Now is the time to get commenting if you want a say in the next round of rule changes for fishing in Washington State. The WSDFW is taking written commentary on the new fishing rules and will be having a public meeting on December 4-5.
Here are a couple of the proposed changes, but you should visit the WSDFW Website to read all of them and find out where to send your comments.
- Prohibit the harvest of all species of “unclassified” marine fish and invertebrates – such as blennies, tide pool sculpins, starfish, sand dollars and shorecrabs – which can either be found on Washington’s beaches or in nearshore waters. The proposal does not prohibit collecting empty shells from any species.
- Develop a set of protective measures for rockfish, including prohibiting retention of rockfish in marine areas 6 through 13 and closing the retention of bottomfish in waters deeper than 20 fathoms in marine areas 4 (east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line) through 13.
- Close fishing seasons that allow retention of hatchery-reared steelhead a month earlier on a stretch of the Skagit River and two weeks earlier on portions of several other north Puget Sound rivers including the Pilchuck, Raging, Skykomish, Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Stillaguamish, Nooksack and north, south and middle Nooksack rivers, as well as Pilchuck creek. All of those rivers would close to retention of hatchery steelhead at the end of the day on Feb. 15 under proposals designed to further efforts to conserve and restore Puget Sound wild steelhead, which are listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
So if you want a say in how our fishery is managed, now is the time to take action. Kind of like when the election comes around, this is your time to complain and make a difference so get on it!
The weather here in the Northwest is great for growing things. Apparently a little too great! Here is another non-native plant that is causing trouble and a group that is working to keep it from ruining watersheds.
The Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force is getting almost a quarter of a million dollars to fight this highly invasive plant that you have to spray to kill because cutting it down or pulling it up just makes it mad. Sounds like some Blackberries I know of.
This SeattlePI Article has more info on what is going on, but these invasive plants really suck!
December 19th, 2008
Cliff
Looks like at least a little of the state budget will be going toward something I approve of, fish habitat restoration and protection!
The state Salmon Recovery Funding Board has slated the projects in Walla Walla and Columbia counties for more than $1.6 million in funding. The awards were announced by Gov. Chris Gregoire Friday.
Six projects totaling $931,664 are in Walla Walla County and four totaling $694,619 are in Columbia County. The money from state and federal sources will be disbursed in coming months as contracts are approved, said Susan Zemek of the state Recreation and Conservation Office.
Project grants in several cases will be matched by donations of labor, equipment and funds from the applicants. The Full Article
This is just a small part of the $19.8 million dollars in state grants that have been approved by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. While I complain a lot about what is going on with fishery management, it does please me to see at least something being done to restore habitat and give our fish a fighting chance.
Now if we can just knock back commercial and indian fishing a bit we might just get some Salmon runs back in good shape!
Having a solid list of sites to do research on Puget Sound Fishing Reports can definitely help solve the issue of ‘the fish will be here in two weeks’ or ‘you should have been here last week’ which is what we hear quite often when we go fishing on Puget Sound.
Here are a few of the tools we use to research Puget Sound Salmon fishing and find out if we should be catching fish or buying extra beer and munchies.
So before you start planning your trip, take a look at the Puget Sound fishing reports and see what the fishing will be like and what to expect!
We took these photos a while ago and I see that people seem to be finding them by searching Flickr for ‘puget sound’ and ‘Sea Serpent’ so I thought I would post them here since it is Halloween. Here is our encounter with the Puget Sound Sea Monster! If you like creepy stuff like this be sure to check out the Florida Mystery Fish!
What is this Sea Serpent doing in
Puget Sound?
We dared to get closer to this Puget Sound Sea Monster
despite the danger of being attacked and eaten!
Perhaps this Sea Monster is why we
never catch any fish in Puget Sound
