IFPAG meeting Dec. 3, 2016
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Forum Post Guidelines: This Forum is rated “Family Friendly”. Civil discussions are encouraged and welcomed. Name calling, negative, harassing, or threatening comments will be removed and may result in suspension or IP Ban without notice. Please refer to the Terms of Service and Forum Guidelines post for more information. Thank you
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Don Wittenberger
- Captain
- Posts: 606
- Joined: Fri May 04, 2007 2:22 pm
- Location: Shoreline
IFPAG meeting Dec. 3, 2016
IFPAG is a WDFW advisory group with 15 citizens appointed by the director. It meets 3 times a year, and is a way to provide public input to WDFW about topics relating to management of our freshwater recreational fisheries. For several years now, I have been the muskie fishing community's representative on IFPAG, making sure our interests are heard. We are fortunate that Fish Program staff are committed to the muskie stocking program, and I expect that to continue. Walleye and high-lakes trout groups are also prominently represented in IFPAG. As you can guess, WDFW has faced budget pressures ever since the recession, and it's unclear whether the advisory groups including IFPAG will continue beyond this year. Funding for fish programs is heavily dependent on license sales, and WDFW has been working hard to develop ways to market recreational fishing in Washington. The result is that freshwater license sales are up, even though saltwater and combo license sales have declined. WDFW is also working to simplify the regulations, make the regulation pamphlet more user-friendly, develop a downloadable smart-phone app for anglers, and put more resources online. I have no new information about resuming muskie stocking in Tapps; that's a determination made by the regional biologist based on forage assessment, and all I can do is monitor that situation as I know many of you are doing.
