Does any one know where I can find information on just how many tickets were written for snagging in Washington state?

I'm not aware of it being online anywhere, per se...so I'd send an email here and ask:

enforcement-web@dfw.wa.gov

It's not a secret, so I'm sure they'll tell you...but if for some reason they put you off you could always submit a quick and dirty Public Records Act Request (the WA State version of a FOIA Request).

Fish on...

Todd

Urban Dictionary.....

TOP DEFINITION
snagging
Among Native Americans, a common term for hooking up.
We found Richie and Janet snagging in the back of his pickup outside the bar last night.

Beautiful Todd. Thank you for the lead. I'm on it!

They can/should be able to tell you the number of tickets issued, but based on my understanding of their filing system it might take a bit of time to extract them. The next question then is merging those numbers with the conviction rate. Different filing system used by the state courts and different protocols by the various county attorneys as to when, how, or if they will prosecute the charges. Something has to change.

They got back to me pretty quick. They wrote 354 snagging tickets in all of Washington for the last 2 years. In Clark County where I live they wrote 94 snagging tickets over the last 2 years. It seems like very few considering I have seen that many snaggers in the meat hole of the NFL in one weekend before!!! Convictions are hard to tell but it looks like about 1/3. Even if its hard to convict them, which is one of the lines the gamies feed me, I think the more tickets written the better. It will at least force them to take a day off of work, or fishing, and waste it in court.

Glad you got the information. You might want to visit with your county prosecutor to see how s/he handles fish and wildlife cases. Some counties are okay and some counties the FW tickets pretty much go to the back burner and it could be a couple of years before/if the ticket makes it in front of a judge.

One would think that in this age of computerization that one could track individual citations through the entire judicial process and also search by infraction code and then track all of those as a group.

While WA is the birthplace of Microsoft and an industry leader in technology, state govt is lagging FAR behind in keeping pace with existing technology.

I watched a news story a few weeks back about dozens of state agencies using antiquated decades old computers, software, and databases. Systems that are not only slow, but very prone to crashing... requiring frequent re-boots and starting all over again even for the simplest of tasks.

It's pretty bad.

As a retired state employee, whew, I was there at the beginning of the "computer age".....Radio Shack TRS I, Apple, Pet Commodore, and others.......technology has come a billion miles since the 1980's BUT that said.....there are still many that are in "management areas", that are just hanging on until retirement.

Most can't relate to RAM memory in .5 k, 4 k, 16 k....etc. and prices for RAM memory that far exceeded the price of a top laptop today.

I love the abilities of my desktop, laptop, wireless net work.....and my IPhone 6 blows me away with all the things it allows me to do.

NO WEB SITES LIKE THIS.....until mid 90's or later, speed, server capacity, personal computers wouldn't allow.....Thanks to Bob for updating his server.......

Remember Lotus 1,2,3 or Word Perfect????? I sure do, used Word Perfect in all the typing/keyboarding classes....loved the program, got a new Admin. that wanted to go to Windows and MS WORD......I could retire, so "out the door and to the rivers, I went"

354 tickets in 2 years.

lol

Christ.

If a ticket is written and the person contests it with a day in court, doesn't the office who wrote the ticket have to also appear in the court?

If so, THAT is a waste of state resources....far greater than the cost of the ticket.

If it's uncontestable, than yeah, ticket the crap out of everybody on the river.

As a game office once told me "You are all guilty of something on the water right now. It's our job to find out what it is and issue you a citation for it."

No joke.

I've only received one citation. Was a teenage and get a citation for failing to punch a fish on my card. I always kept a pen on a string on my fishing vest and always punch my fish. I lost the pen. Officers checked me at my truck, searched it, found a golf pencil burried behind all the crap on the floor, and gave me the riot act because of it. Said if I truly wanted to punch that fish, I would have used a piece of lead, my blood, or spent a half hour searching my truck to find that golf pencil on the floor, behind the cheeseburger wrapper. Since I knew the judge(s) in my town, I took the citation in to him and he dropped the fine to $5. Helped that I took him fishing and helped him catch and land his first two steelhead just a few weeks prior.

LE is a interesting thing most certainly when looked at in a big picture view. I was at a hearing for another issue involving fish and the judge waved the fishing rules pamphlet and wanted to know how anyone would ever figure that thing out. With WDF&W doing the thing for a two year run then emergency regs constantly one can miss things rather easily.

The other side of the coin is we once had a officer who would drag a nylon stocking across a pinched barb and if it snagged write a citation. Last year a officer checked me and did not like my pinching at all. Rather than get pissed I asked him this question. Am I required to pinch the barb or file it smooth? Pinch he said to which I asked have I not pinched my barb? He agreed I had pinched the barb but simply suggested I do it a little better next time. Looking back I can say we were both correct and sometimes keeping ones wits about them is the best way to deal with things.

They shouldn't have to show if it's an infraction. The report is signed under penalty of perjury to avoid a court date.

As I read the RCW 7.84 (see link below) natural resource infractions have to be paid within 15 days. An infraction is a non-criminal offense with no jail time UNLESS the penalty isn't paid within 15 days in which case the failure to respond is a misdemeanor and a person could be put in jail. A person may contest an infraction and then a court date is set. A person may request a hearing to mitigate the penalty. Penalties for infractions are set by the state Supreme Court and are updated every 2 years.

NATURAL RESOURCE INFRACTIONS

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=7.84

CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMES

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.20

WDFW can identify violations of their rules to be infractions. It would appear that snagging could fall under RCW 77.15.160 (1)(d) (ii), but there is a separate charge under 77.15.370 (1)(c) that specifically mentions snagging as a gross misdemeanor and assesses a criminal penalty assessment of $500 per dead wild salmon or steelhead taken in violation of the statute in addition to the fine and/or jail time. That penalty doesn't appear in the infraction section.

I'm not sure how the officer should make the call on a snagging violation, especially if wild fish are killed. A gross misdemeanor carries a fine and jail time. An infraction is just a fine unless it isn't paid.


Authority to define violation of rule as infraction

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=77.15.020

Infractions (as amended by 2014 c 48).

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=77.15.160

see 77.15.160 (1)(d)(ii)

Unlawful recreational fishing in the first degree — Penalty — Criminal wildlife penalty assessment.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=77.15.370

See section (1)(c) as there is a reference to snagging

Parker,

I can't believe that enforcement officer said that...

Unreal...