I'll play devil's advocate on this issue.
While we squander the remaining resource and allow large impacts go unchecked such as non compliant fish screens, perched culverts, diking, fish blockages, unregulated guiding and a host of other problems, we continue bickering among ourselves on such issues as two-rod endorsements, fishing out of boats, fish allocation and wild steelhead retention, among others.
We don't need more government, rules, and regulations in our fishing. We need to address the bigger problems that are actually impacting the fish populations.
I fish out of a pontoon boat, often anchoring because I have a really good boat for doing it. While it wouldn't necessarily bother me to get out and fish from the bank, I would prefer to keep that option open to me. If it resolves a social issue, that is one thing. But studies show that harvest, let alone catch and release steelhead fishing is not the limiting factor to recovery. While I understand we need to implement actions that will aid recovery of wild steelhead, adopting rules that prohibit angling from boats would be pretty futile in recovery efforts.
Think about all of the already crowded spring-time steelhead fisheries and what it would be like if there was no angling from boats. You will be crowding all the anglers in a handful of rivers onto gravel bars that already have too much traffic as it is. You'd have to setup a number system like you see at the Department of Motor Vehicles just to get a chance to fish through a run.
If WDFW, NOAA Fish, USFWS, and the tribes want to get serious about wild steelhead recovery, there are dozens of actions that will have a greater affect than to prohibit fishing out of boats.
I'll start a list:
Prohibit the harvest and selling of wild fish statewide
Remove all bag limits of exotic fish in the Columbia (bass,walleye, etc.)
Enforce HPA permits
Monitor and enforce activities that are found to be non-compliant
Prohibit bait in streams year round.
Implement a guiding program that limits guides and waters that can be fished
Increase license fees
Implement a statewide steelhead tag (like what is required for the Columbia)
Ensure hatchery reform recommendations are being implemented
Mark all hatchery steelhead
Review ESA take permits
All fisheries statewide must be selective (selective in that unmarked fish must be returned alive to the water)
As you scroll down the list (there are many more) the pressures of society make most of these options nonviable. But again, if folks want to get serious about recovery, drastic measures must take place. And I'm extremely pessimistic that we have the wherewithal to make those changes. So, we will continue to gradually slide downhill to extirpation while we argue about something as trivial as fishing out of a boat.