WA Closures!!!

[Kerry Stratton]

I have no problem closing rivers to fishing if the fish are not there in large enough numbers to support a fishery. What I have problems with is when these closures are announced by WDFW personal they make mention of sports fishers and catch and release fishing as the main culprit such as the following statement:

“"This is the fourth straight year that we've seen a downward trend in wild steelhead returns," Leland said. "These closures are necessary to meet the conservation objectives of our statewide steelhead management plan and comply with provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA)."

Wild steelhead in the Puget Sound region have been listed as "threatened" under the ESA since 2007. Although anglers are required to release any wild fish they catch in those rivers, some of those fish inevitably die from the experience, Leland said.”

I know this statement by Mr. Leland was not made to sound as if the sport fishing, catch and release season is the cause of the decline in steelhead but without making any mention of the primary causes of wild steelhead decline such as dams, uncontrolled logging, over development, agriculture, channelizing, over harvest by commercial fishing, etc., it appears as if we are the ones to blame. Kinda pisses me off. And they wonder why the sportsmen in this state have little respect for WDFW.

Another interesting thing is the Skagit closes tomorrow to all sports fishing which is primarily catch and release but we witnessed commercial fishing gill nets in the river today. Something is terribly wrong when catch and release sport fishing is closed but commercial net kill fishery is allowed to continue.