You seem to be correct Raincity.It's more of an emotional issue than I would have thought.Some good points brought up by Kevin and others.I do understand the anger some people feel as I fish from the bank fairly often and even in the boat I get crapped on by the few infamous sled drivers that piss the bankies off and give all sleders a blackeye.
I might not agree with you Bankwalker,but I
certainly felt no animosity towards you.
Sometimes you gotta agree to disagree and move on.No hard feelings to anyone here.

I've been equally pissed off by bankies, sledders and drift boaters in all my fishing experiences.
Again let's petition WDFW to divvy up the pie. Shoot ...snaggers could even have their own special place . Geez I'm not serious but that's where this type of discussion is headin. Also realize and I repeat realize regulatory agencies eat this stuff up...gives them justification for existence. They wouldn't be needed if they didn't have to write new rules to manage people.

Gooose

Kevin,

Your post above is right on! If there is plenty of room for a sled to pass bank anglers or driftboats, the wake is smaller and the time spent in your water less if the sled stays up on plane. When the river gets too narrow, that is the time to slow way down to an idle to slowly pass close by. Bankies and drifters unaware of this take a 'plane by' wrongly as a sign of disrespect, and resort to flipping fingers and rocks. That's often ignorance. Also remember that sleds have to stay up on plane to get thru real shallow water. If you are going to bank fish or driftboat where sleds are appropriate then be aware of these factors and more tolerant. If you can't deal with it, don't fish in sledable areas of rivers. There is plenty of places they can't sled. And I am glad to see that they aren't going to be able to sled up higher on such rivers as the 'Nooch and 'Sop anymore. Those are the areas that sled intolerants can go fish now. Conversely, the sledders have few places to get away from bankies and drifters; so they need to be careful not to fish over bankie's lines and not to low hole other boats by pulling in too close below another boat.

The same applies for bankie's intolerance of driftboaters. You have to be aware they need to pass by. If you have waded out and want them to drift behind you, given enough water, politely wave them to do so. If they have the gall to pull plugs or anchor in the water you are already fishing in then rightfully get on their case! If they don't move then keep casting over their lines until they do - especially if you have 'security' measures in place.

With the amount of fishermen on the rivers in this era, and still growing, we are going to have to learn both basic common sense water etiquette and a better degree of tolerance. The alternative could be sections restricted by user groups. Perhaps in the future fishing by odd/even days according to your birth date? I hope not - unless all my buddies have an even numbered birth date.

RT

This came up last year.(as it does every year) I called the F&G, they said call the county commissioners. They said they won't ban motors on either river.

Fishhead5

Fishhead5, Did you ask them why they had a proposal on the table to waste our time?

I only skimmed thru the posts here so excuse if I missed this suggestion. I think they need to start licensing motorized boats operators. They need to be aware of both safety and courtesy rules beofre they can be licensed. And like with auto license if they get 3 infractions in a year then take away their right to drive a boat for a year. Charging a significant fee for the license woudl help to pay for such a program. It would improve things a heck of a lot.

For what it's worth,I believe that vessel/motor restrictions on local rivers are the responsibility of county government. Fishing restrictions are the responsibility of WDF&W. State game officers are cross deputized and are able to enforce both local and state laws. It would be nice to get a official reply from someone in the department.

Ok, let me put a couple more cennts in on this topic. The WDFW can regulate who fishes fromm what type of boat on a waterway. The key word is FISHES!!! Of course if you float or sled a river and are not fishing you can not be harrased (unless there's a county ordanance against it). I

Also, before anyone gets their panties in a bind over the new rules take a good look at the wording. Luckily Ii'm on the proposal list and get a copy of these possible changes ahead of time. It states Motors prohibited upstream of the Ccity of Aberdeen's water intake dam on the Nooch and motors prohibited upstream of the mouth of the East fork of the Satsop. All that water above both oof those points should be motorless anyways. I don't care who you are, I own a sled and would not (and haven't) run my sled above either of those points. It still leaves plenty of good water on both rivers available to sleds. It is in no way "banning" sleds fromm the river. God, do you know how much water yo have to run from mouth of Satsop to East Fork???? Sheesh. East Fork to Schaefer isn't that much water to give up anyways.

Oh well, I'm sure there will be some thta have to have all the river.