So Ramon Vanden Brulle, Kurt Beardslee, Jamie Glasgow and Doug Rose....you are offering guided fishing trips in your WT auction. Are any of you licensed by WDFW as guides? If not you are breaking the law. Even for a nonprofit the license is required. If you are licensed well then my apologies. If not...well the issue of obeying the "LAW" seemed to be a central theme with your proponents.....any comments?

Gooose

Don't forget to ask them about having a "federal" coast guard license too!

If any of these so called "guided trips" are being done on any "navigable waters" and they are using a boat with a gas powered motor, they are not only required to have a state fishing guides license, they are also required to have a limited coast guard license, which also requires them to have insurance, and be certified in both first aid and CPR.

If they are doing this without the proper licenses, then they are breaking both state and federal laws. Those fines can get pretty spendy.....maybe even as much as ten times the value of what a donated guided trip will go for!

There appears to be a lot of unhappy people out there with WT, and if it was me, I would be thinking twice before I started advertising at any type of auction or fundraiser that I am donating a "guided trip" if I did not hold the proper legal licenses to so! Way to many mad people that's just waiting to make an example!

Just a thought!!

Cowlitzfisherman

I am a chairman for Edmonds Ducks Unlimited and can tell you that if we have someone who wants to donate a fishing/hunting trip that are not a licensed guide we auction them as "Hosted Trips". If they are licensed guides we auction it as a "Guide Trip".

I didnt see where Glascoe or Beardslee are donating guided trips. Maybe they had to back out because of the above mentioned requirements.
I did see where Rose is advertising a few different trips, one of which is on "saltwater" I believe he will have meet all Coast Guard requirements for guiding on salt.

Vanden Brulle is offering a "float trip" for two down the Yak with staff member of WT.
Huh, wonder if I go and bid on this at the banquet, win it and then go and slip and trip out of the WT representatives boat. Who would ya sue? WT or Vanden Brulle?

This could get fun!

Right on Goose, You are on it my Brotha!!!
Hey Give a Brotha a call
Peace Superfly

Uncle Joe I'll be calling you Monday night....up to my chin in wildcats lately!

Cowlitz you are mistaken there. There are very specialized criteria that need to be met before anyone is requred to have anything from the coast guard..

1 the vessle you operate must have a motor
2. you have to carry passangers fore hire
3. operate in US navagable waters

all three must be true in order to be required to get anything from the coast guard..

to all.. I am really tired of everyones angry vindictive and even hateful attitudes of people who are trying ( proven by their actions) to destroy THE best fish conservation organization in the state. You have literially declared war on Washington trout and therefore war against wild salmon and steelhead in our state..
very sad...

RA3 WT claims to hold WDFW to the righteous candle of the law....you really have a problem with a 2 way street? Oh btw I'm a big fan of wild fish...always have been.

Rob

I hate to tell you, but when any money has been exchanged (and that means action/fundraiser too) for a "service" that you are furnishing, and "you are guiding them" in your boat and you are doing so on any "navigable waters" in the U.S. you are required to hold a limited coast guard license! It really doesn't matter whose hands "the exchange of money" goes to, it's the fact that money was exchanged for a service which would normally require a limited coast guard license if performed in any U.S "navigable waters".

I thought that you had stated earlier that you were a guide. Did I misunderstand you? Or do you only have a WDFW fishing guide license? If you think that I am wrong, call the U.S. coast guard and ask them. None motorized drift boats are the only exception!

Rob maybe you did not understand what I had said earlier! You say that I am mistaken, and that these are the requirements:
1 the vessle you operate must have a motor
2. you have to carry passangers fore hire
3. operate in US navagable waters

Here's exactly how people fail to understand each other! How is my answer any different then yours?

I said; " If any of these so called "guided trips" are being done on any "navigable waters" and they are using a boat with a gas powered motor, they are not only required to have a state fishing guides license, they are also required to have a limited coast guard license, which also requires them to have insurance, and be certified in both first aid and CPR."

Isn't that pretty much the same as what you have stated in your answers 1&3)??

Finally, as stated earlier by gooose, and me above, It really doesn't matter who's hand the money finally ends up in, it only matters that money was "exchanged" for a service that requires a special service on "U.S navigable waters"

That's the way that it was when I was the Business Manager and President of the Friends of the Cowlitz (FOC) for 4 years. Did the FOC action off "guided fishing trips" from people who didn't hold limited coast guard licenses? Yes! The reason was; because it was up to "the guide" to have all the proper state or federal licenses and not the "organization".

So here's how it works, be it for salmon or steelhead;

RCW 77.65.010
Commercial licenses and permits required -- Exemption.
(1) Except as otherwise provided by this title, a person may not engage in any of the following activities without a license or permit issued by the director:....


(c) Operate a charter boat or commercial fishing vessel engaged in a fishery;
(e) Act as a guide for salmon for personal use in freshwater rivers and streams, other than that part of the Columbia river below the bridge at Longview.


(2) No person may engage in the activities described in subsection (1) of this section unless the licenses or permits required by this title are in the person's possession, and the person is the named license holder or an alternate operator designated on the license and the person's license is not suspended.

RCW 77.65.370
Professional salmon guide license.

(1) A person shall not offer or perform the services of a professional salmon guide in the taking of salmon for personal use in freshwater rivers and streams, other than in that part of the Columbia river below the bridge at Longview, without a professional salmon guide license.

RCW 77.15.510
Commercial fish guiding or chartering without a license -- Penalty.

(1) A person is guilty of commercial fish guiding or chartering without a license if:
(a) The person operates a charter boat and does not hold the charter boat license required for the food fish taken;
(b) The person acts as a professional salmon guide and does not hold a professional salmon guide license; or
(c) The person acts as a game fish guide and does not hold a game fish guide license.
(2) Commercial fish guiding or chartering without a license is a gross misdemeanor.


Cowlitzfisherman

Cowlitz you are right I misread what you wrote above

I think that most are probably liscensed.But a lot dont have the coast guard liscense. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

Every year I'm asked to take people floating down the rivers of the west end. I usually do this about three or four times a year as favors' for friends. Why? Probably because I don't cost $300, and most importantly because I know how to catch fish when some guides can't. Nothing fancy, but at the take out there's meat in the bottom of the boat.
Don't get riled about the meat in the boat. After all, ask any fish checker on the Olympic Peninsula who is bonking most of the fish. 70%-80% of all fish checked on the O.P. are laying in the bottom of guide boats.
Should I be licensed?

bulldog, do the people you take in your boat buy you breakfast, gas or compensate you in any way? If they do you are a guide!

Not my call Bulldog ... but this has become an issue on the West End streams that is being watched very closely by WDFW.

A timely thread to mention a followup of the Hoh boat sinking this spring that we had pictures of ... the operator of that vessel was cited for no guide's license to the tune of a $2000 ticket.

In addition, the current Forks Forum has a court report relating to this. A guide that I will not name had his license taken away this spring for failure to pay child support under the "deadbeat dad" laws ... he continued to guide and was cited and just recently was fined $1400 by the court for guiding w/o a license.

Thumbs up to local enforcement for watching and doing something about it!

Hey Bob,

One thing about guiding; you either pay now, or you will pay much more later!

Cowlitzfisherman