The Eagle Outdoors – March 13, 2025

Smelt dipping is a go!

For the first time since announcing their ‘tentative dates’ process for the 2025 smelt season, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has approved and/or confirmed the dates of Wednesday, March 12, and Saturday, March 15. It’s a go, so haul out those waders, find that Spongebob Squarepants bucket, mend the hole(s) in your smelt net, dust off your propeller beanie, and take your St. John’s Wort because it’s going to be a good old fashioned hootenanny down on the Cowlitz River on Saturday morning.

As has been previously discussed, you’re going to need a fishing license this year to dip smelt. Whether it be freshwater, combination, one-day, or three-day, you need a valid fishing license. The daily limit is 10 pounds, or roughly 25% of a five-gallon bucket, and you need your own separate container for your catch. Everything you ever wanted to know about smelt and smelt regulations, including the new license requirement and anything else, can be found on the WDFW’s smelt page at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/smelt. There’s absolutely no reason to be unprepared from a paperwork or regulatory standpoint.

Saturday, March 15, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., WDFW staff will be present to collect biological data from smelt harvested during the fishery. Data collected from the recreational fishery provides valuable information that helps the agency learn more about the run, improve monitoring, and meet conservation goals. This will take place from the shore of the Cowlitz River. From the Highway 432 Bridge near Kelso, follow upstream to the Al Helenberg Memorial Boat Ramp located approximately 1,300 feet upstream of the Highway 411/A Street Bridge in Castle Rock.

Go have fun and be safe, especially if you, like many, many others, are going to wade the cold waters of the Cowlitz this weekend. Be kind, help others and, above all, pack your old kit bag plum full of patience. Think circus carnival, only bigger, colder and, with luck, fishier.

New fishing license on April 1

Just as a reminder, new 2025 fishing licenses will be required as of April 1, 2025.

Hunting-fishing license increase on the horizon

Something worth watching are pieces of legislation significant to all sportsmen and women here in Washington. If passed by both chambers of the legislature and signed by Governor Bob Ferguson, Senate Bill 5538 would increase hunting and fishing license fees by some 38%, raising an estimated $19.3 million every two years; but, also accompanied by the potential to reduce hunting/fishing license sales by up to 11% should hunters/anglers choose to opt out and not hunt or fish. Examples of the possible price hikes include:

Big-game license (deer-elk-bear-cougar) - $85 current, $117.30 proposed; small-game license - $35 current, $48.30 proposed; combination fishing license - $48.50 current, $62.79 proposed. Please note the numbers listed here are base rates; that is, the agency’s base-rate fee before the addition of dealer and transaction fees are added on at checkout.

One thing that I believe is important for sportsmen and women to remember is the fact that should these increases go into effect, it’s only the first such increase since 2011 and only the second since 1998. Also, monies spent on the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses goes not in the General Fund where they’re up for grabs by all, but rather into a dedicated State Wildlife Account for fish and wildlife management activities. If signed into law, the fee increases would go into effect on July 1, 2025.

The second piece of legislation, House Bill 2003, would resurrect the late Columbia River Angling Endorsement, which was a license requirement from 2010 to 2019 for those fishing the Columbia River or any of its tributaries from the Rocky-Tongue Point Line above Astoria upriver to the Chief Joseph Dam. Total price at checkout for the endorsement would be $8.75 with the bill, if passed and signed into law, going into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. HB 2003 would raise an estimated $3 million every two years, with those monies (per WDFW) going “to facilitate recreational salmon and steelhead selective fishing opportunities on the Columbia River and its tributaries, including scientific monitoring and evaluation, data collection, permitting, reporting, and enforcement.”

DOI/FWS Refuges

Also worth watching is the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce and how that might affect us outdoors enthusiasts right here at home. It’s no secret that from 2,000 to 2,500 employees with the Department of the Interior (DOI) have been fired recently, which includes an unknown number of employees once working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the agency responsible for overseeing the nation’s federal wildlife refuges. I say ‘unknown’ as the agencies under the microscope, including the FWS, have until mid-March to submit ‘reorganization plans’ to the heads of the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget and prepare for an apparent reduction in force.

I mention this not only because it’s important to stay abreast of current events - of which there is an hourly deluge - but also because many of us enjoy the outdoors courtesy of the nearby Julia Butler Hansen Refuge (JBHR) for the Columbia Whitetail Deer. The FWS website states:

“Julia Butler Hansen Refuge was established in 1971 specifically to protect and manage the then endangered Columbian white-tailed deer. The refuge contains over 6,000 acres of pastures, forested tidal swamps, brushy woodlots, marshes and sloughs along the Columbia River in both Washington and Oregon. Diverse habitats that support deer also benefit a large variety of wintering and migratory birds, Roosevelt elk, river otter, reptiles and amphibians, and nesting bald eagles, great horned owls and osprey. Julia Butler Hansen Refuge is one of over 560 sites in the National Wildlife Refuge System and one of 56 sites established to benefit specific threatened and endangered species. Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this system is a vital living heritage, conserving wildlife and habitat for people today and generations to come.”

So what will these federal workforce reductions mean both to the personnel who operate and maintain the JBHR, as well as ‘We, the People’ who enjoy what the refuge has to offer? Unknown. I’ve heard the result may be no change. I’ve been told the visitor centers at refuges coast to coast might selectively close and that maintenance staff might be fired hither and yon. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess. What can you do? For starters, you can contact your elected officials in Olympia and let them know that given the current national environment, a little piece of Mother Nature left untouched by the back and forth on both sides of the political fence might come in handy when it comes to maintaining one’s sanity; or, what’s left of it.

And now for the rest of the story…

With thanks to the late Paul Harvey for those immortal words…

These are hectic times, chaotic times, uncertain times, violent times. If you watch the news at all, there’s no need to explain nor enumerate, for you know most if not all of the national and/or global situations raging like an eastern Washington wildfire driven by 40 mile-per-hour winds. I’ve seen that, and it’s simultaneously impressive and terrifying.

Fortunately, there’s a reprieve, and she’s called Mother Nature. On Sunday, March 9, Julie and I spent an hour or so at the local refuge and, for 60 minutes, I had no problems, no worries and no bills. No Washington D.C., Middle East, Canada, Mexico, or China. No, they hadn’t magically disappeared; but, rather, have been overshadowed, albeit temporarily, by 40 some-odd tundra swans, adult bald eagles, a kingfisher, pintails, mallards, widgeon, Canada geese, whitetail deer, nutria, and a bonded pair (I’m guessing) of canvasbacks, the drake/male in full dress and very much deserving of the time-honored moniker, The King.

What is my point? Get outside. If the world gets you down, there is a place to go. We live in a wonderfully beautiful place, mere steps away from mental clarity amidst all this mayhem. Sit on a rock and watch the river, walk the refuge, bike Puget Island, talk to an otter, smile at the stars. Is that crazy? No, I don’t think so, but if that’s crazy, then count me in.