Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Fishing at the Lakes

A little over a month ago a good friend of mine and her husband, went fishing at the lakes above Dayton, WA. There are 7 lakes up there and are planted regularly. We went to Curl Lake and were catching a few fish when the fish department truck showed up with a load of fish. The guys driving the tuck said they had 500 large trout in addition to the regular planters.
Thinking we are in the right place at the right time for once, we got ready for the fish to be unloaded. The tuck went around to the opposite side of the lake we were on but that was alright, we figured we would just have to wait a little longer for the fish to get over to us. As we waited we could see a few people starting to catch the bigger fish. Well, Dale hooked one of them and landed it, nice fish. Then I hooked one but the fish spit the hook. Next Lucy hooked one and the fish spit that hook too. Well, at the end of the day it seems everyone on the lake caught at leased one of the bigger trout except Lucy and I. Guess that why the call it fishing not catching.
Last year the fish and game department were considering closing the lake and not planting them any longer. They said it was to expensive to maintain and plant the lakes. I don't believe that would be a smart move. To many people depend on the lake for their recreation and take there kids up there fishing. I believe the sport fisherman  pays for themselves by the dollars spent on licenses, gas, food, fishing gear, bait and many other things they but to go fishing. It is, in my opinion, typical for the government to take the easy way out. We tend to gripe and not really do much to stop these thing from happening.
Upon occasion I will fish the Icicle River in Leavenworth, WA. We used to be able to catch 3 fish and then they decided to cut down to 2 fish and finally down to 1 salmon a day. They figured that the river was being poached so bad they had to lower the catch limit. So they made up for the poaching by cutting the fisherman who fishes legal. I don't know why the couldn't catch the poacher and take there equipment and vehicle. After doing that a few time the poaching would stop. Again, that is just in my opinion.

No comments:

Post a Comment