I just read in the local paper that Bait is to be banned on the EF Lewis starting May 1. Did anyone know this was coming? From what I read it seams the Fish and Wildlife Commission made this decision without any input from the regional F&W office or any local fishing or conservation groups. How can this be possible? I can see bait ban above Lewisville Park, but the entire river?

Trouter I am glad someone picked up on this.. Hopefully the bait ban will be lifted it is a complete screw up on the part of the region 5 office and the comission. This regulation was absolutely NOT NOT NOT suggested by any local conservation groups. This is a WDFW screw up. One of many i might add.
What was proposed by local conservation groups was a clouure of so called "trout" fishing. What was happening was lot's of people weretargeting steelhead smolts as trout. The intent was to eliminate this "trout" fisihng. Our proposals were not submitted to the comission ( for some "unknown" reason) and when we raised a vioce about it WDFW staff came up with a bait ban on the East Lewis and the elimination of the spring closure..

This was done by WDFW NOT conservation groups!!!!!
It is absoltely not supported by Clark Skamania Flyfishers..

From what I gathered from the article it was totally a decision made by the F&W Commission. The article led me to believe that the region 5 office was not consulted for this issue, which is totally absurd, since they are the ones who manage this watershed. I agree with doing away with the trout, errr, smolt fishing, but a total bait ban without any logical discusion is wrong.

Trouter I just wanted to make it clear that the Clark Skamania Flyfishers had absolutely nothing to do with this just in case someone wants to try to blame us..

I don't know if the rest of you know this, but I just found out that the EF will be a completly wild stock next year. NO more planting in the EF.

Matt

Matt --- Where did you hear that?

Senior Project - Hatchery Manager...
I wouldn't lie.

Matt

Actually I take that back. Nothing was planted in 2000, so unless 3+ year fish come back don't expect much. That includes both summer and winter fish. As far as the bait-ban goes, I haven't seen anything on the emergency rule changes wdfw website. I hope it was just a misprint or a bad rumor.

Matt

For now, I'm going to refrain from talking about the year round bait closure on the EF Lewis. For reasons I cannot give... Yet.

Matt, as far as no hatchery fish being planted according to the "hatchery manager". I'm kinda confused as to why he'd say that, considering I have the smolt releases for 2000 and they planted both winter and summer fish for this year. I don't know if you recall but the winter run this year for hatchery fish was pretty good in the EF, and those fish were planted when? You guessed it, 2000. Are ya sure he didn't mean fish planted in 2001??? But if I recall, last spring there was hatchery clipped smolt in the river, so I dunno. That why I'm a bit confused!?!

James

Hm... uh... hm... some kind of miscommunication between hatchery and state records?

Matt

How 'bout we pull our heads out and have a statewide bait ban.

Yeah Jumbo, and I say we up the limit to 3 native steelhead a day, min. size 38" on the OP! I'm sure someone would like that idea too, but I'm also quite sure the majority wouldn't.

James

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen done, and can only wonder what will come in the future... O.K. a bait ban, that's really going to bring our natives back.. How about starting with the same old round about like the nets, predators, restoring watersheds, but bait bans on an enire river makes no sense to me..
I agree with stopping the trout fishing in river systems that contain steelhead smolts, but an entire bait ban ###@#$% sucks...
As for you "BIMBO" maybe you should clue in and recognize the fact that bait fisherman aren't the true reason in the decline of native fish populations....
Keith

Wow, what a shock!, I have taken off a few months from the board. I am in MT and find that I only get extremely pissed cause I can't be there.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the logic(or lack thereof) that banning bait will prevent stripping native hens of eggs. I have also heard that fish tend to swallow bait more than w/o bait.

As painful as it would be to give up bait, I have caught near to as many fish with just corkies or jigs/worm. Would it be such a terrible thing to give bait up on a river that we all love so much? Maybe like the upper river ( as suggested) If it helped the fish? If it meant preventing some idiot from killing a nate hen just for the eggs, I guess I could deal with it. I do agree w/sthldr1 that people tend to forget habitat restoration. and those damn kayakers ( just kidding) that want to remove logjams from the upper river Maybe the bait ban is just a scape goat.
I will be curious to see what happens

steelheadaddict01,

I have no problem with a bait/barb ban in the upper river. Say, Heisson bridge upstream. As far as the entire river, yeah I have a REAL problem with it. Quite frankly, I think it's a crock of sh!t.

Hell, I say close ALL FISHING above Moulton Falls year round. I can't begin to tell you of all the horror stories I've heard concerning the upper river and it's tributaries (all of which, are closed to fishing).

The main excuse, er reason, was to protect native smolt/trout. Small spinners and flies will catch and kill more juvenile steelhead than guys who are targeting steelhead using bait. Why? The vast majority of fisherman, winter or summer, use hooks size 1 or larger. Size 1 hook in tandem with a sandshrimp, eggs, prawn, whatever is a bit much for a smolt to fit in it's chops, let alone swallow it. However, it does happen once it in a great while. Heck, it even occasionally happens with large spinners/spoons as well (Hooked 3 smolts out of one hole this past March on the upper Kalama with a 2/3 oz. Mor-Tac Stilly with a 2/0 hook). If a person targets small trout, he can do a lot of damage with a small size 1 or 2 spinner, or even small flies. So much for your bait ban.

I do agree with the "no trout" rule, as I have seen too many kids, and even adults, catching and killing smolt, and just not on the EF of the Lewis. So instead of a bait ban, why not just make a hook restriction? No smaller than a size 1 or even a 1/0 (gap measurement, due to the varying sizes between brands of hooks) and no bigger than a 2/0 (again, gap measurement). This isn't too complicated, considering the "non-bouyant lure restriction" during certain fisheries statewide already has a "gap measurement" rule. I haven't fished in Oregon for a number of years now, but I thought they have a rule similar to what I'm suggesting on certain rivers??

James

Good thoughts James, I would agree with hook or barb restrictions. The more I hearand think about it, the worse the bait ban sounds. Would it include plastics and artificial eggs? I love those rubber worms.

I fully endorse a bait ban for anyone over the age of 16. bait is for kids.

in reply to the post above... yes, i am a bimbo

What happened Jumbo did someone come down and wack a couple of chrome hatchery fish behind you on some good bait or something.... Sort of sounding sour if you ask me.. Perhaps you could pull your head out and listen to how stupid you are sounding...
Keith