Northwest Fishing Reports

This is a must read for anyone interested in Aquatic Invasive Species and Lake Samish Kokanee fishing. Thanks Rseas for another excellent article.

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=551

That was a great read and very informative article that Rseas put out there. Hats off on a job well done Thanks.

Just a note and to put a complaint about Whatcom county. So the Discover pass is 30-35$ this
Annual Permit ($50) includes unlimited inspections (valid through December 31)
Multi-Day Pass ($20) includes one inspction (valid for 3 consecutive days) for lake whatcom and samish and soon other lakes ( Baker). Now dont get me wrong I think the AIS is a must to control and educate everyone about it. Granted you dont need the Discover pass to launch out a WDFW boat launch but for the travel time and cost to drag the boat up there makes it hard to want to fish up there and justify the extra money. To top that off this is looking to happen at Baker lake for sockeye fishing!? Looks like Whatcom county is going to push the non county members out. With work, family/kids I have limited time to fish. It was a nice thing to visit the mother inlaw in B-ham and sneak off to fish Samish and be back by the time most wake up. Am I way off board or does any one else feel this way. It almost seems they dont want people to fish in this state. I really hope that other counties DO NOT follow Whatcom county for this I feel puts a great lake and soon by the sounds lakes out of my enjoyment.

The saying “the path to hell is paved with good intentions” comes to mind when I read this. I have nothing against the efforts to combat and control AIS but can’t agree with how Whatcom country wants to go about it. In my opinion, the premise behind this program is patently un-American. In Whatcom county’s eyes we are all now guilty of transporting AIS until we prove to Whatcom county’s satisfaction that we are not. I don’t know how else you justify blanket searches of private property without probable cause. To my knowledge our boats are still our private property. I love kokanee fishing and would have liked to explore these lakes eventually, unfortunately this puts them off my list now. And to Idstud’s point, that may have been the whole end game here anyway. I sincerely hope the efforts to combat AIS continue but no other counties adopt the heavy handed tactics Whatcom has here, just imagine if this mindset spread to other walks of life.
Hey every vehicle traveling through Whatcom “could” be carrying controlled substances, should probably pull 100% of all moving vehicles over and search them just in case unless they pay and put a sticker on their cars.....”the path to hell is paved with good intentions”.
Have a good day all.

Thanks well put.All good info.

I agree with you. Worse yet, the invasives will make it anyway, even if we get every single boat inspected. It has already been proven that the muscles, snails, etc., that are eaten by the birds often come out the other end alive and ready to spread.

It looks to me like another money raising scheme, clothed in the disguise of good intentions. Paving the way to hell on the back of fishermen.

We had this conversation when this first came up. The general consensus is that it is un-American. It is literally looking for a needle in a haystack. If they find a single boat this year with an invasive species, I'll eat five bucks. There are so many other good ways to keep AIS out that to take these draconian measures for two lakes is garbage. It's a tax grab. They want their money.

natetreat wrote:We had this conversation when this first came up. The general consensus is that it is un-American. It is literally looking for a needle in a haystack. If they find a single boat this year with an invasive species, I'll eat five bucks. There are so many other good ways to keep AIS out that to take these draconian measures for two lakes is garbage. It's a tax grab. They want their money.

Agreed on the Tax grab its just sad and bums one out. I wish there was some way to get the word out and get everyone, fisherman and water skier/pleasure boaters on board to boycott this. We need to take back our outdoors and good whole some family fun and stop the nickle and dimming.

Has anyone been out to Samish yet? Did they get the check stations up and going or any news on that?

a lake back home in Iowa recently came was confirmed with zebra muscles. I recently saw a show about them in the great lakes, and other areas, and what research has been done about them. What i learned is there will never be a time again that these muscles don't live in these lakes. Its sad to think about what it is going to do that area. any AIS is not good, if the inspections drive less traffic to the area because of "the hastle" of it all, the lake is better off, because the inspectors are more likely to do there job well, and the odds of AIS transmission is lowered.

--Given all of the inspections... are there stats on what they have found so far?

This is a USGS map of confirmed locations as of 2011.

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/mld/zmusslx.html
I found this map from CA:

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/mollusk ... enaMap.jpg
Texas:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/r ... =20140121a

ncwflounderer wrote:a lake back home in Iowa recently came was confirmed with zebra muscles. I recently saw a show about them in the great lakes, and other areas, and what research has been done about them. What i learned is there will never be a time again that these muscles don't live in these lakes. Its sad to think about what it is going to do that area. any AIS is not good, if the inspections drive less traffic to the area because of "the hastle" of it all, the lake is better off, because the inspectors are more likely to do there job well, and the odds of AIS transmission is lowered.

This is the kind of logic that closed our hatchery steelhead in Puget Sound. careful, it's a slippery slope.

natetreat wrote:

ncwflounderer wrote:a lake back home in Iowa recently came was confirmed with zebra muscles. I recently saw a show about them in the great lakes, and other areas, and what research has been done about them. What i learned is there will never be a time again that these muscles don't live in these lakes. Its sad to think about what it is going to do that area. any AIS is not good, if the inspections drive less traffic to the area because of "the hastle" of it all, the lake is better off, because the inspectors are more likely to do there job well, and the odds of AIS transmission is lowered.

This is the kind of logic that closed our hatchery steelhead in Puget Sound. careful, it's a slippery slope.

Exactly Natetreat. It is good to train people on what to look for and how to take care of it but look at it like black berries. A bird eats the fruit and poops out the seed in your back yard and the black berry bush then grows in your back yard. I love the outdoors and I love to fish. Ais is not good but there are better ways of dealing with it than what is being done at lake samish and whatcom. True outdoors-man want to care of what we have and our future.

--I was meaning have the inspectors found any AIS and stopped entry into Lake Samish.
--The reason I ask is similar programs are being looked at in the Okanagan Valley... as two incidents so far one at the boarder and one at Shuswap lk marina. Fortunate that both boats had no live mussels or larvae found. All boats and dock area where the Shuswap boat was found are being inspected.
--We obvously don't want to ban boats from out of province (some groups already calling for this). I am sure that anyone traveling with a boat would volunteer... as did the person at the boarder to have their boat inspected and in this case cleaned prior to being put in the water.