if you weren't fishing for salmon and didn't keep any salmon you don't need a salmon card on you. As far as having the wrong set up I suspect it was selective fishery which would of meant single barbless hook artificial only but if the water was closed any gear would have been wrong so not sure if that would be considered a separate chargeable offence or not. But by all means you can show up and challenge it and in Washington state they very well may reduce the charge, but all that being said you got off easy I had a friend who was fishing a river that was open but was fishing at the mouth of a stream flowing into it that was closed for another 15 days (and he didn't know) and he got finned for $1500 for fishing in closed water even though he was just fishing at the mouth of it but apparently was past the convergent point. Another person in the small town I live in who wasn't a fisherman decided to take his son fishing in a local river bought him a snoopy pole and some worms and took him to the river to fish (just the 6 year old boy he wasn't fishing) a game official came by asked how things were going and fined him $1000 for using bait in a selective fishing only river. lesson to be learned you have to always carry a copy of the regs know where you are fishing and now the rules for that water and even then you should check the WDFW web site for any rule updates during the season, and just for good measure it wouldn't help to have a law degree so you can make heads or tails out of the complexity of the rules. Long gone are the days where you could just walk up to the water and fish it even during "fishing season" good luck by the way what river were you fishing?

I don't know the answer, but I expect it is the same reason some could live in a mall rather than ever go outside, or some who enjoy the gift shop rather than the beauty of a national park. Then there are some who get more excited by seeing a new car go by than seeing a deer standing roadside. Why do some people prefer to enjoy some of the best fishing lakes in the country by buzzing around at dangerous speeds on a jet ski. More and more these days, folk even enjoy a good video fishing game over a day fishing. What can I say?

As a life-longer fisherman this question is always on my mind.

A lot of anglers like to say ''it's an escape from modern life, it's peaceful and relaxing'' which is true, but let's be real, most anglers start out as kids, and this sort of stuff isn't on our minds when we are 10 years old.

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated with fishing, I can't walk by water without taking a few minutes to scout out some fish in the margins.

The majority of people just don't see the appeal, we've all taken a friend fishing who just didn't enjoy it...

Why do you think some people are so drawn to fishing?

--
by irmtv