How many of you are aware of what license is required to FISH for squid. The reason for this post is a young fellow in Kitsap that went fishing for squid and thought he was ok is now facing a $500 dollar fine and he did not catch one squid. Please answer this question from your present knowledge, please do not look up or post the current regs in order to answer the question, and yes I know the answer. Lets see how far this goes, if it makes two pages, I will be happy to post the correct answer.........

I knew you had to have one. You had to have it exposed like digging razor clams. I don't believe that is the case any more. If he's old enough to have to have a license he's old enough to know better. As they say ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Shellfish/seaweed license is the minimum. A combo license would also suffice.

Should only take a post or two, not two pages...squid are shellfish...so you need a shellfish license.

Not any trickier than that!

Fish on...

Todd

I've always used a shellfish license.

Unless the fisherperson is a youth, pretty much the only few things that can be obtained without a license are carp and smelt (double check the regs btw, before taking my word for it and going carp fishing...)

Okay, I will shorten this up, All 4 answers were of course correct.

In a quick telephone survey of actual Wash Fishermen, 12 to be exact, only 3 had the correct answer........I noticed that 77 people looked at this post, but only four have responded at this point

How many of the 12 fish for squid?

Not really much of an excuse for not having a license...it's not hidden in the rules or anything that squid are shellfish, and that you need a shellfish license for them.

That being said...there have been times in Seattle where the LEO's have rolled in and checked two dozen squidders, and handed out eight or ten tickets...but not because they thought their fishing license wouldn't work, but because they didn't have any fishing license at all. A surprising amount of them also have outstanding warrants and drug paraphenalia in their pockets and get to stand there waiting for the SPD to show up and take them away when they're done, too.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. If the officer thought the kid really was surprised to find his fishing license didn't work, and he actually had a fishing license, then it might not have been a bad opportunity to give the kid a warning and let him go buy a shellfish license for next time. Expensive, but understandable mistake.

I agree with Todd on everything......this morning, any way.

As far as the "kid" getting a ticket.......again, I agree with Todd.....if he had a fishing license, a good time for a simple warning.......but then again, it depends on the "kid" too......some of the smart mouth youngsters probably talk themselves into more trouble that they could easily have avoided....that may have been a factor, who knows?

Seems to me that enforcement folks are more often the ones with the attitude. A warning would have been the correct response here unless the kid obviously knew better. Used to be that the game warden was as much an educator as a cop when it came to the younger nimrods just learing the ropes.

Some truth to that.....have seen some young gamies that were of a different school than the older guys. I suppose our present financial state of affairs could play a big part in the whole scenario as well.

How old was the kid?

14 and under don't need a license.

If he was 15, then he needs a combination license to fish ($10.25) and the license would cover squid.

If he is 16 or older, he needs either a combination license ($54.25) or a shellfish/seaweed license ($16.30).

Attitude of the person being contacted can go a long way in the officers
final actions. Been there, done that.....

I would say his age is approx 25 and I know him to be a responsable sportsmen, very much into steelhead and salmon, I think this was the first time he fished for squid. I was not present when he was ticketed so I can not speak to attitude, but knowing him I would not assume the worst. I'm assuming he thought of it as fishing and never considered shellfish since that is normally done with a shovel. My feeling is a warning would have been adequate, but again, I was not there.

The offense falls under a "Misdemeanor" and as such is as follows:



Bail to be accepted by jail if defendant booked without warrant is:

Misdemeanors: $ 500
Gross Misdemeanors: $ 1,000
2nd & Subsequent Offense DUI: $ 2,500

Criminal Code & Infraction Penalty Schedule, Effective July 1, 2012
Grays Harbor County District Court

I have the complete listings of "Fines" for offenses in the State of Washington.

I requested R6, LE, for fishing violations......took a few requests and I got more than I wanted, 26 pages in a Word Document, but has complete listings of "everything", that people can be fined for.

I wanted to post the word Document, so people could click on it, have it open, on their computer and then view the total fines and amounts........I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT!!!!!

and I sure don't want to post 26 pages of fines......

I sent a email to Bob, with the word document attached, to see if he could do it.........maybe he's been to busy or it just got forgotten????

I would like to share the word document.....might change some of the ways some people do things..........big bucks for things I do or see others do........ example ... don't record catch, immediately...$87.00 if caught.

PM me if you think you know how to get a word document, posted, so that others can click on it and see the complete document.

Word docs are too big......make it into a .pdf and post it......much more manageable.

When you said "young fellow" in your first post, I assumed someone young - like 15/16 yoa. 25 is looking younger and younger.....

If he is into fishing, I would think he would have had a combination license which would cover the take of squid. If he had separate freshwater and saltwater licenses, he's SOL plus the separate licenses cost more than a combination.

I'm don't know what license he has, I know he fishes freshwater and I think I've heard him talk about fishing the salt. The fact is that he for sure did not know about the shellfish license requirement and would have bought one if prompted. Sorry at 73 even Todd is a young guy........where did the time go

OK. No license is an expensive lesson in this state. I buy the combination license because it allows me to fish salt and fresh and chase shellfish if I want to. If he had had squid in possession, it could have been even spendier.

I'm a little way behind you so Todd must be really young.....

Young? I remember young, I think...hell, I turn 43 in a few months!

Fish on...

Todd

My main concern here was how many people may not have known about this and hoped that a number of posts would maybe alert a few of them. I notice now that we have almost 600 looks, and almost 20 posts, most of them by the same few people. I hope we have helped someone not get a ticket. I realize the squid is considered a shellfish, but i will make the point that fishing for something is a lot different than digging for it and this is just one more confusing regulation. wow, it made two pages