LONG BEACH – The first time Steve Watrous went fishing he never made it to the water. That was 55 years ago. Now at 61 he is no doubt the most influential private boat fisherman in Washington and Oregon. Watrous has been on the Pacific Fish Management Council (PFMC) since 1986 and is also on the WDFW Anadromous Fisheries Advisory Board and the Columbia River Advisory Group.

“My dad (Dick Watrous) was taking me to Lacamas Lake in his new red Rambler station wagon and I spilled the worm can all over the carpet. It was the first car he ever owned with carpet,” Steve laughs. Fortunately his dad and grandpa Jake Watrous, who “fished year around,” gave him a second chance and after catching his first fish Steve was hooked for life.

“I used to ride my bicycle to Lacamas Lake near Camas almost every day. I’d catch crappy, blue gill, and bass.” In 1963 Watrous and his dad ventured across the Columbia River bar to catch their first salmon. “We were in a 15-foot wooden boat with a pair of 35-horse motors,” he relates.

“I thought I was getting seasick. My dad had put me in a float coat and zipped it all the way up. It was hot so when he unzipped it a little I realized it had been slowly choking me. Later my dad let me run the boat. Every summer we came to fish for salmon.”

Watrous has logged 40 salmon trips already this year, plus “quite a few” sturgeon fishing trips, crabbing excursions, and when he’s on land Watrous digs razor clams. “The biggest fish caught on my boat this year was a 37-pound, 11-ounce Chinook and I caught a coho that weighed 18 pounds, 7 ounces,” Watrous says.

“In 1975 I bought a 15-foot travel trailer and we stayed at the Sou’wester, even parked in the same spot and we’d talk with all the fishermen,” Watrous states. Around 1985 he read a story in the Vancouver Columbian about PFMC closing salmon fishing on Fridays and Saturdays. “That cut my weekend fishing in half and only cut the charter fishing by a little.”

Watrous attended his first PFMC meeting at the Elks Lodge in Astoria to testify for the private boat angler. “The place was packed and I said this was a veiled way of re-allocating fish from the private boater to the charter fishermen,” Watrous says. “The next thing you know my boat (moored at the Port of Ilwaco) had wires cut and later a metal baseball bat jammed on my battery so it would arc across when I started up my motor. I realized I was in quicksand over my head.”

But Watrous didn’t back down and by 1992 he was appointed to the Salmon Advisory Sub-panel of PFMC and has missed only one meeting since. “It has evolved that now the private boat and charter fishermen are working together to support sport fishing,” Watrous explains.

Recently a trade of 7,000 coho for the sport anglers in exchange of 2,500 Chinook for commercial trollers was brokered by Watrous, charter fishermen, and other agencies. “The result is that we will be able to fish through Labor Day and the commercial guys got what they wanted.” The 2,500 Chinook salmon could bring in about $330,000 for commercial fishermen.

One hurdle Watrous and other fishery managers must get over are the National Marine Fishery Service (NMS) regulations. “Each year we receive a 30 to 40-page letter from NMS that explains conditions in each of the fish runs.” Quotas and openings are then negotiated to meet their requirements.

“It isn’t a matter of having enough fish. We have had steadily increasing record runs of Chinook and the coho runs have always fluctuated. It is a matter of conservation for each of the various runs of fish,” Watrous explains. “A good example is the Columbia River wild tule harvest this year. Even though sport fishermen have caught only about half of the overall Chinook quota, the fishery on the lower Columbia above Buoy 10 was closed as scheduled Aug. 31 because the wild tule (an endangered species) catch limit was met.”

Watrous says, “During February and March of each year we receive the models from NMS as they work to rebuild some stocks. It is like a huge ball of silly putty. We squeeze here and a bulge happens there, but eventually the quotas and timing of openings are sorted out. By April the regulations for North of Cape Falcon are finalized.”

He states, “Each dam a fish passes decreases the run by about five percent, habitat has been degraded in many areas along the Columbia and tributaries, Caspian terns eat the smolts, and sea lions consume their share of salmon. The harvest by sport fishermen is a drop in the bucket. And yet we have had record fall Chinook and Upriver Bright runs and summer Chinook are off the endangered species list.”

On a trip to the Clifton Channel near Cathlamet a couple of years ago Watrous saw hope for the future and also another call to action. “A couple of fishermen in their 80s had a nice spring Chinook in their net. All of a sudden I heard them yell and one was overboard. His partner pulled him in the boat by the time I got there, but their net was twisted and the salmon taken by a sea lion.”

That and similar incidents led Watrous to join others in filing a law suit. That action eventually led to the use of lethal force when all other measures failed to get rid of California sea lions below Bonneville Dam.

Watrous graduated from Washington State University in 1974. He worked for Garan Company in Vancouver until 1982 when it closed. “That was June 30 and I took over ownership July 1 and I’ve been in the heating and cooling business ever since. My employees wanted to name my boat Main Office, but I settled for Branch Office,” he jokes.

Watrous, wife Julie, and daughter Brianne spend “about a hundred nights a year” at their summer home near Cranberry Road. He also fishes each year in Neah Bay for halibut and bottom fish on his 24-foot Sea Sport and uses it for waterskiing on Lacamas.

“Eventually I would like to get out of fishery politics. I admit that sometimes I get attacked unfairly and the vicious rumors can hurt, but I do get a great deal of satisfaction from my work.” He concludes, “Besides loving to fish I have made a great many friends both on the water and through fish management. Those relationships are very special to me.”

The contributions Steve Watrous has made over the decades to private boat anglers in both Washington and Oregon are also very special.