My opinion, WDFW likes doing the fun busts i.e., sting operations by boat; oh did I mention a brand new Almar boat. I am all for enforcement by the way, however the way they do it gives you a sour taste for WDFW, my buddy was on the Cow guiding 4 clients and got turned inside out, he was totally legal after a 15 minute delay. They had him throw all of his fish (7) on the deck so they could check for clips, all legal fish. This is the best part of the story - THEY TOLD HIM HE ONLY HAD 1 FISH TO GO FOR HIS CLIENTS LIMITS! GEE LAST TIME I CHECKED THERE WAS A 3 FISH PER PERSON LIMIT ON THE COW!
Next case in point, October 2002 while I was fishing clients for Coho in lower Cow, there was 6 Jr. High boys snagging and keeping everything they caught even the BLACK BOOTS, I yelled over and asked why they were snagging and keeping these fish, there response "MR. xxx at the C&C Market pays us a $1.00 a pound even for the dark ones head and all.
I called the WDFW Region 5 and immediately reported this, I was told they would get back with me to sign the complaint and would look into this. In December I went to WDFW Olympia office to pay for my 2003 Guide Licenses, while there I thought I would follow up, since they never returned my call. Guess what they could not find the report, so I filled out a report and signed it, at the North of Falcon meeting at SeaTac I talked to the head enforcement officer for Region 5 and he had NO Clue about this violation, and he took my phone number and said that he would follow up on this. To this day I have not yet heard a word on this. I don't think WDFW could have had an easier major violation to do a Sting on than this.
I am convinced they justify sting operations just to get bigger and faster boats and vehicles.