By Linda Thompson

For The Vidette

I thought it would be an easy straightforward answer to a straightforward question. When does fishing season open in Washington state?

There are more rules than I care to figure out.

Traditionally, we start fishing sometime in April. But it now depends on what you are fishing for and where you are fishing. Some waters are closed different times of the year, different licenses are required for different fish or shellfish, etc.

But I’m not telling you fishermen anything you didn’t know.

However, in the days of old, 1935 to be precise, fishing season opened April 14. Back then it was fairly standard to have the season open close to the middle of April and always on a Sunday.

The tales that have come out of the streams here probably overshadow the actual tails with scales. Fishermen have never been expected to tell the whole truth when it comes to the ones that got away. Some tips for at least looking like a successful fisherman were given by E.S. Avey under the heading “Wild Life Chats” that appeared in The Elma Chronicle. One such tip was to load your fishing basket down with rocks, cover it with leaves and carry it over your shoulder. It should be heavy enough to cause the straps to cut heavily into your body to give the illusion that you have a large load of fish.

Avey further advises that if the rivers are high, fish the lower reaches of the river. If the river is low there should be good bait fishing anywhere. The fly fisherman should still stick to the lower reaches of the river. Fly fishermen were advised to use hackles — brown and gray work best.

Forgetting your license in 1935 would cost you $5. If you didn’t have it prominently displayed on your person and the game protector (warden) caught you, you could bet him $5 that you had it at home, but you’d probably lose and that would be your fine anyway.

Another tip was a long-winded story that went something like this: I am very sorry, Protector, that I forgot the license. I laid my things on the table. My wife is very ill, and I have so much to do at home, cook breakfast, wash the dishes, get the kids off to school. Oh, you say it’s Sunday, well I meant Sunday school. Well, yes, my kids are grown, but I was helping the neighbor. Want a cigar? Oh, you don’t smoke, neither do I, that’s why I have the cigar. What do you think about the sales tax or chain letters, Protector? You’re not interested? Neither am I.

Of course, none of that will work on the protector unless you have a great personality.

The fishermen were advised to take a personality course before going fishing — or perhaps just remember your license.

Going even further back in history, 1901 put the game warden’s salary at $50 per month. That paycheck came from licenses and fines. Previously mentioned, Eugene Schofield Avey, was appointed game warden in 1901. Avey opened a law office having passed the bar exam in Olympia in 1902. That was the same year he married Maybelle Jolley, daughter of Elma Post Master Alex Jolley, who was a Civil War veteran.

As early as 1903, Avey was stocking local creeks with several varieties of fish, which he received from fish hatcheries back east. He was experimenting to see how they would fare.

In 1904, 10,000 eastern channel catfish were received and planted in the sloughs near Elma. Fifteen thousand brook trout were placed in the Cloquallum Creek and five thousand were placed in Porter Creek.

In 1905, he received more than 1,000 brook trout. His fish planting extended to a number of creeks and lakes in the Elma-McCleary area. He even stocked Summit Lake.

So, while you are fishing the creeks of East Grays Harbor, thank Mr. Avey. He was not just a fisherman. He really was a protector of wildlife of every description. He did know every fishing stream in the county and was considered the expert of the day. His obituary reads like a who’s-who of Grays Harbor County. He was one of the original members of the Grays Harbor Game Protective Association formed about 1936.

National Geographic regarded him as a person of some importance and sent him a complete library of birdlife.

If you were around in October 1886 you could have read the following in The Vidette:

Famous fisherman fearlessly foraging for food find fun fishing for fine fat finny fish. Fortunately for fish few find frying fixtures, for few fishermen find fortunes fishing. Fishing frequently falls far from furnishing fun, for fruitless fishing favors fasting. Fastidious fishermen fishing for fame frequently feed ferocious. Foreign fishermen foolishly forgetting fish-laws find fortune ficklesome.

Vidette columnist Linda Thompson can be reached at mccleary.museum@gmail.com.