This should not be this way! Sure there are some lame thinkers who would cross pollute and not give it a second thought. But there are that sort in any group. I seriously think it would be a dreamer that would feel this “inspection” would catch all of them. Some might propagate the spread through ignorance also. But the common sportsman would not intentionally do this. Please post this online course, heck I would like to watch it. But it is hard to find it. And for a person who is oblivious to it, it just won’t be obvious. So education is the key. Kind of like a “buy bonds” pitch in WW2. I would think it a great idea for the rest of us to have access to this AIS Awareness Course, whether we are in Whatcom county or King. And it should be posted in conspicuous places. That would be youtube for one thing. And it would come up whenever a person looked at a video about boats of fishing. It would not take much more than a sliver of the cost of current licensing to produce such. Not to mention property taxes of homes built on lakefront. Show the course as I can't easily find it, but there should be a video showing preventative steps with a small note on your fishing license or boat license. Not this bureaucratic fee. One could go the route and have a licensee check a box "I have watched this video". That would be the video for the regular guy to see and learn from. Frankly I put AIS Awareness Course in my search engine and Google comes up with a lot of HIV stuff.
If your responsible, then your responsible. But when the local jurisdiction steps in and applies a fee (and I still say a high one at that) it's just government over reach. You watch, there are many counties who will eventually apply this fee which will make the cost of a good sport become non attainable by many folks.
PS. If anyone knows where the online course is on the net they should announce it on this post. And we as a community of fishermen should use this and any post like it to spread the word and ring the alarm.
On an adjacent post aquatic species inspections was mentioned in a reply. At the first smell of a new tax my ire was aroused! First off I will declare I am quite in favor of each and every boater and/or anyone using a personal flotation device in Washington waters, to be protective of our waters and to fight against this invasive species. The permit required by Whatcom County requires a fee of $60 per year if I'm reading it correct. And with the chart where they list it, I do think it might be more? I can see this as a type of "just the beginning" as all counties will probably jump in to the money pile awaiting them. $60 per year seems too much to have a person inspect your boat. Especially when I was born with eyes to look myself. $60 times the amount of boats owned in Whatcom county is probably a good chunk of change. And $60 times the amount of counties some folks fish in seems overwhelming. This reminds me of Seattle's emissions tests. Yes, to me this seems a new way to tax any person who owns a boat I wouldn't be surprised if the money just went into some general fund and not earmarked for a particular lake. Sport fishing is already getting quite expensive and I do not have the funds to keep up with all this permitting so that I can use my boat.
Will this tax will spread even more then the aquatic invasive species or am I just apprehensive about nothing, and the government only requires that which they need?
What happens if you don't have a permit? Is the fine huge or do they impound you boat?
What do you think?
Does anyone have have more information on this subject?
Does anyone have ideas on how this invasive species can be fought at a more reasonable level?
Would anyone share if braid would work on spin casting reels as well as level winding? And if so do you increase the length of line to put on the reel because of the reduction in diameter?
Back in St. Paul I found a little lake. I think it was called Pickerel. It is weed city and access is only with a canoe. Ours had a keel, a flat bottom and had a wide beam. It was fairly tough to roll. You could stand in it and cast. There we were, my wife and I, hunting Northern Pike, standing on opposite sides of the boat. She had a spinning set up with a Berkley Johnson Silver Minnow. The weedless part was already long gone at that time. She wound up to cast swinging that rod behind her. The leader wraped around my neck and poised that silver minnow so that when she went forward in her cast the lure dug in well. And then as she wondered what the resistance was, without looking she gave it another tug! This is the main reason I de barb my lures to this day. Thank God that lure was one that I did this with prior to going fishing with my darling. How this brings me to the topic of sun screen, I don't know? But too much armor and my wife could have not given me the point. What fun would that be? I could have worn a stainless steel neck guard. But then if I fell overboard, would the weight bring me to the depths? Or, could I slip out of the boat from wearing that SPF50? That stuff is slick you know. I am considering one of those nifty SPF hoodies though. I'm looking for one that less then $20 in brown. Because part of this thread actually lead me to explore the colors we wear VS. the fish we catch. If you find that hoodie let me know. Try that in your browser.
I like to fly-fish. The idea of a streamer hook on the back cast hooking into my eyeball to become bait on the nest forward cast compels me to always ware safety style glasses. If they are polarized or dark, just the better. I always get the type which have cheater lenses like a bifocal for tying knots and such. I might wear gloves if I was fishing for sharks or ones with the fingers cut off for cold.
I tried in the past to start a club to do this as safety comes in numbers. It was before this site and I advertised using craigslist. There are an extreme amount of squirrels on craigslist and it was impossible to just get guys who wanted to go fishing / camping. So now, I just go by myself. Still, you are correct; "it is an adventure"!
I have been checking out some of these larger lakes with the idea of kayaking out and setting up a disbursed camp site. Alder lake is very interesting as it has that island in it which might be a really great spot to camp and fish for a few days. Has anyone had similar experiences, or has done this on Alder lake and can share some advice?
Concerning the ones I missed; The one I just didn't know. The remainder I will answer with precision as soon as I come out of this senior moment.
I've not done that with walleye, but would suspect from many trips with a fly rod and catching other species of fish that you would do well with a fast sinking line and perhaps a marabou tied leach or woolly worm. I'd make up a few different colors, perhaps with a little tinsel or red tip on the tail. It might not hurt to find out what type of Jigs other fisherman are using and copy those patterns. It also might not hurt to make the fly with a small amount of buoyancy. My thinking is that if the sinking line lays on the bottom and there is "perhaps" an 8' leader with a 3 foot or so tippet might allow the fly to swim not to far off the bottom. The problem I see is that if this works and there is a strike, Walleyes are toothy critters. I have caught Northern Pike on a fly set up before and was successful in lading it. This could be approached in two ways; 1. use a long streamer hook or 2. get a little stainless steel wire and fabricate about a three of four inch leader on each fly. I hope you do well. Please let me know how this all works.
First and foremost. In your tackle box put a Geiger counter. Actually as I understand it, it's PCB's But check with the locals as to whether they eat the trout or not. If you like salmon the taste better from the sound. It sure is a pretty river though.
Do you have a way to filet these buggers so you don't wind up with a bone in your throat? Northern fried up on the stove top have a ton of bones but they are really tasty!
I understand lake Fenwick is full of carp. I was once out there and had my Helix 5. There were massive amounts of large fish on the finder. But it does not tell the species. I thought the lake had trout and I was getting frustrated in that I through in every thing and the kitchen sink to no avail. When I was pulling my boat back on it's trailer I got to talking with another fishing junky there. He said the lake was full of carp! I recently came across opinions on cleaning and cooking carp. I am not much for the idea but I will eventually try it. So the idea is to go back there some day, land one. If it is that part of the spring where the cottonwood is plenty that might be the right time. Thanks for the tip.
I looked up blue fish on line. It looks to be quite a fish and probably tastes excellent as well. I don't live in MN any more and that's where I caught Northern's. I also nailed a carp on a fly. I was setting on the bank of the Mississippi just downstream of a large moored boat and I noticed corn kernels floating downstream. Then I noticed carp actually rising up and taking those kernels. I've never seen carp rise before that or since. Well I beat feet back to my home, got the tying kit out and made me up a fly. Just a yellow chenille ball, no hackle. #10 or 13 hook I think.
I raced back to the bank and used my old Fenwick to put that little yellow ball right off the stern of that boat and let it float down just naturally. That old carp just sipped it up like dinner is served. But it brought on heart burn for him quickly! It took a fair amount of time and fight to get him to the bank. Unfortunately for carp, Minnesota's laws say "if you land a carp, you need to take it home or put it in a trash can" and I don't eat carp but it was the last kernel he ate.
Good fishing to you!
I learned back in Minnesota that Northern's were in many Lakes there, fun to catch but a pain in the neck to eat (tasty though!) I found a very interesting way to catch them. I tied up a fly sort of like a Micky fin. To start with I wrapped a streamer hook with a chunk of stainless wire so that it came through the eye and put an extended eyelet about 6" up to eventually tie to the tippet. That was to keep the toothy critter from cutting it and not weigh so much as to impede the cast. Them I used white and red for the colors. This fly is basically a simple streamer with silver tinsel wrapped body, long red deer hair on the sides flanking a white dear hair along the top. This seemed to drive these underwater cats crazy. And I gotta say there is nothing like a Northern on a fly rod!