to those who want quality waters
just don't make all quality waters "fly fishing only" cause I don't like to fish flys
"selective gear rules" are great as long as I can troll a spoon when my arm is sore from trying to fling flys for hours.

Arklier -
I have to agree with most of the others. While I don't fish opening day or rarely for trout in lakes they are the fisheries that brings many of our new anglers to fishing. There is not easier fish for the beginning angler to catch than a rainbow trout in a lake. Even the shore anglers can have success with power bait on bottom. The opening day lakes are money makers - one fo the very few fisheries that more than pays for itself!.

You seem to be asking for more warm water fishing opportunities. While your profile doesn't list your home area here in the greater Seattle area (Green River north to the Canada) virtually every lake with a public access has largemouth bass and other warm water species in them. I know of only 3 lakes (and 2 of those may have one or more warm water species in them by now) in all of Region IV that does not currently have warm water fish. You all ready have everything; what is the need to plant more?. Many of those populations are the result of illegal intrdouctions. As a result of those introductions the state has been forced the more expensive catchable trout to provide a trout fishery. I'm not so sure that a portion of the warm water stamp (say $1) should not go to pay for planting trout to offset the cost of having warm water species in all the traditional trout waters.

By the way many of the damaged boat ramps that I see are the result of anglers insisting upon driving their high power boats on to the trailors. Guess who most commonly does that?

Tight lines
Smalma

Actually I have to disagree, the WDFW is wasting too much money planting triploids in lakes such as Spanaway and Martha where the vast majority will get caught and killed before they get a chance to reach the size that triploids can reach.

Save the triploids for the Selective Fishery lakes and keep dumping legal stockers in all other lowland lakes!!

Great points by both Smalma and CWUgirl as well!!

What about when they "kill" a lake after they spends thousands stocking it up.? By killing I mean taking the oxygen out. Which they've done in Mineral lake to get rid of the bass. It didn't work obviously, and the reason is there is numerous springs feeding the lake where a bass could survive through the kill process. Wouldn't you think that they would know that before they waste all our money? They had to. Not only that they plant a bunch of brown trout in the lake. Now don't browns feed pretty aggressively on small fish like planters. I've seen 14+lb browns come out of this lake. That's like a big cougar in a goat farm.


As far as the ramp being messed up by high powered boats I havent seen many of those on Mineral.

How many of us on here got started fishing for stocker trout? I pretty much did. Now I spend an embarassing amount of money and time each year chasing fish. Just last year, I introduced my then-girlfriend to fishing on opening day. She had a blast, and became positively addicted. She fishes almost as much as I do now. For some fisherman, those stocked triploids are the only real chance they get at a salmonid of any decent size. Moreover, I'm sure the trout stocking program is profitable. Even if it weren't, I'm not sure it should be reduced. The WDFW should be trying to maximize angling opportunities for everybody, not just those with boats or those that chase steelhead and salmon. I don't have numbers to back it up, but I'm guessing that many more people fish for stocker trout than anything else. I'm trying to be objective here -- I fish for the stockers for about the first two weeks after opening day, and that's it. If it went away entirely, or were substantially reduced, it wouldn't affect me much. But it would be a great diservice to Washingtonians in general.

East of the Cascades, WDFW seems to be planting more fingerlings and letting them grow in the lake. This is certainly cheaper, and provides for great fishing in some lakes (West Medical Lake had great fishing last weekend, and I believe most of the fish were planted as fingerlings). I'm not a biologist, so I have no idea if this would be viable on the West side. Would it?

I would be pissed if the trout stocking program were reduced to improve, of all things, boat launches. I don't have a boat. I don't benefit at all from improved boat launches. Let the jackholes that drown me in my float tube with their wakes pay for improved boat launches.

Glowball...Don't forget about the otters in Mineral Lake, I have seen folks hang their stringer off the dock, pull it up to put on another fish and have a stringer of fishheads

As far as the WDFW ramp on the lake the last bunch that logged the bottom tore that up for us, If I remember right they were supposed to repair it, But I do not know anybody that has heard from them in awhile.

Planting warm water fish? Why would the WDFW bother doing this when the warm water fish get plenty of help elsewhere: local midnight biologist, nature, and the ability of these fish to reproduce in these lakes much better than trout...

More\improved boat launches? We don't really want big power boats on all lakes. Some lakes they are needed: Lake WA, Lake Samm, Roofus woods, banks, potholes, ... These larger lakes can be fished much better and safer with a power boat. Other smaller lakes are better fished with car toppers, from the bank, or float tubes\pontoon boats. Variety is good - there are plenty of lakes that fit all these needs and you just have to plan your trips accordingly.

Triploids in C&R waters only? If the only place to catch decent sized fish is in those waters, do you really want the crowds to start heading out to your favorite semi quiet quality lake? I wouldn't mind that if it also meant WDFW started making more lakes selective rules with smaller or no limits allowed to spread out the pressure (look how crowded dry falls and lenice\nunally get). But the 'save the good fish for me' attitude does not make good sense. Part of the draw to these opening day lakes is to find a lake that not only gets a large plant of normal stockers, but also a decent number of triploids and even some broodstock. Variety in size makes the experience that much better. Look at the pics dogfish posted. Were those trout wasted?

Brown trout - I think fishing for these guys is awesome. And getting a brown while fishing for bows or other fish is a nice bonus. I don't mind feeding these browns a few stocker trout so that anglers get a chance to tangle with a big brown now and then.

Otters and ospreys (and others) - many folks enjoy sharing the water and yes, the fish with the local wild life. I agree that if they become a big nuisance the WDFW should address that, but part of fishing is enjoying nature. If you have a private pond, then you should be responsible to cover it with mesh or find other ways to keep out wildlife (besides shooting protected species). If your family really needs the meat, save the money from buying your gear, license, gas, etc and buy them some food.

Just my $0.02.