WDFW Q & A Thread - Questions for Stacie Kelsey, WDFW

[MarkFromSea]

50,000 cats, yeah buddy! Seems like a lot of those lakes have had channel cats planted in them before, I think it's great!

[Stacie Kelsey]

I'm working really hard to figure out how we can raise them here in the region. Either by net pens or some other creative means. I love catfish. They are just the coolest.

[natetreat]

That would be really neat. I love catfish, they're one of my favorites.

['OL GREY DOG]

in the mid 80s i raised blue cats in rubbermaid water troughs in a shed...bought fingerlings at a pet shop...theyre pretty tough fish....had 1 was abouta 2footer jumped out was lay'n on the floor when i found it...with its skin dry'd out....grab'd a old aquarium and tossed it in there with a bucket of water from the trough....she was lay'n on the bottom of the tank the next morning but breath'n!!!...got active enough to eat after a few days but has some sores on her skin...so i left her in there (didnt want to expose the 1s in the trough)and medicated her....added a wire cover to all my tanks after that lolol....those rubbermaid troughs are perfect...tough 'n easy to clean and have a screw on plastic plumbing fitting/cap in the bottom makes for easy plumbing for pumps ...last for yearsssss...was a fun/exciting project....learn'd a few things...
1 was... i went out 1 night to turn off the
light in the shed...were 100s of bugs swarm'n
around it..as i watched..a mouth came up like a
trout dimple 'n sucked 1 in...duh.. left the light on

another 1 was...when they got abouta foot long...i had some extra
feeder goldfish..<shrugs> toss'd 'em in....duh...lolol....become a every week or 2 supplement to their feed after that...

another was....when the water tests showed that the tanks/filters
needed cleaning dang near everyday!!!!...was time to butcher some
lololol....
that's my 35 cents worth on that 1....DOG

[YellowBear]

Catfish are pretty simple to raise.
When I was a kid I put some in a stockpond in the back field and in a couple of years we were catching eaters.
The pond was 50 wide by 100 feet long and 6 feet deep.
The down side was they wiped out my Waterdog population, lol.

[Stacie Kelsey]

That's good to know. I'm not sure what really happened but after a go at trying to raise them we quit.


BTW - I wanted to update my contact info every couple of pages for anyone new reading this thread. The only time I do not answer my cell is if I am in a meeting, in a bad reception area, with my horse, or I have a day off!

stacie.kelsey@dfw.wa.gov
cell: 360-601-1168

I do take calls in weekends and evenings as I know that's when most people get off work and are most able to make calls. So if you're wanting to check on what the hot spots for fishing are or have other questions, please feel free to call at anytime.

stace

[Amx]

A horse? Is it a seahorse? [img=http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ima ... /devil.gif]d[/img]

[Stacie Kelsey]

Sadly he does not like water! Not even mud puddles! Now my old horse, I used to ride right into Wallowa Lake (I'm from Joseph Oregon) and I fished right off his back for trout/kokanee. Funnest times.

My horse just stood there, hanging out in the water. :bounce:

[Amx]

The Quarter Horse I had in the '90s-'00s before I retired, liked water. We crossed a river or 2 in our day.

[Stacie Kelsey]

Beautiful horse!!! What a beautiful head. Wonder what the dog was thinking! LOL!

I'll post a picture of mine later when I get home.

[Marc Martyn]

Reminds me of Mr. Ed and how he used to stick his head into the kitchen window.

[Anglinarcher]

Keep in mind the idea of liking such a drastic measure comes from complete and utter frustration for fish showing up where we don't want them to be. I think we do a pretty good job offering a variety of fish to catch but because someone wants to put fish where they think they should go - it ruins it for everyone.

I wonder, it would seem that you already have a love/hate relationship with your clients, the fishers of Washington. What do you think your (state agency)support would be like when you start to punish the innocent majority along with the guilty minority?

Heck, someone robs a bank, let's just prohibit anyone from having money??????#-o

As you can probably tell from a lot of my post, both to you and others, I am one that feels the State management is a half bubble off plumb now, but I also don't support illegal bucket biologist and other irresponsible activities. But I'll tell you one thing you can take to the bank, watch my attitude get REALLY SOUR if you tell me I can't fish one of my lakes because you are punishing some unknown minority.

Utter frustration can go both ways, and I wonder, how adversarial do you (the agency) want to make it?

[Anglinarcher]

SEPA is for areas that not have been previously stocked with a particular species. My two lakes should not be on there since they already went through SEPA. Weird.

But yeah hoping to get the catfish stocking rebooted since it fell to the wayside a few years ago.

The nice thing about Channel Catfish is that they don't seem to be able to spawn in Washington waters, unlike Bullheads that can overtake a water. If populations can be kept to a regulated number, they are great eating, great sport, and they also can be used as a predator for common carp, etc.

[Stacie Kelsey]

Keep in mind the idea of liking such a drastic measure comes from complete and utter frustration for fish showing up where we don't want them to be. I think we do a pretty good job offering a variety of fish to catch but because someone wants to put fish where they think they should go - it ruins it for everyone.

I wonder, it would seem that you already have a love/hate relationship with your clients, the fishers of Washington. What do you think your (state agency)support would be like when you start to punish the innocent majority along with the guilty minority?

Heck, someone robs a bank, let's just prohibit anyone from having money??????#-o

As you can probably tell from a lot of my post, both to you and others, I am one that feels the State management is a half bubble off plumb now, but I also don't support illegal bucket biologist and other irresponsible activities. But I'll tell you one thing you can take to the bank, watch my attitude get REALLY SOUR if you tell me I can't fish one of my lakes because you are punishing some unknown minority.

Utter frustration can go both ways, and I wonder, how adversarial do you (the agency) want to make it?

Anglinarcher - I do get you that you seem to dislike my posts/our Agency and I am really trying to help you get the answers that you need. I've attempted to answer each of your concerns by passing on the information to my co-workers on your thoughts and suggestions which have been really good. However, if my effort is not really helping you, please let me know and I will not continue to agitate you with my responses.

As far as the lake closures due to illegal stocking, I passed that information on as a point of discussion. I have found the feedback from anglers here to be very thoughtful and I felt it'd be good to see where you guys stood on a fairly drastic measure.

I thought it was particularly interesting that it seemed to do what the bios in BC wanted it to do, which was remove a very serious issues of illegal stocking. We have other methods we try to use in dealing with illegal stocking with can include rehabbing a lake or changing limits etc. Their presentation produced a lot of discussion on both sides of the coin.

Obviously we don't want to do anything that takes away fishing opportunities, but we also have to find ways to address the illegal stocking issues. We have done that by rehabbing lakes and reg changes. BC's approach was interesting because it was a unique strategy that didn't seem to be a huge problem with their other anglers. They seemed to understand the huge problem that illegal stocking was creating for their fishery and were willing to sit out fishing the lake for a year or so to get that quality fishery back.

Regarding channel catfish, they do spawn quite well in our lakes down here so I imagine they should be able to on the east side. We have really good spawning habitat for them in both Vancouver Lake and Swofford Pond. I have yet to see them spawn in Kress Lake personally, but I've heard reports of juvenile channel catfish a few years ago and we stock at 12" or larger.

[MarkFromSea]

They essentially closed Hatch for that one year..... They essentially closed Sprague...... If you fished there, you had very limited to no success. I was pretty furious at the time. But, I was happy with the trout I caught at Hatch this last winter. There wasn't any size to the perch that were in the lake 2 winters prior, so I say mission accomplished. But I will add this, if I catch a perch in Hatch ever again, I'll follow the reg and not retain it but there is NO WAY that I'll put it back into the lake alive as the regulation implies!

For a change of subject, which lakes are scheduled for rehab this Fall anywhere in the state? I love it when they open them up prior to rehab for no limit all species! A few years ago I was able to catch and keep over 100 trout in a day out of Williams and it was totally legal! I think Badger is scheduled for fall 2012.

[Stacie Kelsey]

So it sounds like we have done something similar. I'll check on the lake rehabs I haven't seen a list yet.

[MarkFromSea]

In essence, it's a defacto closure, no fish to catch but also not illegal to fish it during the lakes regular season. This does keep the uninformed from receiving unnecessary tickets. The only thing they lose by fishing the lake is their time, at least it's not their wallet also.

The end results are good! There is hundreds of lakes to choose from, fishers can just pick a differant lake to fish during the closed/no fish year during rehab. Let's just NEVER call it or even THINK of it as a punishment. It's NOT! It's a means to an end, a better fishery in that specific body of water.

Peace Out Brothers and Sisters! It's ALL good!

[Stacie Kelsey]

I've heard of anglers being pleased after a rehab. One they are explained why it's being done most are fine with it in the pre phase too.

[Anglinarcher]

I'm glad to hear the Chanel Cats are spawning in your area. Sprague was/is the only lake in my normal fishing area with them, and I have neither seen or heard of juvenile Cats in it. It was a WDF&W officer that told me Chanel Cats could not spawn in Washington, so back to that love/hate relationship again. Who do I believe?

I don't mind re-habs at all. It is sometimes required, and is a valuable tool. Closing the lake for a year or so to enable redevelopment of the fishery is also just fine with me. I took, and still take, the can't fish the lake "comment" as a means to punish the innocent, not the guilty.

Think about it Stacie, really, just take a minute and think. Let's say that John and Jane Doe are Perch lovers, and they want perch in Stacie's lake. Do you think they are going to tell anyone that they are illegally putting a bucket of perch in the lake? Maybe some will tell, but I would think that most are smart enough to keep silent. Now, will a one or two year closure stop this? A bucket of illegal stock may take 5 or more years to provide a decent bass, perch, pike, or whatever John and Jane want, so a one or two year closure means nothing to them.

I don't mean to sound like it is YOU that I dislike, quite the opposite. I respect your willingness to try to defend the department, and to answer our questions.

Still, surely you must expect that with completely illogical, even total ridiculous, rules, regulations, and general politics, that seem to come from this state's management authorities, that someone will have the courage to challenge some of your responses.

I remember reading somewhere that all that is necessary for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. Perhaps those of us that challenge the obsolete, illogical, irrational, ridiculous, and evil political rules are the ones necessary to keep the "evil" of bureaucracy in check.

Something to think about, wouldn't you say?

[Stacie Kelsey]

Discussion is a must! And if it's different from the info I put forward that is still a good thing, it may lead to a good change!

You may get different input on a variety of lakes, so yes, it can be confusing as to what to believe. Your best bet is to always speak directly with the folks that manage the lake. They can give you the best ideas on what occur.

I see how closing a lake to everyone does punish those that did nothing wrong. But when you are like the folks in BC and have reached your last limit, sometimes the drastic option is the best option. And it has done what they needed. Good quality waters with no illegal restocking. The best thing is that people if they know it's happening, turn those people in.

I have found that people do tell. It's a bragging right to say they screwed with the state. I personally talked to a guy who brazenly indicated he was the one that had stocked a numerous amount of shakers into each of the lakes. I told thim that was really stupid and gave him a lecture. Did he care? Probably not. But it got him on our radar.

I realize that a lot of people dislike what we do. But, I am a firm beleiver that if people engage with us, they can 1) understand the reasoning behind the decision and 2) give input that may lead to better regs/decisions etc. There will be stuff that cannot be changed because it's legistlatively mandated, but that doesn't make public input any less important.

I hope that you and everyone else continues to offer up suggestions and challenges. It helps us be better and make better decisions. I don't mind at all that there are people that dislike the agency. But my goal will always be to get them to be more apart of the process and hopefully help to make things better.

I'm glad to be a part of the angling community and get enthused about their passion.