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Old 11-11-2016, 12:40 PM   #16
Badfish66
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

Hey guys, I talked to the WDFW district 9 biologist for Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties yesterday. He liked the idea and gave me some info. Apparently, It sounds like this spring there will be an opportunity to submit a formal rule change proposal. He recommended I email the WDFW fish program in Olympia with the idea and said they would contact me and give me an official form to submit when the time came. Out of curiosity I also called and spoke to a representative from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission to see what their position might be on this. While he made the comment that he didn't think there was any need for the Commission to take any official action on the issue he also couldn't see any reason why they would oppose it and in fact the last thing he said to me was "sounds like fun". The Inter-Tribal commission was in full support of the rule change getting rid of size and bag limits on the Columbia for bass, walleye and catfish. His only concern and the only concern of the biologist I talked to was the issue of positive identification. Given the fact that the species we are talking about are very easily identified and not easily confused with other species I think it's a non issue but I think it will be important to assure others who don't dive or spearfish of this.

I read the proposal to ODFW that Leigh sent me. From what I gather it hasn't been officially submitted yet? If that's the case maybe we should try to coordinate efforts before we move forward. I'll give you my thoughts and my reasoning behind them. To me, the path of least resistance is to take the rule change already adopted by both states and basically just amend it to allow spearfishing. Here's a link to the WDFW rule change for review. (http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/mar0216a/ ). We have several factors in our favor here. Our main opposition to this is going to be the hook and line fisherman and the bass and walleye groups are well established and well organized. Our advantage is that a larger hook and line group that is stronger by far in this region are salmon fishermen who should welcome this. I, being one of them, know that every smolt I potentially save increases the likelihood that makes it back to spawn or to add to the number of fish available to harvest. Also, every day I'm out there spearing will be a day I'm not fishing for salmon so it could potentially reduce pressure on that resource. The other two groups of concern are the commercial and Tribal fisherman which I mentioned earlier. No reason we won't get support from commercial fisherman as well, as it benefits them in the same way.

I think it is going to be much tougher to get a statewide rule change for all warm water fish for either state. It is likely going to put us up against the Bass and Walleye fishing associations and related groups without the benefit of having any support from other groups. I can't predict but I feel it is much more likely to fail. That being said I don't think it would hurt to make a separate rule change proposal for opening it up statewide. They will evaluate them separately and who knows, maybe we will get lucky and get both through but if not at least we would have a really good chance at getting one and it may open the door to more later. The other nice thing is that even if one state adopts it straight away and there is a period of time before the other state adopts it Oregon spearos would be able to hunt on the Washington side of the river and vice versa without having to buy an out of state license. The biggest factor may be the ODFW and WDFW's important shift in taking a stance against non-native species at least when they are in direct conflict to their management goals with ESA listed salmon and steelhead stocks and realizing the irony of allowing a bounty on native Northern Pike Minnow while at the same time protecting what are nothing more than invasive species.
What do the rest of you think of this? Anyone see any angles I might be missing?
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Old 11-14-2016, 05:05 PM   #17
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

good thoughts. Propose an evening beer/rules meeting? I'm pretty flexible on when. It would be good if we could get a quorum of the Oregon guys that worked on it before.
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Old 11-23-2016, 10:41 AM   #18
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

Sorry it took me so long to respond. My schedule has been pretty full lately. A meeting sounds good. I work week on week off and when I'm working I'm away from home. I'm back home next Tuesday the 29th and right now I'm pretty open between Wednesday and the following Monday if we could get enough guys together by then. My week off after that I'm headed to Mexico and after the first week in January I'll be in Brazil for 3 weeks. Considering my schedule and the holidays it might be hard to find a time that works for everybody assuming we can get a quorum as you mentioned. That being said, it's not imperative that we meet immediately. I will have plenty of time open in February and March so that would give us some time to get others onboard.
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Old 01-07-2017, 11:10 PM   #19
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

Funded by who? We are broke folks all we have is play-money, printed by fools.....

Seems like you west (Northwest) guys are not idiots but come by the DC area if you get a chance and make sure you tape up your heads real tight.

Money fly's in all directions but yours.... unless you got lots for re-election time....

We are broke. When China Russia and India call in the debt you will see Salmon become China's protected species....
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Old 01-08-2017, 12:21 AM   #20
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

As (former) President of a large fly fishing club, I set up sack lunch meetings, once a month, between ODFW decision makers and local club representatives. It was a non formal way to collaborate on various initiatives. The beauty of the lunch meeting is that no one had to change their schedule. The fact that it was non formal meant that we got a lot done. Basically, information was easily shared and passed back and forth saving tremendous time. When people are off the record it is much easier to uncover the bottlenecks. I hope this helps.
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Old 01-08-2017, 12:46 AM   #21
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

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Originally Posted by HARVESTER View Post
Funded by who? We are broke folks all we have is play-money, printed by fools.....

Seems like you west (Northwest) guys are not idiots but come by the DC area if you get a chance and make sure you tape up your heads real tight.

Money fly's in all directions but yours.... unless you got lots for re-election time....

We are broke. When China Russia and India call in the debt you will see Salmon become China's protected species....
Thanks for your insightful input. Um, what were we talking about again?
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Old 01-08-2017, 01:36 AM   #22
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

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Originally Posted by Coos-spearo View Post
As (former) President of a large fly fishing club, I set up sack lunch meetings, once a month, between ODFW decision makers and local club representatives. It was a non formal way to collaborate on various initiatives. The beauty of the lunch meeting is that no one had to change their schedule. The fact that it was non formal meant that we got a lot done. Basically, information was easily shared and passed back and forth saving tremendous time. When people are off the record it is much easier to uncover the bottlenecks. I hope this helps.
That is a good suggestion. I also remember reading a thread that I will have to find again where the president of one of the sport fishing associations in the state of Washington was reaching out to the spearfishing community. He would be worth contacting I think.
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Old 01-08-2017, 11:09 AM   #23
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

The Oregon budget constraints are real and money talks. If you can show revenue generation through the sale of additional licenses You will get stuff done in a hurry. I would go to a meeting armed with the potential number of scuba and freedivers as a possible new customer base. I would also include bowhunters as a possible revenue source.

If I made that presentation I would have three main bullet points and would have done background and have gathered research information on each point if it were necessary.
1. Revenue growth by the additional sales of licenses and tags.
2. Control of invasive species. Spear fisherman and bow hunters have the ability to target a specific species. I think this is being done on the Sacramento River to target stripers? I could be wrong, however, another state may have already done an EIS and could give you valuable support.
3. The ethical ramifications of spearfishing and the elimination of by catch through the specific targeting of one identifiable fish needs to always be a talking point and mantra for the good of the group.

In the past I had to control the representatives from the fly fishing group that did the talking in the room. We had a lot of passionate people, that had to be contained in order to make steady process. My take on the ODFW is that they were highly educated, passionate people that were willing to help and uncover resources if they thought it would help, however, they are also locked in by bureaucracy. Show them the money and the process becomes easier.
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Old 01-08-2017, 02:44 PM   #24
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

That makes sense as far as showing positive revenue. I guess what I don't see is how there could be a huge downside in that department. Maybe you're not really saying that. Anyway, I think your points are very good. I'm kind of surprised by the lack of response from fellow Washingtonians. While I can certainly strategize a coordinated effort with my Oregonian friends any actions I take in regards to rule change proposals are going to have to focus on my State. As I mentioned before though I think I win for one would eventually be a win for both as both States jointly manage the Columbia River system where they share a border.
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Old 08-22-2017, 03:33 PM   #25
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

Hey I'm looking for a spearing partner in Oregon. I live around Portland about a hour and a half from Tillamook bay. I'm up for either free diving or scuba, and i have all the equipment needed. My names Kyle, you can either text me at (503) 404 3739 or email me at sayrk13@gmail.com.
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Old 08-31-2017, 05:00 PM   #26
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Re: Potential for new fresh water opportunities in Washington and Oregon

Kyle - 2 things. Are you flexible for mid-week dives? The Facebook version of this forum has destroyed this forum. go join/post there for buddies if you want to reach PNW spearos! same name easy search on FB
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