PAT NEAL: Fishing without hooks

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 22, 2026

YOU DON’T HAVE to be crazy to fish in Washington state, but it certainly helps. I should know.

As a life coach and fishing guide, I have witnessed the phenomenon of normal, mild-mannered, obviously sane people being reduced to blubbering lunatics after jumping through the hoops to fish in Washington.

It all starts with the purchase of your Washington state fishing license, which has gone up 38 percent this year.

A resident annual combination license now costs $62.79. If you are older than 70, it only costs $5.

Disabled veterans with a service-connected disability get a free fishing license.

Coincidentally, the price of a Discover Pass, the document you will probably need to be on public land to go fishing, has also gone up 38 percent.

Keep in mind we are now offered a choice of having a paper fishing license or an electronic one you can carry on your smartphone. The problem being smartphones don’t work in a lot of wild places where the fish live.

If your phone battery goes dead or you drop it in the water, (where fish live) and the phone dies, you would be effectively fishing without a license.

That could get you a ticket.

We don’t call the Washington fishing regulations the Fish Cop Employment Security Act for nothing. That’s crazy!

After you get your fishing license, you’ll want to get a copy of the latest fishing regulations.

How you do that is anyone’s guess.

There is a paper version of the fishing regulations available where you get your fishing license, but these are probably out of date.

To get the latest regulations, you’ll need a smartphone to get on the WDFW Fish Washington Mobile App, the WDFW Fish Hunt Portal and the Emergency Regulations on the WDFW Fishing Regulation website.

In other words, you must have advanced computer skills and electronic devices just to figure out the fishing laws. That’s crazy!

You may require an attorney to figure out the Washington fishing laws. If you cannot afford an attorney, you probably can’t afford to go fishing.

Not knowing the difference between a bull trout and a bullhead is not an excuse.

Fishing violations can lead to extreme legal penalties of up to 364 days in jail and fines of up to $5,000 while the authorities keep your fishing gear, boat and even your vehicle as evidence. That’s crazy!

Meanwhile, as you fork over more dough to pay for your fishing license and permit to be on public land, the state is cutting back on fishing opportunities and access to public land.

As you read this, they’ve installed a gate to keep us out of the Hoh Oxbow campground along with other state campgrounds.

Our state fish hatcheries are cutting back on their production of salmon and steelhead.

They’re even eliminating catch-and-release fishing opportunities around the state as an excuse for conservation. That’s crazy!

All is not lost.

There may still be a way to fight back against the unjust oppression of these corrupt bureaucracies while preserving the fisheries resource.

The dictionary defines fishing as “the sport or business of catching fish.”

With no hooks on your flies or lures, you are not fishing. You are merely flogging the water with your fishing gear, which is what most people are doing as an excuse for fishing these days anyway.

Biologists have long ago determined that fish hooks are harmful to fish.

If we eliminate hooks, we remove this threat to our fisheries.

You may say fishing without hooks is crazy, and you are right, but that’s fishing in Washington.

_________

Pat Neal is a Hoh River fishing and rafting guide and “wilderness gossip columnist” whose column appears here every Wednesday.

He can be reached at 360-683-9867 or by email via patnealproductions@gmail.com.