I am not sure if this has been discussed much but since we have been talking about the bad bills that the house is pushing forward, maybe its time we try the opposite to and push to get something like this through.. .House bill 1229... AN ACT Relating to ensuring that fishing opportunities in1 Washington are consistent with the economic contributions provided by2 the fishing user groups; amending RCW 77.04.012, 77.04.055, and3 77.12.047

Hopefully this link will take you through to the bill.

http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2017-18/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1229.pdf

God bless Liz Pike. She's trying, and I hope it gets her lots of votes in the future. We'll need a lot more like her if we're to make progress. Looks like she found a few followers, which is also encouraging.

One issue I have with the bill, as written, is that it touts our salmon and steelhead populations as "world class" and worthy of a lucrative tourism industry. In my opinion, that downplays the fact that our fisheries SHOULD be world class, but prioritizing commercial fishing over recreational depletes those world class stocks to something more like Cleveland class (no offense to anyone from Cleveland). The toursim should be used as a carrot, to exemplify new sources of revenue thst could be fully realized if conservation were our number one priority (and rec. Angling number two).

Unfortunately, I believe this is the bill that Chair Blake of Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee said he is against.

One way this bill could get a hearing is if the hicks in the 19th district vote him out of office.

If the bill has to move through Blake's committee, he'll probably kill it. Blake is a total suck up to the small number of NT commercial gillnetters in his district, ignoring the far larger number of recreational anglers.

Well anytime a kill net lover is put in charge of dealings with Washington state fishing business you'll get exactly that. A wolf in sheep's clothing.
He also claims to be pro 2A but we shall see his true calling with all the anti constitutional Bill in Olympia this month. SMH....

I spoke before Blake and others of his ilk at the hearing for the bill to raise license fees. After complaining about the financial aspects of unfairly targeting rec fishers over commercial interests and stating that we won't get a fair shake until our representatives STOP taking payouts to be re-elected from commercial and tribal interests, I was then chastised for not addressing "the issue". We all need to go to ANY public hearing and accuse these scum of the corruption they all swim in and drink. It's past the time to "play nice", after all, they are pooching us royally. Calling a spade a spade is all we have left. Bob R

Politicians don't know [Bleeeeep!] about nothing except $$$$ buying their votes and getting elected. There should be an open season on them to get then recalled or fired!!!