Did I read the reg correct no bait after 2/18 in most OP streams? WOW!

Yep you read it wrong. It is actually no bait after 2/15.

2/16 Funny that one kinda flew under the radar for me. Guess I'll have to figure out how to fish nekid.

Bait ban on the OP?

If that's really the case, what rivers and when does the ban end?

Why would there be a bait ban on the OP?

Oh wait, why is there a section of the Hoh that you can't fish from a boat?

Never mind. Same assholes. Different rule against fellow fishermen.

Steelhead fishermen are truly a bunch of dumbfuks.

If you all want measures that protects more fish and allows for more fish catching opportunities on the OP, change the guide program/rules in our state. Limited entry, limited guided days, etc.

Banning bait does crap..especially now.

What's it going to do - save a few hatchery smolts now that you can't fish for in the future?

Retards.

Being a master baiter is becoming harder and harder each year.

LOL

Bait lives matter......

I am against the bait ban only because before the 80% of the anglers who think they can't catch a steelhead without a shromp or bait'o'eggs all crammed in below 101 on the west end streams, leaving the other 1/2 of of the rivers to the rest of us...now they won't have any reason to pile in the bait zone

Fish on...

Todd

Only pansies need bait to catch a steelhead.

I rarely use bait for Steelhead, and must say it has not hindered my gaudy numbers....lol

Save a worm's life. Fly fish. (I saw that on a tee shirt many years ago.)

I bought that shirt in West Yellowstone in '77.

Kinda late but it's a start for the sh!t the storm that's coming.....

Only pansies need no fishing from a boat and no bait waters to catch a steelhead.

I'm truly amazed at what a select group of "fishermen" have done to the rest of us and even amazed that no one really ever seems to care.

Just lean your head back further and keep on cutting deeper and deeper across your throats.....just as we have been doing for years now.

I'm truly amazed that Paker doesn't see what the future of steelhead fishing in WA most likely looks like, regardless of how much anyone cares. Or maybe he's just being all Paker-like here.

Let's see 30 years ago the human population in this state was 4.4 million, today it is 7.1 million; an increase of 160%!

In the same period the Puget Sound wild steelhead escapements (in key systems Samish, Skagit, Snohomish, LW, Green, Puyallup, and Nisqually) have fallen in the last 30 years (1986 to 2015) from 27,700 to 15,600; a 45% decline. This is in spite of elimination of 65% of the early time hatchery time winter-run steelhead smolt and drastic cuts in winter seasons with virtually no fishing after January.

On the coast the escapements of key OP systems (Quileute, Hoh, and Queets) have fallen from 18,700 in 1986 to 12,900 in 2015; a 30% decline.

Can anyone be surprised that we are seeing increasing restrictive fishing regulations? What are the options? Continuing to watch the resource disappear? More restrictive gear restriction?, shorter seasons?, reduced miles of rivers open?

What are your preferences? Don't like the current option GET INVOLVED!

Parker -
You might be surprised at the skill some of those fly flingers might demonstrate with a bait cast outfit and a bait of eggs. Know several that you would not want to follow behind! Of course they don't wear ascots!

Curt

I'm a lifetime angler and have a passion for fly fishing. I saved up all year and bought my first Spey rod to fish the Skagit back in the 90s when I was 16 and Rio Windcutter was the new hot line and the end of splicing and cutting. Anyway, I was involved with the fly scene before it went as mainstream as it is now and my point is that the fly groups lost me years and years ago. I was never pretentious and never saw fishermen as enemies. I fished spinners, spoons, and buzz bombs for salmon all summer so I wasn't just a fly guy. i never liked the attitudes and the choosing sides I was forced into. It's all BS and even a 16 year old saw through it back than. I was practically begged to join fly clubs and couldn't do it. Few of the people were genuine and many lived in a romantic fantasy world. I said fuk that and moved on.

Since than, fly groups just gain more and more power by making other sports fishermen part of the problem. Stam is right, they will just be the last group to lose.

Stam is kind of on target. As fish resources decline and human populations increase, the trend over the last 100 years has generally, but not always, been restrictions to less effective methods. There wouldn't be a whole lot of logic in allowing more effective methods with more people and fewer fish around.

In the end it could well be fly fishing only, or limited days, drawings for limited permits, or a season consisting of 3 or 4 3-day weekends a year. Whatever it is, it will have to match effort and catch (even CNR) with the available resource. What other choice is there?

Having the honor of being the last casualty is a nice turn of phrase, but I doubt it's going to feel nice when and if it comes to pass.

As Salmo says, look at what has happened to hunting seasons, especially something popular like deer and elk. Are seasons as long as they were 20/30/40 years ago? Are they as "liberal" vis-a-vis antler restrictions or open to all doe days? Can you use any weapon you want or must you choose? Fish will go the same way as game.

If it's come down to managing a fishery because of the "lack of opportunity", it's time to shut it all down.

Right?

No one section of the sport fishing community has any valid reason to have more opportunity to fish a river then the next, be it fly, guide, recreational angler, bait, from a boat, etc. The only exception is tribal.....the untouchable tribes.

If opportunity is seriously the problem you are managing for....you've already lost the game.

It's very apparent WDFW lost the game a long time ago.

Just sad to see it in my lifetime. I always figured it would hold out a bit longer.