Angler comments requested

Now is your chance to comment on proposed angling rule changes. Read on.

Fish and Wildlife will accept public comments through Oct. 31 on proposed changes to the state's sportfishing rules.

The two September public meetings have been held, as of yesterday. However, to review and comment on the proposed rules, visit Fish and Wildlife's website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/rule_proposals/.

The public also will have an opportunity to provide testimony on the proposed rule changes during the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission's November meeting in Olympia. Specific day and time to be announced.

The commission, which sets policy for WDFW, is scheduled to vote on the final sportfishing rules package during a meeting in December.

Fish and Wildlife is recommending three sportfishing rule proposals that would:

Liberalize the daily limit for walleye to 16 fish on the waters of the San Poil River inundated by Lake Roosevelt, the San Poil Arm, to decrease the overabundant walleye population and to align regulations with those for Lake Roosevelt.

Dennis note: Lake Roosevelt now has a limit of 16 walleye with no size restriction. Anyone had any luck on the lake?

Re-organize WAC 232-28-619, "Washington food fish and game fish-Freshwater exceptions to statewide rules," into multiple rules based on geographical area. The current rule is over 300 pages long. Proposed modifications to the rule include making technical changes, corrections, and updates to language and restructuring provisions under an outline format for accuracy, clarity, and transparency for the public.

Snake River hatchery fall chinook salmon fishery will open Sept. 1

Starting Sept. 1, anglers will be able to catch and keep hatchery fall chinook salmon on the Snake River.

State fishery managers are predicting another strong return of upriver bright chinook salmon to the Snake River this year and have expanded the daily catch limit to include three adult hatchery chinook, plus six hatchery jack chinook under 24 inches in length.

Anglers may also catch and keep up to three hatchery steelhead, but must stop fishing for the day for both hatchery chinook and steelhead once they have taken their three-fish steelhead limit. The retention season for hatchery steelhead on the Snake River opened on Jun. 16 this year.

Barbless hooks are required, and any salmon or steelhead not marked as a hatchery fish by a clipped adipose fin must be released, along with any chinook salmon under 12 inches.

The fishery will be open seven days a week and will extend from beneath the southbound lanes of the Highway 12 Bridge near Pasco upriver to the Oregon state line, approximately seven miles upstream of the mouth of the Grande Ronde River.

This fishing opportunity for hatchery chinook salmon is a bonus for anglers during the traditionally productive Snake River steelhead fishery.

Although the retention fishery for chinook could close earlier based on assessments of the run size and catch goals, it is expected to extend through Oct. 31.

Retention of hatchery chinook won't increase impacts to fish protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, so long as anglers release wild chinook as required. Of the 434,600 upriver bright chinook salmon projected to enter the Columbia River this year, 31,600 are wild fall chinook bound for the Snake River.

For that reason, anglers are reminded to identify their catch before they remove it from the water. State law prohibits removing chinook salmon or steelhead from the water unless they are retained as part of the daily catch limit.

Free festival celebrates Columbia River sturgeon

The Columbia River ecosystem and its primitive inhabitant, the sturgeon, will be honored here Saturday, Sept. 21, at the 17th Annual Sturgeon Festival.