Boats over 30' can net/land a native

[lost_sailor]

[img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]

[fish-on]

A boat is a boat no matter the legnth, you still can fall over board in a smaller boat, so i dont see the whole point.

[dogfishboy]

Sounds like a good adjustment in the regs. Impact on wild steelhead should be very low, otherwise they would not have adjusted the regs. Few sport fishers use boats 30' and over on the Columbia anyway. (most of them are tunaholics or target open water salmon :grin: )

I have a 26' Trojan without a swim platform or a walk-thru transom door. It is almost impossible for me to touch the water when I lean over the side without my feet completely leaving the deck. Not a safe situation. Darn boat is just too big to effectively troll or anchor in a hogline. That's why I use my little smokercraft instead.

Seems like any impact might be more from charter boats. I don't know the ratio of steelies they catch when they are targeting salmon. Maybe I'm missing something here... but I'm sure I'll be quickly corrected if so. :grin:

...just my 02cents.

[Chromaflage]

I'm all for putting people's safety ahead of the fish's. But shouldn't this be based on the height of the sides of the boat rather than the length? I've seen boats shorter than 30' that have very high sides.

ORS

[Fishing Maniac]

This is a step in the right direction. I think they should have lowered the length limit to around 20 to 22 feet. There are a lot of boats out there with high sides that are considerably shorter than 30 feet. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this one. I for one will not be jeapardizing my safty if I can't reach the fish. Just my .02 cents.

[Pete]

The regulation was adapted from the one in Puget Sound, which I believe says you can't bring a fish to be released over the transom. The Columbia Springer reg is experimental to see if we can improve the post release mortality of ESA listed fish. If we improve our handling of these fish, we'll end up keeping more clipped fish as we won't be deemed to have reached our impact quota as quickly. Protecting the fish is indeed a step in the right direction both for the fish and for the sportsfisher. How we do that without placing anyone at risk is the real question.

[Grits]

Boating safety concerns prompt Oregon and Washington
to change Columbia River angling rules

SALEM - The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will both adopt a temporary rule this week to increase the safety of Columbia River anglers fishing from boats longer than 30 feet. The rule goes into effect Wednesday, March 10.

A rule adopted last month prohibits anglers in the Columbia River from totally removing from the water any non-fin-clipped salmon or steelhead. Anglers are required to remove the hooks from non-fin-clipped fish while the fish remains in the water. A net may be used to keep the fish close to the boat or bank. The rule was adopted at the urging of fishing enthusiasts and fish conservation advocates to protect the health of fish listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

This change responds to U.S. Coast Guard concerns that anglers in boats longer than 30 feet will put themselves at risk of falling overboard if they comply with the new rule. These concerns prompted ODFW and WDFW to adopt an exemption of the fish handling rule for anglers in larger boats.

The revised rule states: "Effective March 10, 2004, through May 15, 2004, in the mainstem Columbia River upstream of the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line, it is unlawful when fishing from vessels which are less than 30 feet in length, substantiated by Coast Guard documentation or Marine Board registration, to totally remove from the water any salmon or steelhead to be released." ###