I never thought I’d say this, but it was nice to have my fishing license checked by an enforcement officer for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Saturday.
In 33 years of fishing in Washington, I’ve had my license checked maybe three times. I’m sure I’ve been watched from binoculars a whole lot more, but it’s not the same thing.
With all the cutbacks in Fish and Wildlife in the last few years, I’ve been thinking fish cops may be the loneliest people in state government. They don’t have a lot of colleagues to talk with.
And the truth is, we need them.
I was fishing Big Twin Lake in Winthrop and I was glad to see a sign at the ramp saying it was a selective fishery, meaning that single, barbless hooks are required
Lenice is a selective fishery, but on any given night you can see someone walk in with a big hook and a can of worms or a jar of power bait to pick up a few fish for dinner.
If they know they might be checked, at least they’ll be less obvious about it.
Technology is a wonderful thing also, because a friend of mine forgot his license, so the enforcement officer got his name and birthdate and just checked him out on the computer instead of writing him a ticket.
In addition to checking licenses, he also checked for flotation devices and he checked my fly to make sure I’d pinched down the barb on the hook.
I was glad he was there and I told him so.
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