Statewide deregulation of Bass and HB 1579

[stevertd2010]

For those of you have not seen it, the Northwest Sportsman Magazine posted this article on Feb. 6th:

http://nwsportsmanmag.com/washington-ba ... amendment/

Basically the decrease of chinook salmon and low orca population has prompted Washington state legislature to enact a deregulation of bass, walleye, and catfish as an attempt to remove predators of salmon smolt. From the way the bill is written, this could apply to all waters, even where there isn't a salmon fishery. Here is the detail on the bill, but today there is a public hearing in the house appropriations committee at 3:30 pm. I don't know when the bill goes to vote, but if you wish to have a say, better do it before then.

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?Bill ... &Year=2019

I've tried to alert other bass clubs, but so far not much response. I think we can put together a letter or response and have people sign in agreement to that and hopefully they might here that. Let me know if you have any ideas other than sitting here and watching it happen.

[spokey9]

i'll be honest, i was never a fan of limits and management in the past on lakes that salmon actually use. But the truth of the matter is the runs are dwindling and habitat restortation like that won't offset the sheer number of puget sound fish that get caught commercially up in alaska or canada, or even make a dent imo. so essentially all these politicians are doing is killing off fisheries that sporties can take advantage of and in the process putting wdfw funding at risk since they essentially operate on licenses fees. Just my rant though, your mileage may very.

[hewesfisher]

If the public hearing took place as scheduled, Feb 20th, it was 2 days before being posted here.