A BILL INTENDED to create a pilot licensing program for individual guides and multi-employee outfitting services fishing for steelhead on West End rivers and the Klickitat River in central Washington was introduced in the state senate earlier this month.
The bipartisan bill is sponsored by our own Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim; Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, and Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island. It had its first reading Jan. 19 and was referred to the senate’s Committee on Natural Resources &Parks.
In the “Eye on Olympia” section of last Monday’s Peninsula Daily News, Van De Wege said the bill would create a pilot program in which steelhead fishing guides would be required to purchase one of a limited number of tags.
Here on the North Olympic Peninsula, the destination steelhead fishery pilot project would include all rivers from the Queets to the Elwha during steelhead fishing periods of Dec. 1 through April 30 each year, with the legislation running through June 30, 2022.
Proposed guide fees
The bill would require any recreational fishing guide working within the pilot project area and season to purchase a $500 destination fishery guide tag specific to that area or work for an outfitter holding an outfitter tag (a $2,500 fee) specific to that area.
Guides and outfitting services would have to opt in and purchase individual or outfitter tags during the first year of the pilot project or be shut out of providing guide services in subsequent years.
Guiding requirements also would be enforced as part of the pilot project.
Guides must “demonstrate to the satisfaction of the department that he or she has held a Washington state fish guide license for the prior four years and has generated fishing guide income from work within the pilot project area for at least the prior two years.”
Destination fishery outfitters, as they are referred to in the bill, would be required to show they have been operating as an outfitter for the prior four years and generated income and employed guides within the pilot project area for at least the prior two years.”
Outfitters would be limited to employing the number of guides they have employed/contracted with in the fishery each year during the past two years.
So if a guide service employed three guides the past two years, they could employe from one to three guides under their destination fishery outfiftters tag.
Unlike certain commercial fishing or crabbing licenses, tags would not be eligible to be sold/transferred.
And if not renewed each year, the tag would not be available for purchase down the line.
Recreational fishing guides would have data reporting requirements as well.
Log books capturing daily guide information including, but not limited to, specific areas worked; hours fished; number of angler clients and fish caught.
Two years into the pilot project, Fish and Wildlife would be required to “calculate the total number of guided rod days in each area during the initial two years of operation.
A “rod day” is defined as one person who fishes with a guide for one day or a substantial portion thereof.
Most guides take two customers along, so those two anglers would count for two rod days.
The state would then take this data and “convene a stakeholder process” in order to review rod day totals, catch records and other information like fishing pressure in order to “ensure recreational fishing pressure does not adversely impact steelhead populations or the recreational fishing experience.”
The money raised through the program would be provided to the state treasurer and used to protect steelhead fisheries, Van De Wege said.
He said the rationale behind S-5302 is two-fold: First, it would reduce overcrowding on the rivers where people fish for steelhead.
It would also protect communities where fishing guides live, such as Forks.
Too often, he said, guides from out of the state show up with gear and boats and take work away from the people in those communities.
While the number of guides statewide has remained relatively static in recent years, the number working West End rivers, which provide some of the last remaining stretches of relatively pristine stream conditions, has increased dramatically.
More information, including a link to the bill in full, is available at tinyurl.com/PDN-GuideBill.
License fees the same
Recreational fishing and hunting licenses for the 2017-2018 season, which begins April 1, are available for sale today.
In a surprising move, License fees for the 2017-2018 season have not changed from 2016-17.
Typically, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife begins to sell the upcoming year’s licenses in December.
“With the release of our new licensing system last month, we opted to delay selling 2017-18 licenses in order to avoid printing licenses from two separate systems, with slightly different formatting, for a single license year,” said Peter Vernie, the department’s licensing division manager.
Customers can access the state licensing system at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
