From the Madison River Foundation’s newsletter today comes a poke at FWP’s Madison River Recreation Management Plan CAC latest meeting this past weekend.
Sounds like a long debate day yielded anemic results.
I don’t blame the bulk of the committee members; as we’ve said in multiple posts we several of the committee and know they respect and appreciate the river and understand the key issues.
Perhaps consider the questions being batted around are missing the key management issue targets…
Madison River Recreation Management Citizen’s Committee Wrestles to Come up with a Solution
For seven hours this past Saturday, the Madison River Recreation Management Plan Citizens’ Advisory Committee wrestled with the great Row v. Wade controversy. Meeting in West Yellowstone, the CAC finally came up with a recommendation of a sort that is unlikely to satisfy anyone. Here’s the background:
Since 1988, the Madison River from Raynolds Pass to Lyon Bridge has been closed to fishing from boats. Only wade angling is permitted. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the intent of the regulation was to set aside a section of the river (roughly 10 miles) as a place for wading only, where wading fishermen would not have to contend with the heavy boat traffic common on the river from Lyon Bridge to Ennis.
Over the years, however, the spirit of the regulation has been compromised — in the eyes of some anglers — as float fishermen increasingly used boats to access the wade-only section. Last year about 300 commercial guided trips, for example, launched from Raynolds Pass. Floating anglers still must exit the boat to fish by wading. Some walk-wade anglers take exception to this float-to-fish practice.
According to FWP, the department receives more complaints about the conflict between wading fishermen and float-to-fish anglers on this section of the Madison than on any other issue. Some want the section opened to fishing from boats; others say the spirit and intent of the wade-fishing only regulation should preclude watercraft entirely from this section of the river.
So, what did the CAC come up with? After a daylong discussion, the committee decided to forward two recommendations to the public (and to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission):
First, maintain the status quo. Keep the ban on fishing from boats, but allow float-to-fish.
Or, second, keep the ban on fishing from boats, but on Sundays and Mondays prohibit carrying fishing tackle in boats from Raynolds Pass to Pine Butte from July 1 to September 30. Clear?
The committee appeared very reluctant to change the existing regulation, either to open the section to fishing from boats or to ban boats altogether and make it a purely wade-only area. Hence the compromise recommendations to do nothing, or adopt a fairly complicated regulation. It’s difficult to see that either the angling public or the FWP Commission will look favorably on either of the CAC suggestions.
There’s an old saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. After seven hours of debate, the committee may have brought forth a camel.
The next meeting of the CAC is set for 4:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 26 in Ennis.
