to come down. Didn't the Elwha see improvement within a couple years? Am I just retarded? That's cool if I am but this year I had my best trip ever to the Klamath,my pal and I hooking over 80 fish between us in 3 and a half days fishing. Maybe I have seen the end and watched river returns like the Eel rebound a bit,certain watersheds here that were logged to hell and back start to become healthier.

I ain't buying the doom and gloom. I know it looks dire. But really are you worried that "sporties" are getting the shaft,or the fish? Doesn't seem to be stopping people from having babies. Where are these people going to live? Exactly. Fife.

Every region has it’s own challenges, I think the ones in Washington are substantially different than California.

I’ve seen both the good times and bad times in prior decades, this decline seems to be far worse, with competing interests that can make up their own rules.

I only have so much time and energy left, I could have stayed and continued to fight, with little chance of success, or move on.

I live on the water again, I can catch trout that are as big, or bigger than the cookie cutter 5-6 lb steelhead at my old place, plus many other types of fish. I can do it year round with no special license or catch card unless I go for sturgeon. The Colville Tribe has even been releasing salmon above Grand Coulee dam in hopes of reestablishing a run.

Now that I’m over here I understand more about the wolf issue, right or wrong, it sucks a huge amount of money and time out of WDFW. The pro wolf groups tend to be even better funded from big west side money to tie things up in court. When you have wolves in your yard it gives you different perspective than from 300 miles away.

Over here the tribes have an open season on wolves and plant fish, what’s to argue with.

Think I’ll go home tonight and drink a 1/2 gallon of vodka and slit my friggin wrists. Thanks man!

Mike has been talking about pulling the plug on Ted's for as long as I've known him, and that dates back to the mid-80's. He did tell me, probably 20 years ago, that the bulk of his revenue comes from sales to Alaska. BUT, yes, it sucks as he often had gear the other shops lacked. But I guess you don't need to buy gear unless you just enjoy collecting it.

Shhhh! The net has destroyed many great fisheries!

Bay wolf,

I have tried most of my life to wear the glasses of objectivity. One of the biggest things that reduces the ability of sport fishermen to affect change is their habit to aggregate every thing that they see as being wrong and blaming WDFW for it. In this world there are things that are within our control and things that aren't. The same applies to WDFW. IMO it's counter-productive to blame WDFW for low ocean survival, as if WDFW or anyone else can do anything about that. Same goes for reducing hatchery production of PS Chinook and steelhead. They are ESA listed, and NMFS calls the shots and has required WDFW to change hatchery stocking numbers.

I think we're better off to criticize WDFW for the things that they have some or total control over. Take NOF for instance. The treaty tribes have the Dept. by the short and curlies and control non-treaty sport fishing in PS and tributaries. So why has it taken until the on-line meeting with Susewind a couple weeks ago for Ron Warren to publicly admit that yes, the tribes do call the shots, and that is likely to continue. This has been going on since 2015 that we know of.

WDFW currently depends on piggy-backing on the BIA ESA Section 7 permit from NMFS for all PS fisheries that potentially affect anadromous fish. As far as I know, WDFW has made no attempt to secure its own separate permit. And has no intention of doing so. What I hope to do is coalesce enough fishermen to pressure the Commission and then the Director to explain why they haven't or aren't trying to get their own permit. And since they aren't then explain to NT sportfishermen how our interest is served and not served by the Dept's. staying the course of piggy-backing on the BIA permit.

Develop truth; develop facts. These are the possible seeds of change. Ranting on the internet and shouting at the Director and the Commissioners isn't.

The Governor, state Senators, and state Representatives do sell their souls. They all do. It's what representative government has been doing since it began, and thus it shall ever be. Our job is to discover which of those souls can be bought by us, literally and or figuratively.

We have to pressure the Governor (probably useless), Commissioners, and Director to walk the talk of transparency. (At the Commission meeting last month in B'ham I asked the Commissioners to instruct the Director to ban the use of the terms "transparent" and "transparency" in all correspondence with constituents until such time as they actually walk that talk. Should have seen Susewind's expression!) Now that they know that we have ways of discovering the truth, I think there exists the possibility of a decrease in direct lying.

This arose from the Stillaguamish River closure that the Department insisted was necessary for Chinook conservation. This is a river that for the last 100 years has been most noted for fly fishing for summer steelhead and sea run cutthroat trout and no detectable impact to Chinook. So it came out that the reason for the closure was due to tribal demand that even the incidental hooking of one Chinook was just too much for them to tolerate and not because of too high of incidental mortality due to sport fishing.

Some in the Dept. are aware that if they are going down the path of closing entire river systems every time a salmon run isn't going to make escapement, then they are going out of business. And I'm doing what I can to drive that point home.

I don't blame the Commission for many of the adverse outcomes. Most of them have very little fisheries expertise, so they rely on Dept. presentations, which sometimes reveal only what they want to, and not the complete story. For the foreseeable future, I think it's our job to inform the Commission when they don't get the full story from the Dept. I do blame the Commission for back tracking on the Columbia River policy to phase out NT gillnetting from teh lower CR. I do blame the Commission for giving the Dept. cover for not complying with the Open Meetings Act when meeting with tribes at NOF. Mind you, I don't want to attend NOF meetings, but it's past time for the Department to include CCTV in the meetings, calling the tribes' bluff of walking out. What's the worst that can happen? WDFW doesn't get to piggy-back on the BIA permit. With all the closures, it's worth taking that hit and then taking the fight to NMFS for a permit (Section 10, most likely).

In all this, there are things we can do and things we can't do. I think there are things on the "can do" list that can effect change that can improve, or at least restore some lost fishing opportunity. It's not going to make the large salmon and steelhead returns of yesteryear suddenly reappear, because that choice is unfortunately not on the menu.

Sg

Perhaps it's time to give up buying a salt water license too. With the fee increases projected by the legislature it's not worth the time and money. You will be spending more for less when it comes to licenses.

Salmo g pretty much nailed the issue!

The largest driver in our angler dissatisfaction is the constantly shrinking pie that increasing numbers of fishers hope to share. That pie is shrinking as a direct result that society as a whole are making and will continue to make unless sufficient pressure is created to reverse that shrinking process.

There is plenty issues and action to take WDFW to task but to continuing to focus the blame for the shrinking pie on WDFW does little but continue to enable special interest to continue to erode the processes supporting robust anadromous fish populations.

Curt

Ocean conditions are not the greatest but why do the Quinault, Queets, and Salmon rivers get good returns? Why are NorCal rivers rebounding? There's alot of other factors that affect escapement like preditation of smolts by birds, other fish, marine mammals, etc. Overfishing may have something to do with it. Even hatchery practices like power outages, disease, smolt size. Regulatory affects like the ESA which limits amounts released. Habitat, logging practices, pollution... I'm not as smart on this as most of the biologists or those who work at the hatcheries here on this forum.

Rampant development, special interest groups, sportfishing $ that doesn't amount to anything in the grand scheme of things, and no unity of stakeholders killed salmon and steelhead fishing. It's deeply saddening to remember how good things were even 20yrs ago, and how fast it goes. I've made peace with myself that it's over, and time to move on. I believe there will be tokenary special opening salmon fisheries with quotas, where hordes of fisherman show up and reach quota in 3 days and it closes...a far cry from 2 month long seasons of the past.

Fishing in general will remain great for warm water species and trout, so not all is lost.

For those of you still fighting the good fight, thank you, however, life's too short to beat your head against the wall

The closure of the North Fork Stilly is what pisses me off. They could have easily made a floating line only and unweighted fly restriction on an already fly fishing only river. Then they leave the Tulalip Bubble open to any chinook, hatchery or wild, with a 2 salmon limit.

Steelheadman,

The Quinault, Queets, and Salmon get significant returns of hatchery salmon and steelhead because the Tribe stocks huge numbers of hatchery fish, using, wait for it - OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY (OPM). Although coastal rivers tend to get higher SAR (smolt to adult recruits) than either Puget Sound or Columbia River, the rate of return is also down out on the coast due to ocean conditions. If you go upstream on the Quinault or Queets from where the hatchery fish are stocked, you will find that returns of wild salmon and steelhead tend to be chronically under-escaped. So there you have it, the two reasons why those rivers are getting larger returning runsizes of hatchery, not wild, fish. Don't care about wild fish, and having a large amount of OPM to spend.

NorCal rivers are rebounding due to decreases in ocean exploitation of their salmon and gradually improving habitat in basins like the Eel River that was destroyed by massive flooding over 50 years ago in 1964. Also, the salmon and steelhead from those NorCal rivers migrate to and forage in a different area of the ocean than do WA salmon and steelhead.

You don't have to be especially smart to figure this stuff out. Just have information.

Sg

Now we know, it's all because the treaty tribes call the shots regarding what NT fishing seasons we get in PS and tributaries. And WDFW apparently has no plan nor intention to develop a plan to get out from under the tribes' coercion.

If it wasn't for my nephews asking me to take them fishing I probably wouldn't care and just stick to my BC fishing trips. Even a slow trip up there is better than no season here.

Has anyone heard if we will get the Skagit C&R season that we are supposed too or should I just plan a trip to BC now?

What I have heard is that WDFW does not have the money to enforce/monitor that fishery. Now, if we all go to the Leg, ask for higher fees, and such then they can give them the money to have the fishery.

Popular fisheries and popular hatcheries will now (as they have been on the past) listed on the "cut" list due to lack of money in an effort to squeeze more.

Am I alone is seeing how “transparent “ it is that hatchery and sports seasons/opportunity are the first to be reduced when the department talks about fee increases or else? Ummmm...how much of a salary increase did Ron Warren get for his ridicules “ appointment” to the newly created Director of Fish Policy position? Please...at least kiss me if you’re gonna $&@k me!

You are not alone...If you check my posts over MANY YEARS, you'll see that I think WDFW upper 25%, need to be thinned out. I can't believe how many NEW POSTIONS have been created in the recent past....

No to any budget increases, until the ships rights itself....if not then we all go down together...…

I am pretty sure that the practice of putting popular activities on the block has been going on since the late 80s-early90s and probably longer than that.

Ah GH early 80's with Simpson but Senator Owen put a stop to that. Forever in Willapa as every budget cycle Nemah or Naselle on the block for just about as long as Sid was in the Senate. I am sure it is the same everyplace. When it comes to budget ethics and honesty have never been high on WDFW's list .

I do remember one session, though, when the Leg fought back. Every salmon hatchery was line item budgeted. Which meant that WDF could not shift it around. That actually may be something that folks should consider when contacting their legislators. Make parts of the WDFW line item. Each hatchery, specific fisheries (put Skagit C&R as a line item, etc.). Kind of extreme, but if you can't trust WDFW to follow intent, don't give them the wriggle room.

Wonder how many in the upper management positions are close to retirement or could go at anytime?

Willapa Bay...…..Lot's of the above discussion/comments have to do with areas/river systems that have to do with co-management, WDFW and Tribal, closed meetings, tribal muscle used in negotiations.

Willapa is a classic of a policy gone wrong, wrong, wrong. Is there a fix????? Well "feed the Orca" might speed up the process.....Forks Ck. hatchery, Willapa River, will increase Chinook production "to increase food for the Orca.

I predict that there will be a fight for the "right to fish" for these returning fish.....Off coast toll fisheries, charter fisheries, sport fishing, NT gill net, tribal fishing will all have their hand out "for their share".

MSY, Maximum Sustainable Yield, needs to be put on hold for 2-3 cycles. What has been going on, MSY, is not working, time to go to Plan B.

WDFW seems to forget who they work for, taxpayers, takes PDR's to get information that should be given by a simple request. PDR's have cost WDFW big dollars over the years because they(WDFW) didn't feel or want the general public to know how the decisions were/are being made....shame on WDFW.

Brent K, Carcassman,

Regarding Skagit steelhead CNR season, Susewind committed to the Commission at the June meeting that he would find money for the 2020 season, but 2021 is contingent on the supplemental budget request in this Legislative session that begins tomorrow, Jan. 13.

WDFW is asking for $26 million supplement. $2.5 million is for "fishery monitoring." Inslee is asking for license fee increases. I'm asking everyone to bombard their legislators and especially those on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee every 2 weeks through the session. Tell them "no" to license fee increases because WDFW has been cutting sport fishing seasons when tribes demand it, not for conservation like the Department first claimed. Then tell them you support the additional $2.5 million for monitoring because without it many sport seasons will be closed. I'm also telling them that I oppose the remainder of the supplemental request because the Department keeps throwing sport fishing under the bus. I realize that several sport orgs and advisory groups are on board with the entire $26 million.

There are a lot of major changes I'd like to see at WDFW, but an experienced lobbyist reminded me that you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Which brings me to another point. How much money and time is being spent FIGHTING the stakeholders in the current ongoing lawsuit over Open Meeting Act Violations by the Department?

Seem's insane that, instead of correcting the issues and actually working with the stakeholders to be transparent, above board and bring EVERYONE to the table to really work on fixing the problems, they chose to fight in court to keep things secret!!!

We gave them every opportunity to "come clean". All we initially asked for was for a LIVE VIDEO FEED OF THE TRIBAL/WDFW NORTH OF FALCON NEGOTIATIONS! They gave a lot of lip service, all the while pissing on the over 9,000 stakeholders who have signed the petition to date.

Someone read the petition and started looking into things at the Department and as a result, TWO LAWSUITS are now working their way through the courts!

WHAT A WASTE OF OUR MONEY>>>WE ARE BASICALLY GIVING OUR MONEY TO THE DEPARTMENT FOR THEM TO USE IT TO FIGHT US IN COURT!!

WAY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO "BUSINESS AS USUAL" KELLY SUSEWIND!


If any of you have not yet seen, or signed the petition, please do. It is active and we are still fighting for our right to be an equal partner in Co-management!

CLICK HERE:Open North of Falcon Tribal / WDFWNegotiations

Also, Please follow Salmo's advice and reach out to your legislatures and those that are on the committees Express your frustration but be constructive and ask them to help. If you're one of there constituents, ask for a meeting. Go talk to them one on one and let them see how much you care about your sport and your fish.

In a conversation about something totally different that was mentioned. A number of folks are leaving and the years totaled between them add up to around 300. I know of 3 hatchery division staff that are going book out early on minimum age / service.

You think these guys now have no institutional memory? Just wait the skill level in the next few years after the boomers retire will make the present staff look like geniuses. Just sayin.

Bay wolf,

I hammered on that point at the Commission meetings in Oct. and Dec., that they shouldn't be making us pay for both sides of the lawsuits. I said when someone asks for documents or data, just give it to us. We already own it.

There's another Commission meeting next Fri. and Sat. I'm thinking of attending to ask them what their plan is to have the Stillaguamish River open to sportfishing in 2020, since they don't have one unless something's changed since last month.

Sg

Sg:

Shouldn't have to go to a Commission meeting for that information....SOMEONE KNOWS right now.

I kid around with Rivrguy all the time....WDFW has 5 days a week to have meetings, make decisions, plot, plan. etc. Many times the "ball" is fully rolling before the public is even aware "something" was/is going to happen.

why does this make me think of Ron Warren?

Uhm, maybe because Warren serves as policy advisor to Susewind . . .

Bitch bitch bitch.

Laughable.

Tacoma Power screwed over the people and failed to mitigate the Cowlitz.
No biggie according to some.

Now the bigger picture is kicking in and people have a problem with it???

Time to call the Wambulance.

Jim Georg had a good editorial in this month's issue of The Reel News.

HINDSIGHT IS 20 20

By Jim Goerg
Publishing Editor
THE REEL NEWS

www.thereelnews.com


To WDFW and ODFW:

With the new decade in front of you, you need to look back before
looking forward. In hindsight, the choices and decisions you made in the
past should be clearer for 2020, knowing what happened as a result of those
decisions and obvious broken management of our resources. 20 20 should
provide good vision for year 2020.

Just look at the upside-down doubled-up mismanagement decisions on
Columbia River fisheries. How about the debacle of salmon seasons in Puget
Sound? And then there is the ruinous collapse of recent crabbing seasons.

You know why.

You can't just guestimate fisheries on paper projections when, time after
time, year after year, those guesses go sideways. I question if "science" actually comes into the picture or if it fell completely out of the frame. Shred it for cripes sake!

When predicting and setting fishing seasons in Washington you've
allowed the co-managers to run roughshod over you and dictate who
is going to fish when, where and for what. Maybe their "science" is better
than yours?

And another thing…Where does your salary and funding really come
from? Not the co-managers. Not the commercial fishers nor their lobbyists.
It comes from sports and recreationalists that have their boots in the dirt.

You might want to put your glasses on.

2020 should emphasize the clarity of your past decisions as opposed to
the uncertainty before you made those decisions. If you knew back then what
you know now, wouldn't you rather go back and change your actions? Face it,
there were many, many bad decisions.

Were those decisions worth it?

Hindsight is 20 20. Do something about it. As for me, right now the only
hiney I want in my sight is mismanagement as it walks out the door in 2020.

Back in the 80s, the Fraser sockeye were managers by the IPSFC. Annually, they would meet pre-season and set up a season schedule based on forecasts. In-season, they would meet in person weekly and by phone as often as needed to go over updates. Took a majority to pass regs. Generally, it worked. Until, late one season the adopted schedule conflicted with both conservation and with inter-gear sharing. Because the votes could not be mustered, the "bad" fishery went as scheduled. The next year, the Commission changed the way the did business. Pre-season was "proposed" schedule, IF everything went according to plans and models. But, no fisheries were actually scheduled. Instead, to open, a fishery had to be adopted at a meeting, or it was closed.

WDF was managing salmon primarily that way. There were outside fisheries that, with few exceptions (dealt with by the Courts eventually) left plenty of terminal harvest. The only scheduled fisheries were those needed to update the runs. The rest had to be opened based on there actually being harvestable fish present.

It can be done. It just means that the season (July-December) can be rather high pressure for the managers. It was part of the job.

Sg where does one fine information on the Quinault, Queets, and Salmon escapement of hatchery vs native? I'm interested because some of my ancestors lived on the Quinault and used to trade with the tribes. The only information I know is what I read here, on FB, and in the mags. Have never fished these rivers but was told about the Salmon non tribal access. I know there used to be great runs of steelhead on the OP on the Dosewallips, Quilcene, Duckabush in the 70s. They pretty muched stopped planting fish but I don't thing they have great native runs anymore.

The Quinault Tribe does spawning escapement surveys on the Quinault and Queets Rivers. I don't know if WDFW does supplemental surveys or just accepts whatever results the Tribe shares. People who have worked for the Tribe swear that technical data is reviewed and doctored by policy members of the Tribe. Even so, wild steelhead escapement numbers on both rivers have averaged well below the state's escapement goal. The Tribe has lower escapement goals.

Since the Tribe marks only a small percentage of the hatchery fish they release, it's not possible to know how many wild fish and how many hatchery fish make up the spawning population. All I really know is that the reported escapements are less than the goals, generally.

I recently found out the Master Hunter Program is also on the chopping block. Not only do Master Hunters have to pay additional certification & license fees, they also have to perform a certain amount of annual hours providing education, habit restoration & wildlife rehab / monitoring to KEEP their certification. Plus they provide a community service by to helping reduce wildlife conflicts. These are ethical people that want to give back and pay for the right to do so....but nope, not good enough.

So it's not just fish. The WDFW is failing at everything. The budgeted monies they get today would be more than enough if it wasn't for the corruption, bureaucracy and bloat. If they were a private enterprise, they would have gone out of business long ago. Mismanagement 101.

Looking at things through my cynic-colored glasses, note carefully what is proposed for cuts. The popular things, the things that garner press, or programs that are in key Legislative Districts. Key in the sense that the members wield much power.

I taught my whole career.....During School Levies, school bonds, there was the threat or "no sports, no music, no art etc", for my whole career, when push came to shove...….Levies passed.

WDFW has a image problem..... Sports persons don't like to be lied to, Fee's are increasing.... fish, season length, and in general "opportunity" are declining at a disturbing rate. WDFW is good at "creating new positions" at a time when their budget is in the hole.....shame on WDFW !!!!!

WDFW has much more than an image problem. The have a basic competence problem.

The fact that they cannot manage either the put and take lowland trout or willapa bay salmon fisheries tells the whole story on the incompetence. These are simple fisheries management situations and they have failed abysmally on both counts and WDFW owns the entire process.

If they can't do those properly, how can you possibly expect them to do an even mediocre job of managing the much more complex salmon fisheries in PS involving multiple treaties, wild and hatchery populations, rampant habitat degradation, hydro projects, pollution, etc, etc. Same with steelhead.

What a mess.

It seems that the only thing they manage well is their pay and retirement checks.

I almost feel sorry for the lowly WDFW bassturds that will be manning their booth next week at the Puyallup Sporstman's Show. Pretty sure it won't be Susewind or Cunningham there taking the heat while burning more of our $ for nothing.

If they had a “dunk tank” for $1.00 a throw and had Ron Warren sitting on it, WDFW could make up their budget deficit!!

I would pay good money to throw some pies in the faces of WDFW upper management!

Comedy gold, right there!