Heads up on a couple bills introduced in the state senate and state house. Policy cutoff is next Friday meaning these bills in theory have to be have a hearing and be moved from the policy committee before 5pm on the 22nd.

SB 5786 - Requiring certain information in commercial fishing guide license applications.

Makes changes to the guide application, requires $300k general liability coverage, current first aid/CPR and more.

HB 1896 - Enhancing compliance with the responsibilities of fishing guides.

Adds a new section to RCW 77.15 and prescribes penalties.

HB 1896 reads as follows:

5 NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 77.15 RCW
6 to read as follows:
7 (1) A person is guilty of unlawfully engaging in a fishing guide
8 activity if the person holds a game fish guide license as required
9 under RCW 77.65.480 or has a license issued under RCW 77.65.010 to
10 operate a charter boat or act as a food fish guide, and the person:
11 (a) Fails to perform any duty of a charter boat or guide operator
12 as outlined in RCW 77.32.430; or
13 (b) Violates any rule of the commission or director regarding the
14 sale, possession, issuing, or reporting of temporary fishing licenses,
15 temporary short-term charter stamps, or catch record cards.
16 (2) Unlawfully engaging in a fishing guide activity is a gross
17 misdemeanor.

As I read it, guides and charter boat operators need to make sure the CRC is properly filled or that they are properly completing temporary licenses.

SB 5786 adds the following wording to the existing statute and re-numbers the other subsections. 77.65.370 and .480 are the statutory provisions for a food fish guide license in freshwater. Charter boats are covered under 77.65.150


An application
12 for a food fish guide license under RCW 77.65.370 or game fish guide
13 license under RCW 77.65.480 must include:
14 (a) The applicant's driver's license number or Washington
15 identification card number issued under chapter 46.20 RCW;
16 (b) The applicant's unified business identifier number under a
17 master license issued under RCW 19.02.070;
18 (c) Proof of current certification in first aid and cardiopulmonary
19 resuscitation; and
p. 1 SB 5786
1 (d) A certificate of insurance demonstrating that the applicant has
2 general liability coverage of at least three hundred thousand dollars.


You can look up the WDFW RCW 77 statutes in the link below

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?Cite=77

I see this moving toward the system the State has in place to ensure construction contractors are licensed and insured (and also bonded). You can go on line and look up a contractor by name or license number and see if they are current (and insurance/bonding companies are required to report changes).

I'm for it. You want to run a business, play by the rules on a level playing field.

I bet this will put an end to the 99$ speacial. They cant pay their taxes , insurance and by gas if the trips are free. Lets level the playing field.

I agree.

Fish on...

Todd

It's hard to understand why it's taken this long. Taking paying customers on the river without insurance is insane.

If a guide screws up with too many insurance claims they will price themselves out of the market.

This seems like a no-brainer on both. Thumbs up!

I hope everyone that agrees with the legislation takes the 5-10 minutes to read the bill and send in a comment in support of the legislation.

We have the numbers to enact real change in fish and wildlife legislation if we all take the small amount of time to make a quick comment (it takes about as much time as a post here). Do you think we can get 500 of the 10,200 members on this board to send in a comment? That would be amazing and have a real impact.

Click Below to read the bill and comment.

SB 5786

This can be a good thing, but a guide without insurance, and 1st aid and C.P.R. is flat nuts. Its not that expensive for insurance, and a c.p.r. class is cheap too.. Theirs alot of unlicensed guides all over the state, that don't get caught, due to theirs not enough enforcement, and I don't think their ever will. I don't this will change things. The fees will go up, and their will be more trying to get away it still. I know a couple of guys that have been guiding for over 20 yrs and has yet to buy a Lic., and their full everyday!!! just my 2cents

You can go to the green comment box at the top of the page for the bill and make a comment of up to 1000 characters. A pretty easy way to get information back to the sponsors and, I think, you local legislator.

The comment option is new this year and is a step forward by the legislature for public input.

Here's the explanation on the "comment box"

ENTER THE BILL NUMBER IN THE SEARCH BOX ABOVE OR CHOOSE A BILL FROM THE LIST BELOW.

Welcome to the Washington State Legislature’s online comments project. This is a pilot program for the 2013 legislative session to see what value it may bring in helping the public provide input to their legislators on the bills under consideration this session.

Your comments and opinions will be made available to all legislators and their staff in statistical reports as input for them to evaluate pending legislation. Legislators and their staff will not be able to respond to individual comments made through this system and if you desire feedback from your legislator on specific issues you should contact them directly by phone, e-mail, telephone, letter, or in person. You can also contact them directly through the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000.

Statistical reports may be generated with this system using aggregate data, but these are in no way a scientific poll or an accurate representation of general public sentiment.
We have asked for some personal information as part of the sign-in process in order to identify comments by legislative district. This personal information will not be shared or sold by the legislature to any outside party for commercial purposes.

If you have any questions or would like to comment on this pilot program, please contact us at support@leg.wa.gov.

Thank you!

Read HB 1917...........Very open ended , very bad, basically giving the dept the choices of how much money they want to charge for new steelhead Stamp !

Hopefully wont make it out of committee

Peace
Fly

Here's the link to the bill

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2013-14/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1917.pdf

...and the link to the bill page

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1917&year=2013

With the proposed legislation on the table, this might be an opportune time to contact legislators about withdrawing the bills and working with the guides (both fishing and hunting) to develop a comprehensive piece of legislation for introduction in 2014.

The piece meal way the WA legislature and state agencies work to craft solutions to real or perceived issues results in statutory construction that we used to call "Christmas tree" statutes. Legislators and special interest groups keep hanging new baubles on the base statute and, over time, the branches droop lower and lower. The "good" ornaments get hidden by the cheap ones that are piled on the branches.

In 1984/85, I put together and shepherded through a legislative update for the Colorado statutes that administered the Colorado Division of Wildlife. We had close to 100 years of legislation to work with. Our statutes were no where as lengthy as the WDFW statutes, but we had over 120 pages on the books. When we were done, we had cut almost 60 pages out of the statutes, cleaned up the wording, strengthened the laws, made them easy to understand for the Judges, the District Attorneys, and, most importantly, for the public. Over the past 25 years, the number of pages have grown, but the format is still easy to follow.

deleted original post... talking about wrong bill.

1917 is stupid imo, and a push by some guides for exclusivity ala the salmon charter system.

we could at least try some simple requirements first.

just read the entire text of HB 1917 and all I can say is what a steaming pile of crap.

"(4) A western Washington steelhead guide stamp may only be purchased during the times of the year when steelhead fishing is not allowed under the rules of the commission."

you can only purchase a steelhead license when steelhead fishing is "closed"? when would that be? some river is open for hatchery retention year round west of the cascade crest.

"(2) The holder of a food fish guide license may only offer or perform services related to the taking of steelhead in nonmarine bodies of water located west of the crest of the Cascade mountains if the license holder also purchases a western Washington steelhead guide stamp under section 1 of this act."

they also seem to confuse the game fish and food fish guide licenses.

I agree with leg guys working with fish guys and getting it right the first time, the way theses are written is like for a special interest group and very open ended and no real direction just a bunch of babble.......

Something has to be done, but it has to be done right and with involvement of the people that it will affect the most......

Peace
Fly

Contact your legislator(s) and let them know. I've already sent my comments on 1917 and will follow up with my Representatives who are 2 of the 3 sponsors along with Blake

Thanks Dave, It sounds to me like some forks guys gave Vandewegge a bunch of money for his campaign and now he has to get down on his knees and produce for them..........Granted something needs to be done, but not this bill, it looks like a fricken pissed off forks guide wrote it ! LOL

Peace
Fly