There is a long time prejudice in this state against any fish that is not salmon or trout. When I first came here in the early 80's, bass were pretty much considered poor table fair, so a trash fish among locals. Even now, many long time Washington fishermen don't know the difference between a bluegill and a pumpkin seed. In fact, most all small lake fish were just perch or bluegill and had a negative value.The belief was that they ate salmon eggs or lake planted trout. There is also a belief that all warm water fish compete with the already dwindling salmon and trout population.🤔 Yes this is the root of the problem!!🤨 Washington has a long standing history of doing things by opinion, emotion and political pressure, rather than scientific studies. That being said, the state has planted a small number of channel cats and tiger muskies over the years. This uninformed prejudice seems to be magnified west of the Mountains. All that being said, There is still great fishing for panfish and bass, as only a small number of the population target them relative to the number of licenses sold. Caveat: This is just a simple answer to a very complicated management problem.