With the rapid increase in population in the Treasure Valley and the influx of people fishing due to the pandemic, showing consideration for fellow anglers and river stewardship is more important than ever.

Last year BVFF submitted a request to Idaho Fish and Game to add anti-litter and fishing etiquette information to the general fishing regulations. We included some simple graphics as examples to emphasize key points, as well as asked them to adopt some of the fishing etiquette information in one of their Steelhead Fishing pamphlets. IDF&G added an excellent graphic titled “Keep Idaho Waters Clean”, which we are very happy to see, but they declined to add anything on etiquette at this time, citing limited space and publication costs.

BVFF is continuing to look for ways to get fishing etiquette information out into the fishing community. We leveraged some excellent guidelines from Fly Fishers International into some materials for the Fly Fishing Expo last January and asked all presenters to incorporate the concepts into their presentations. We have created a new “BVFF Code Of Angling” web-page that contains all of this information.

The FFI Angling Code document is excellent but is long and very detailed. I have reduced the FFI Angling Code to three items I feel embody the essence in concept without the details. They are:

1. Take care of the fish. This includes proper fish handling, leaving spawning fish alone, and avoiding fishing when waters are too warm.

2. Respect other anglers. This is the set of good  behaviors about sharing the water. 

3. Leave it better. This is practicing river stewardship so the resource is available for the next generation

The days of having miles of every river to ourselves are behind us. Moving forward we need to learn how to respectfully share the water as well as look for new waters that hold new challenges. We are looking for help to get this fishing etiquette information out to a wider audience. If you are interested in helping us promote the BVFF Angling Code, please contact me at conservation@bvff.com.