My biggest concern is that they have yet to show any study info to correspond with this action....Just got the e-mail back from Gary at the Federation and he stated they too were blindsided that there was not a vote but rather an announcement from several state folks....he also stated several commercial concerns from the tri-city region had concerns.....either way with time I believe more info wil arise

I am going to ask for a refund of half of my fishing license because I won't be able to fish for one of the two types of bass in the state.  It's not enough that I release all my largemouth.  Now if we didn't recognize the state laws governing tournaments and keep our limits of largemouth we could continue to kill LM.  Sounds a bit backwards to me.

Seems like a very ill conceived Fish and Wildlife rule.  I have read several studies on smallies and largies in river systems.  They have been transmitter tag and followed of the course of a couple years and smallies would travel upto 200 hundred miles in a single season in a river and largies upto 100 miles.....  The fish instictively move up and down rivers looking  for the best habitat to live in.  With that line of thinking, a largie caught near the mouth of the Snake was taken to Columbia point for weighin, it could easily travel a few miles either back to the snake of into the mouth of the yakima.  I don't see a largie getting confused and not finding good habitat to stay in......  As for largies on banks,  I can see that there is a limited amount of habitat that we normally look for largies in,  but if radio tagged, I bet largies would be found in bigger numbers than fish and wildlife guys imagine.    As for the idea of getting half my license fee back, I kinda like that proposal.  Maybe time to shoot off a few emails to government officials with the proposal.

Mark

Alls I know and have heard! Is that the state fisheries killed the Banks Lake Largie fishery and now they won't let us the tourney fishermen. We have been trying to help the Banks lake largies and now we can't weigh them in. It's all a bunch of Bull. And to think. That their still going to have the junior classic during the jamboree. 172 plus boats out their. Now with no Largies allowed to be caught. How many good smallie spots are their on banks. I see a big dispute starting from. No way to get away. I mean if your catching a big bag of fish in the jamboree. Cahnces are that a different club's member will see you and take over your spot the next day. Where the team stratagie their. Plus once again I believe from reasearch. That by introducing Smallies to Banks. They killed the largie fishery. They used to bring in 5 pounders regulary. Now it's a miracle. I mean a fishery as good as what I heard banks was. Doesn't just die in a short time. It's these fisheries biologists that think they know what their talking about fault. They They have no common sense. Just like the Wild Salmon issue out in the ocean. Chris I really can't see how theirs a big difference between wild salmon and hatchery since most of the wild salmon now days have bred with hatchery fish. Chris this is no true direction towards you. I just want to know where the common sense at. I know you have it. I also know you probably don't understand this idea either. Darn tree huggers. I hate them. I tired of hearing how their saving the animals when alls their usually doing is hurting them more they are help. Like in Wyoming their huge elk and deer heards are dying fast. Because the sieera club had to reintroduce the Grizzlies and wolfs back to the areas. I'm not making this up about Wyoming either. My uncle lives their. I'm sorry. But I had to get this off my chest.

P.S. Chris none of this is amained at you. Your a great guy and maybe you can show the people that obviously have no clue what there doing the truth.

Thanks,
Nick

Chris is a voice of reason.  BUT, there is nothing wrong with stating your position with passion AND disappointment.  The squeky wheel gets the grease!!  The best research available in my job is always the end user.  Similar to our bass fishing, we as anglers could provide them with the valuable tools they need when making their decisions.  Ask yourself if you participated in WDFW efforts with the fishing logs that they provided in the past.  I did and enjoyed helping out how I could.  I would be happy to sign a letter in partnership with the club. 

kh

Oh yeah got five
next time you have a photo op on Northwest Cable News don't forget to mention your sponsors

Well....getting the word out is working as I just recieved the new permit for Wallula...(Columbia River-Tri-cities...) and they have rescinded the prior restriction and Largemouth are availiable again............Now for Banks......Hopefully more to come...

Excellent news, Larry (and Nick, who mentioned that, too)!!!

Congratulations to everyone in WBC and other clubs that wrote letters. Like Larry said, NOW FOR BANKS...

Chris