Is Bait legal for Lake Roosevelt Fishing?

[bearpaw]

Lake Roosevelt Fishing:  Park Service law enforcemnt has told fishermen that live bait (worms) are not allowed on Lake Roosevelt, but I see nothing in the regulations. Is this true?

[Skillet]

NOT true.  Kettle Falls NP people telling anglers this?

[bearpaw]

I don't want to mention names, but three locals were checked on Roosevelt, the guy was a complete ***** and threatened to write them for multiple things he claimed were illegal, but wrote no tickets. I have told them I thought the guy was 

They are concerned and don't want to get any tickets, they are afraid to take worms to fish with now.

These park service idiots are out of control. Too bad this was ever put under the park service.

[BOWHUNTER45]

thats no sheet their now .. We have a fishing shack for steelhead and one morning one of those idiots came down and walked in like they own the place ..kicking our sheet around trying to see if we had any fish , my buddy who is as mean as hell stood up and this idiot backs up and puts his hand on his gun and Says do not come any closer ...it was nutz .. but with 6 of us there he finally figured it out and left  and we always have guns when fishing and he tells us we can not ....I said we all hunt and he says what you hunting then I said none of your damn business !! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[whacker1]

http://www.nps.gov/laro/parkmgmt/upload/2012SuperintendentsCompendiumSigned.pdf

See section 2.3 - fishing

It explains that the concurrency follows Washington state Fish & wildlife regulations. 

[whacker1]

I checked the wdfw regulations on freshwater fishing on Lake Roosevelt, and I do not see any bait restrictions below the HWY 25 bridge at Northport, so worms should be legal as best I can tell.

I planned on using them saturday with my 4 year old. 

[bearpaw]

Thanks for the reassurance, I was afraid that maybe I was missing something.

See you in the slammer.... 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

We just got back from Gifford for a week and fished many worms and saw nobody harasin any fisherman at the time.

[CAMPMEAT]

Could it be where tribal enforcement and WDFW enforcement laws are a grey area ? Not one agency knows where the exact boundaries are ?

[plugger]

Fished two walleye turneys there this year. If they were not legal the hole field would have been disqualified.  Your good

[buckcanyonlodge]

Did they get him name or badge number? I would have told him to write me up for using worms and we'll see you in court and by the way I will bring a harassment charge against you.DMF He needs to be reported to his superiors.

[JLS]

Could it be where tribal enforcement and WDFW enforcement laws are a grey area ? Not one agency knows where the exact boundaries are ?

Much more likely it's a case of individual incompetence.  It is perfectly legal to use bait on Lake Roosevelt.

[CAMPMEAT]

Could it be where tribal enforcement and WDFW enforcement laws are a grey area ? Not one agency knows where the exact boundaries are ?

Much more likely it's a case of individual incompetence.  It is perfectly legal to use bait on Lake Roosevelt.

Me thinks the same thing. But it only takes one individual on either side to make your life miserable.

[Limhangerslayer]

Sounds like the same stuff a sargent  from davenport pulls.  Goes at it like everybody is doing something wrong and when they aren't he is disappointed.  Worms, totally legal.

[bearpaw]

This happened several months ago, they were near Hunters, they had a 12 pack of beer with them on the bank and the guy threatened to write them for that too, write them for the worms, and write them for some other things, he said they could not have any alcohol with them at all, no bait, couldn't camp anywhere on the shoreline, and I forget what all else he said he would write them for.

Guy sounds like a Nazi to me. Not sure where he is from, they had never seen the guy before or since, but he was in a NPS uniform.

The info whacker1 posted clarified a lot of things. I would like to see this Nazi myself, I would get a badge number and provide it to everyone I could to make his life a little tougher, just like he was trying to make life tougher for the 3 people mentioned who were simply on an innocent fishing trip.

There is a long list of people who have been cited for idiotic things on Lake Roosevelt, many of these things I have heard about were dismissed when the individuals went to federal court in Spokane. But people should never have to go to federal court for accidentally scraping a tree in a parking lot when turning around and idiotic things like that.

[CedarPants]

This happened several months ago, they were near Hunters, they had a 12 pack of beer with them on the bank and the guy threatened to write them for that too, write them for the worms, and write them for some other things, he said they could not have any alcohol with them at all, no bait, couldn't camp anywhere on the shoreline, and I forget what all else he said he would write them for.

Guy sounds like a Nazi to me. Not sure where he is from, they had never seen the guy before or since, but he was in a NPS uniform.

The info whacker1 posted clarified a lot of things. I would like to see this Nazi myself, I would get a badge number and provide it to everyone I could to make his life a little tougher, just like he was trying to make life tougher for the 3 people mentioned who were simply on an innocent fishing trip.

There is a long list of people who have been cited for idiotic things on Lake Roosevelt, many of these things I have heard about were dismissed when the individuals went to federal court in Spokane. But people should never have to go to federal court for accidentally scraping a tree in a parking lot when turning around and idiotic things like that.

Exactly.  And they sure as heck shouldn't have to go to federal court for throwing a worm on a bobber and crackin' a beer if both are perfectly legal where they are at.

[Rick]

Interesting.

We've been camping on Roosevelt for a LONG time. A couple weeks ago was our friends 52nd year in a row. I think our family is at almost 40 years.

We've never had any issue with the rangers. We see them almost every day and they've never been anything but polite and proffesional.