Anglers setting out to catch bull trout on the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook or who are planning to catch rainbow trout on the Lower Deschutes later this spring now have a new way to buy a tribal fishing permit.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have launched a Web site to allow people to buy permits online, and it also offers maps of the fishing areas and information about fishing season regulations.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife permits are still necessary and must be bought separately.

“The tribes have been selling fishing permits for many, many years, and we were just looking at a way of getting the word out to the public, ways to make things a little more user-friendly,” said Mike Gauvin, the fisheries management supervisor with the tribes.

For many fishing spots within the Warm Springs Reservation, anglers need a permit from Warm Springs as well as a license from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Previously, the tribes only had permits for sale at about two dozen vendors throughout Central Oregon and a few in the Portland area, Gauvin said, but this will allow people from out of state, or who don’t want to make an extra stop, a way to buy the permits directly. The site has places for people to enter when they want to fish, how many permits they want, and takes credit card information for payment.

The site also lets anglers see the regulations ahead of time, Gauvin said, and if there are disruptions to the fishing, for example if a wildfire closes an area, the site manager can stop selling permits for those days.

Gauvin said he hopes the Web site also helps the tribes get more exact information about how many people are fishing in each of the areas, so that they could provide better services, such as adding more camping facilities to certain sites.

ODFW is also moving toward making its hunting and fishing licenses available online, said DeAnna Erickson, license services manager with the agency.

“Pretty much everything that we sell will be available to get online,” Erickson said, although she doesn’t know the exact date yet. A lot of out-of-state hunters apply for licenses, and that involves mailing back and forth, she said, so online sales are convenient.

The tribes’ online permitting system comes just in time for the start of today’s bull trout season on the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook.

“It’s become quite an attraction,” said Ted Wise, assistant district fish biologist with ODFW. “It’s an early season fishery that we don’t see in many other locations.”

While redd counts have suggested that the bull trout population is down from recent years, there’s still a strong population of the fish, he said.

“There’s still great opportunity there,” he said.

On the Web

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs’ Web site for fishing permits is www.tribalpermit.com.