you Bet!

While I don't fish steelhead much any more and the salmon fishing has been in decline still find plenty of opportunities for salmon , kokanee, various trout, shellfish, and warm water species that I typically spend approximately 100 days a year fishing.

Even better I turned 70 today so when I buy my new license tomorrow it will cost at least $55 less!

curt

I got my money's worth for my 2016 license, which was inexpensive considering all the fun I had with my friends and family...

-Wild Steelhead C&R on the Humptulips in February/March 2016
-Caught a few Spring Chinook outta the drift boat Kalama April/May 2016
-Fishing with buddies for trout Cottage Lake May 2016
-Neah Bay was rough weather for the Memorial Day halibut opener but we got out and caught some flat-siders & lingcod.
-Westport bottomfish trip in May yielded limits of rockfish & lingcod.
-June 17 I caught my earliest Albacore for the season
-Late June Skykomish opener there were plenty of summer kings & steelhead around and we found a few.
-July we had plenty of crab cookouts thanks to area 9/10
-Buoy 10 trip with coworkers to Buoy 10 was fun
-Westport Tuna trip in August was tough fishing but glad I went.
-Fished mouth of the Lewis for the first time and we caught a couple.
-A few Snohomish coho trips, a few nice fish I think October?
-A shotload of weekend road trips to the Humptulips in October/November with the drift boat.
-Great fishing for hatchery steelhead on the coast December

Last year was a turbulent time for fisheries management, but I always say you get out what you put in.

I respect your choice if you don't buy a license because you won't use it, but I don't respect negative online posts that will deter others from fishing because you weren't happy because of politics. There were plenty of great opportunities in 2016 and this years should be even better!

There is an interesting aspect to this question that has bubbled up a few times. I grew up in CA. Almost all my fishing was shore based, walk and wade. At least the freshwater stuff, which was almost all I did due to mal-de-mer.

Up here, the primary fisheries are boat-based. Marine salmon, tuna, rockfish, halibut. Freshwater takes driftboats or some other craft for lakes.

So, the question about buying a license gets weighed against the boat or boats stored in the garage/shed/marina. Add to that the fact that most boat-based trips include others and it becomes an even bigger social event. I remember my Dad and a bunch of coworkers heading up to our cabin for opening day of kokanee. I chose not to go as I had both a track meet and the quality of fishing was iffy. They, on the other hand, had a great weekend of eating, drinking , probably lying, and did get some fish. And a good time was had by all.

There is a lot more to our motivations than just if there are fish to catch. WDFW is betting on it.

Thanks for the reminder. Dennis Co has them at two for $7.50. Could not help myself.

Nope. I'll buy a shellfish/seaweed license so I'll still be able to bitch but I'll spend my money and my time up north. The writing has been on the wall for awhile but after the last couple of years it's time. The WDFW isn't advocating on our behalf and I won't fund those working against me.

Not buying a license does not necessarily mean not fishing.

If you are required to buy a license (because of age) and buy one,then you are fishing. If you are required to buy a license and don't, and still go "fishing" in this state,, you are not fishing, you are poaching. That makes you scum. bob r

I'm pretty sure everyone here can agree on things like "fishing is fun," "I like to catch fish," or "my fishing license is a great entertainment value." These are all (good) reasons why we buy licenses every year.

I think it's important that we remember that, regardless of how many of us buy licenses, our opportunity ultimately depends on the outcome of a political process. In case you haven't noticed (and I know you have), that process is slowly, but surely diminishing our opportunity. Unless either revolution or Jesus, Himself comes to change the political climate, that trend will only continue, until we reach the point where we don't even get to fish for the species that define sport fishing in our region. To believe otherwise would be, well, "stoopid."

As we've discussed, ad nauseum and beyond, the only way we're going to get our fair share is by economically asserting ourselves in Olympia, whether that's by spending more (lobbying) or withholding our funding (not buying licenses). If I thought we had a snowball's chance in hell of getting organized enough to create a large enough lobbying fund, I'd opt to go that route, because that keeps us fishing and assuredly solves our problem. Trouble is, we can't get organized, because we're too opinionated to agree to any platform. That leaves us with not buying licenses, and we see how many of us are willing to do that....

For all my talk, I will almost certainly cave and buy a license, for all the same, obvious reasons most of the rest of you will. I don't have the means to "take my fishing elsewhere," so I do what I must to enjoy my favorite hobby locally. I've accepted that by willingly participating in the game, under the current rules, I effectively give WDFW and the Legislature my full approval of the shrinking package they offer us every year. So far, that unfortunate, annoying reality hasn't been enough to make me throw in the towel. Eventually, if I really do care about my grandchildren being able to fish, I (and ALL the rest of you) will have to be willing to make the personal sacrifices required, because the other guys don't seem to give a rat's a$$ about the future, and they have a lot more friends in high places than we do.

See you on the water, I guess, and yes, that prospect makes me happy.

Flea, we feel your frustration and your utter despondence in the current fisheries management. Believe me when I tell you, as someone who's "peeked behind the curtain" the real wizard running our fisheries IS NOT WDFW! They want us to believe that, they spend lots of money convincing us of that. Hell, Unsworth probably chants that in the mirror at night, but the real wizard is the ones with the money, influence and power....

As hard as it is for me to say. The battle is well lost. Of all the letters, phone calls, emails, request for meetings we've done to WDFW leadership and legislators, Senator Pearson is the only one to date who has stood by our side and said it's wrong to manage our fisheries this way! Conservation is a smoke screen used only to advance agendas. The sad truth is, those that can do something, won't and those that should do something, don't. The politics in our fisheries will surly kill the last fish, without a doubt!

I got mine yesterday. After talking with the wife for a time about whether we should or shouldn't for a good while. We decided to make the wdfw donation. Mainly because our daughter is 3 and she likes going to the lakes and reeling in trout, no to mention the fun she has at the beach clam digging. I'm not happy with the current plans for the salmon seasons and I guess this'll be the first time in a long time time that they aren't my primary focus. But in the end getting the kiddo out and learning was too important to me. Just hope G loomis introduces a high end flounder stick soon so I can look cool chasing sanddabs this year.

Mainly because our daughter is 3 and she likes going to the lakes and reeling in trout, no to mention the fun she has at the beach clam digging.

I've used mine about eight times so far since I bought it.
Fishing has been great and not a lot of folks out wetting a line.
Occupy WDFW must be working........
SF

I haven't bought one in almost 5 years. Not worth it.

Just hope G loomis introduces a high end flounder stick soon so I can look cool chasing sanddabs this year.

Your daughter would need a catch card if you plan to fish for salmon and steelhead. Not sure if you need anything for yourself if all you plan to do is help.

Same here. If I were to go buy Springer Fillets at the market,equal in weight to what I've already killed this Spring, I'd be spending about 2 decades worth of fishing license money. Seems like a good deal to me.

I just had a great day on a beach digging steamers & butter clams. The kiddo found 23 clams in the muck piles I missed while digging (granted she showed me every clam shell I dug up lol. She was so proud of her bucket of clams it was priceless. Even got the wife butthole deep into a couple holes digging. Days like this takes most of the sting out of donating to the dept.

We also waded around and I showed her all the crabs, starfish, and everything else that moved. It's funny watching her relate everything she saw to spongebob characters.

I saw a list recently put out by WDFW about all the fisheries coming up in hopes of inspiring license sales. Salmon, halibut, rockfish, bass, walleye, OD trout, and so on. Lots of really nice opportunity IF you have access to a boat and an unlimited supply of scopolamine. They are doing a good job of developing some boat-based fisheries. Kokanee comes to mind, and the Lake WA walleye will be killer. To my pea brain, though, there is nothing there I want in on. So, license fees go elsewhere.

Is that a joke? What walleye fishery? I thought WDFW/the tribes were trying to eradicate any walleye to protect the "all mighty" sockeye that none of us will ever get to fish for again in Lake Wa?