Hiking trails with out use also become quickly over grown and become lost forever without use.

Hiking trails and zippers???

I have a handful of zippers that yes you occasionally see another fisherman but you will never see private property signs and never see "hiking trails". We have found these precious spots by exploring not by reading. I am going to have to disagree with you CF.

Along these lines ...

To all the naysayers of the site and the bashers of sharing some information (I've never been one to say go stand on "this" rock) ... wonder why plants for springers on the Sol Duc have seen such declines in recent years?

According to the state: because sporties were basically not spending much time fishing for them and they saw little reason to spend the additional dollars on a fishery that no one was taking advantage of!

Minibear

I said nothing about "Hiking trails".

Please do not confuse me with what someone else has said or replied. What are you talking about?

Cowlitzfisherman

I dont see what the big deal is, everyones got their secret fishing spot(s).


~MATT

My thoughts.....

It's either a case of under-use or over-use in many locations around our state. There is no doubt that many places sucome to being sold as private property that once "appeared" to be unclaimed, unknown or "never had a problem" with the land owner. Plenty of old property owners became used to the foot traffic and may have never concerned themselves to much with the minor tresspass to fish the river etc..Or, like the Skykomish River, many land owners have set up small fee access points to park and get to the river from.(-Which I think is a great idea, and I don't know of too many other rivers in our state that has so many private pay spots as the Sky...what's $1-2 bucks for the day!!! -Like Two-Bit Hole or the Reformatory) But, as time goes on, I'm sure many properties sell to new buyers (people get old, and people also move on... they can make some good money nowaday's in western Washington$ especially for river front properties)-and these new land owners ultimately decide what the fate of their land should be. It's unfortunate that many of them may be a bit selfish minded or unfamiliar with the history of these rare and used fishing access spots. I'm sure also, as our population has increased you have plently of more abusers out there who might not even be fishermen that leave or discard their trash etc. on the beach &/or in the woods.... -Those things have been going on for years but I can guarantee you that there are more people around today behaving that way just as a total number and not necessarily as a percentage% change! Land owners, both new and old ultimately end up posting signs. And as Hiker and Bob pointed out, you also have the areas that were once frequented by fishermen and the fishermen disappeared. Probably as a result of the fishery lossing it's abundance/productivity and freedom at one time and anglers slowly started loosing interest in returning to those waters. Then once you have the loss of interest in the sport you are left with fishery programs and enhancement efforts that the state and other agencies no longer want to spend/delegate money towards and would rather reallocate those funds to other areas of government spending. And yes, on a seperate note, Hiker pointed out that he knows of "secret spots" that he needs a machette or is willing to put forth the extra effort to make it(hike in) to those spots. Many of "those" holes will last as long as the fish numbers last because a vast majority of those "fishin' holes" I suspect are located deep within National Forests, private managed forests, railroad lands and State and Federal Park and Wilderness areas or are within jurasdiction of the DOT. The more friendly road access spots I'm sure are not going to improve unless we(active fishermen)make consorted efforts and seek cooperation between land owners and recreationalist, particularly fishermen. Local hardcore fishermen who care need to take some intiative and organize a local campaign to sustain some of the greatest fishing access spots that ajoin or meander through private land owners lands. Simply going out door to door like a cub scout and meeting people face to face might just "save face" on some of these long founder fishing acesses. The longer we wait, the harder it may become to convince people. By being willing to "pitch-in" and help maintain these spots by trail clearing, trash pick up and perhaps eco-enhancing these prime access spots land owners may be more willing to participate in sharing. A Story: I remember when I was in Jr High and Highschool I used to go down to a small creek in the heart of my home town. That creek is called Bear Creek in Redmond, WA. We used to catch salmon, steelhead, rainbows and really big sea-run cutthroats outta there, many of which we released....And now, due to urban growth and public access/private land development this awesome creek has suspended it's fishing and is closed forever.
Good Fishing, Darin

Darin, don't know how old you are, but I grew up in Redmond too and I don't recall Bear Creek ever being open for salmon or steelhead. In the 50s and 60s they used to plant it with rainbow just before the stream opener in May. In fact, I don't recall the Slough (which Bear Creek flows into) ever being open for salmon back in the day. I know because I was checked by the warden while fishing for cutts. Bear Creek does still produce viable runs of wild salmon - one of the most important spawning streams in King County. The bigger ecological disaster was the diking and channelization of the Slough. The Army Corps basically took a wild, meandering valley stream and made it a ditch with no habitat.

Salmonbelly,

Well, my age doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of yours! This is back in the mid to late eighties -not THAT long ago.... We were not intending to fish for salmon or steelhead but we often caught them accidentally during our late summer early fall fishing episodes for cutt-throat. A buddy of mine even caught a sockeye in there! I even hooked a couple of nice squawfish in there! -One that I swear I thought I had a pretty good trout on. Yes, the Bear Creek is a vital natal spawing stream to our andro-fish of King County..... I couldn't agree more. They did however, have some open regs on it during some of those years for trout ...maybe they re-opened it from when you last looked at it back then. We'd often drive onto & park on the ol' golf course(I remember when it was a running golf course -now it's the supermall) and walk in by the hobo shacks made of plastic in the woods...Can you actually believe that people were living in their where the mall is now!!!!???? -Wow!
Your absolutely right about the Sammamish Slough though.... What a screw up that was, kinda like the Grand Coulee Dam -not well though out. Not to mention the Ballard Locks Hershel sea lion disasters.... Well, one good thing is finally there are many groups and cities/county planting new trees and native plants along the banks of the Slough which should improve things a bit and keep the summer water temps down. Maybe one day, they'll "curve-up" the Slough again....? Did you ever fish the Slough for steelhead...I heard it had big ones in the day!!
Good Fishing, Darin

Darin, the county is actually restoring part of the Slough to its old bed at Marymoor Park, and all the tree-planting efforts are very positive. What they won't do is restore boulders and rock and put tons of woody debris in the river to make it naturally riffle and pool. I did use to fish the Slough a little for steelhead, and had one on once. A decent hatchery run continued until probably the late 70s. But the river had been ruined by the Corps before I was an adult. My father used to fish it a bit and caught steelhead. A buddy of his caught a 17-pounder probably in about 1957. Tight lines!

I think a lot of accessability is lost,because hardly anybody knew we had it to begin with.

A few that I can think of. Including a couple you have tried promoting Cowlitzfisherman.Would be Wallaces pit. The Blue creek access.A large strip of riverfront at Olequa.And from what I understand,one in the general area of Hinkleys drift.

Its a shame D.F.W. can pay out the big bucks securing access.Making deals and going through all the legalities.To provide these spots for our recreation.With the publics money, of course.

Then not spend what in comparison would be pocket change.To put up signs and other info to promote these areas.So that they would be easily recognizable.And the public could find them and access them with little effort at all.

In my opinion,particularly,in the case of Wallaces pit.We paid them big bucks.And in a way subsidized them, to keep us off of property that by all rights they were supposed to improve and provide access for.For our pleasure.

Why cant the D.F.W. go back to these places and enforce,and promote the accessibility?Or in the case of Wallaces pit get the money back from the landowners.Plus maybe a little more,for breach of contract.And use it to get us better access or different access spots.and promote what we have.

If land is privately owned/held there isn't alot the WDFW can do about it....First some land owners wouldn't care, and would rather not see their privacy invaded or abuse of the land happen. The WDFW can't just shell out thousands if not millions of dollars to buy access rights or land from private land owners when land owners would put a high price to begin with when a government agency is shelling out cash$. Those land owners will be fist inline trying to get a piece of the pie. Not to mention, the debate over where to spread those funds could be enormous and politically controversial. More importantly, if we as WDFW licence holders would take some intiative we might be able to persuade our state government into allocating all funds generated by recreational/sport fishing -BACK INTO WHERE IT CAME FROM! As it now stands most of the revenue that is gathered by WDFW and sport fishing and hunting in this state goes into a GENERAL "State" FUND. After that, the State puts the monies where they see fit. Which might be programs like I405 improvements etc. --That is rediculous!(for us) We must stand up and fight against that! If the way in which they designated these revenues were to change, maybe then, money could be allocated and put towards insuring fishing access, improvements, trash collection etc, etc... Let's think about this folks. Hey, "Smalma" & "Salmo G", if your reading this and you work for the WDFW give us your inputs......
Good Fishing, Darin

But in the places they already paid for rights to.You would think there would be plenty they could do.Ifffff they wanted to.or were made to.
Definitely agree with the rest of your post Darin

Hntnfish,

I'd like to learn more about the "where" the WDFW put money up in the past in terms of locations, dollar figures, contracts etc... Somebody needs to be accountable in the WDFW, the State government -and ourselves! Maybe WDFW "cashed" out to make up for lost funds. This maybe similar to their past consessions selling hunting land off throughout eastern Washington.... All to make up for the lost revenues over the years!
Darin

Wallaces Pit off Mandy road in Toledo is a good example.I could be wrong but I believe Another is the Olequa launch area.Lots of people realize the launch is there and the area around it is o.k. to access but from what I understand there is a pretty wide strip of land several hundred yards long that runs downstream of the launch that W.D.F.W. paid to have access to.(unless I was misinformed)Hardly anybody knows about that.If I'm right why cant they just post a sign at the launch saying public access is allowed on a section #ft wide by #ft long downstream from this sign.And put out some markers.Pretty cheap and simple I would think.But you know how the beaurocrats are.

I hope he doesnt mind me throwing his name out here but Cowlitzfisherman can give you a ton of info about the Wallace pit site.And it wouldnt surprise me if he has or can tell you where to get info on some others.
He has had some pretty interesting experiences with and around the Wallace pit and its owners and employees and others.It was a major topic of discussion on here some time ago.

HntnFish,

Somebody down there should check on the status of the easement your talking about. Probably by calling the local office.
Darin

Darin I sent you a p.m.