Restrictions Send Waves Through Sport Fishing Community

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The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WFDW) announced new restrictions Tuesday that prohibit fishing from floating devices and the use of baits or scents in coastal rivers. The restrictions, which go into place Dec. 14, sent ripples through the sport fishing community.

Fishing from jet sleds, drift boats and pontoons are all prohibited, greatly limiting the areas fishermen can harvest from and eliminating popular boat-fishing methods such as plugging, side drifting and bobber dogging. Selective gear rules are also in effect, except one single-point barbless hook is allowed, and all rainbow trout must be released.

Rivers will also close earlier than in past years, ranging from Jan. 1, 2021 to April 1, 2021, depending on the river. In Lewis County, the Chehalis, Skookumchuck and Newaukum rivers, including all forks, each close April 1.

These restrictions come after the WDFW’s announcement that several coastal steelhead runs are expected to have well below their escapement goals. The Chehalis River is expected to have 2,000 fish fewer than the spawning goal of 8,600; Queets/Clearwater is predicted to have 637 fewer; the Humptulips 534 and the Willapa 344. The Quillayute, located on the Olympic Peninsula near Forks, is the only coastal river expected to have numbers above escapement goals (3,376 fish more than predicted).

That prompted a Nov. 24 WDFW virtual town hall meeting, which was attended by 160 fishermen and members of conservation organizations. In addition, the WDFW received more than 300 public comments this fall as it decided on four management approaches to help long-term steelhead conservation. The four options ranged from keeping only the Quillayute open, to completely closing all sport fishing for steelhead on the coast.

“Based on public feedback and analysis of catch reductions expected as a result of these regulations, this rule change provides the greatest short-term certainty of meeting our management objectives, outside of a full coastwide steelhead closure, by limiting encounters while spreading risk and creating opportunity for fishing across the entire run” said James Losee, Fish Program manager for WDFW’s Coastal Region. “We feel confident that this plan will break recent years’ pattern of not meeting escapement goals, while still providing opportunity for fishing.”

Scott Crawford, owner of Washington State Fishing Guides in Montesano, said he was hoping the WDFW would shut down steelhead fishing completely, rather than punish the fishing guide industry.

For Crawford, guided fishing tours on boats is 100 percent of his business for the next two months, which covers the remainder of coho fishing and the entire steelhead season. Not only that, he has $100,000 tied up in boats and equipment.

“I was up all night,” Crawford said. “It’s devastating. It’s absolutely devastating. In my opinion, it does nothing to protect wild steelhead whatsoever as long as those nets are allowed to be in the water.”

He referenced tribal gillnetting, a part of coastal tribes’ treaty rights which grants them half the salmon/steelhead catch. The WDFW said tribal governments are reducing their fishing times to support conservation objectives, expanding on actions tribal co-managers took to close steelhead fishing in February 2020 on the Chehalis and Willapa rivers in an effort to preserve wild stock.

But Crawford said it doesn’t make sense to shut down boat fishing when gillnets are the ones that nab a large percentage of the fish near the mouths of the rivers, long before sport fishermen get a crack at them upstream. The Chehalis and Quinault tribes’ fisheries departments did not respond to phone calls or emails for comment.

In addition, hatchery steelhead arrive much earlier in river systems than wild steelhead. If the goal of the WDFW is to limit the amount of wild steelhead interactions, Crawford questions why they are closing fishing from floating devices on Dec. 14, months before the wild steelhead arrive, but allowing bank fisherman to fish until April 1, which spans the entire wild steelhead run.

“In my opinion, this is a direct attack on the guiding industry,” Crawford said. 

The WDFW said in its press release Wednesday that these new measures will result in more than a 50 percent reduction in the number of steelhead caught in coastal waters. The hope is to prevent the same fate of the wild Puget Sound steelhead, whose numbers have dropped by 97 percent and have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 2007.

“If they wanted to look out for the betterment of the fish, I’m all about that,” Crawford said. “I want there to be lots of fish. If I have to sacrifice a year or two or three to bring the numbers back up, I’m more than willing to do that. But not with nets in the water.”

Crawford also worries that the new measures will alienate the fisherman who have the toughest time finding access to fishable waters: the elderly and disabled, which make up 95 percent of his clients. During winter, water levels are often higher than normal, erasing bank access, which is limited anyways due to large portions of salmon/steelhead rivers bordering private property. That makes it difficult for elderly and disabled people to find fishing access, Crawford said.



In a press release, the WDFW said it, “makes every effort to provide angling opportunities for people of all abilities. Disability access concerns may be addressed via a request for reasonable accommodation. More information about this process is available on our Requests for Title VI / ADA services web page.”

On the conservation side, Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Washington Fish Conservancy in Duvall, said the new restrictions are a step in the right direction but more action is needed to save Washington state’s state fish. He was surprised the WDFW did not completely shut down steelhead fishing and were willing to keep the rivers open that didn’t meet their escapement goals.

“Reducing the pressure on these fish is the least we can do,” Beardslee said. “I’m sympathetic to guides and others, but this resource is here, not just for this generation, it is here in perpetuity for all generations to come. We have to be good stewards... for fishermen, this is a best-case-scenario, by far.”

Beardslee said management needs to focus on rebuilding steelhead stocks and that dwindling numbers are not due to a decline in habitat. One of the main problems, he said, is fisheries are producing too many hatchery fish, which compete with wild steelhead for resources. He noted that fisheries managers need to use science in their decision-making, not politics or public opinion.

“Science is the only compass that’s going to point in the direction that will bring about recovery,” Beardslee said. “We just haven’t had management that’s willing to follow the science.”

For Crawford, who’s been a fishing guide for eight years and has sport fished for 45 years, he’s left with nowhere to turn. He books clients for eight guides across the state and said putting the fishing guide industry out of business will have ripple effects through entire coastal communities. 

He just had to cancel two clients who were planning to fish Dec. 14, who were going to each book hotel rooms in Montesano, eat at the restaurants and buy fishing supplies from local stores. Multiply that for the thousands of fishermen who travel to the coast each year to hire fishing guides and it will affect entire communities, he said.

Crawford hopes these restrictions will help bring everyone involved in the fishing community together — the guides, sport fishermen, tribes and conservation groups — to help find a way to save steelhead while still providing ample fishing opportunities for everyone.

“This is a Washingtonian way of life and something we, as sportsmen, look forward to for the entire year,” Crawford said. “The salmon runs are cool but the steelhead runs are the Shangri-La of fishing in Washington. It’s the most revered, sought-after fish.”

“When fishing is going strong, it’s a nonstop parade of fishermen going through town. When fishing is closed, this is a ghost town.”