After reflecting on last week's passionate discussions about Crab Creek, it seems to me that Ken's post (see below) starts to point to the real issues with fishing in Washington.
The WDFW's present attitude towards fishing in Washington reflects a fundamental 'put and take' philosophy. While that approach might have worked in the past, it seems more and more misguided to me in light of the present realities. Here's why: 1. Increasing fishing pressure. Even if the percentage of fishing public remains constant, overall numbers will increase in proportion to the state's growing population. More fishers means more pressure at fishing sites. More pressure means more stress on fish populations, pollution and trash, traffic and parking congestion, enforcement issues, confrontations, etc. 2. Changing attitudes. Sure, there will always be fish bonkers. But as the population becomes increasingly urbanized and wired, so too does their exposure to 'new' thinking like catch and release and watershed conservation. 3. Political pressure. The sum of the first two points is an increasingly aware and politically potent constituency. Witness the steelhead bus this past weekend. Activism among the flyfishing community is not going to ebb with the wild steelhead issue. I suspect that there will be more people joining the C&R camp than the fish bonkers'. The real issue behind Paul and Jim's passionate defense of the Crab Creek fishery is their concern over the very real possibility that a put and take bias at WDFW combined with sheer numbers of fishers will simply wipe it out. Both Sean and Mike's earlier replies correctly suggested that the long-term solution isn't to keep such fisheries secret but to work within the system to have them receive the statutory protections they deserve. Ken points out that other states have had to provide public access to their shorelines. But that access was achieved at the expense of private property advocates and the imposition of much more restrictive fishing regulations reflecting a conservation-oriented fisheries management philosophy. I'm not sure how long that sort of awareness might take to achieve here. But keeping the pressure on the WDFW is a good way to start. Kent Lufkin > I'm not sure crab creek is the only problem. All along the streams >and rivers throughout the state people have limited access to the >water. The access to salt water areas are just as much of a problem. >Other states such as California and Hawaii have laws that give at >least some limited access to all people. This is not just for people >that fish. It is for anyone who wants to recreate on a shoreline. An >initiative might work well for everyone.
