Ok guys here is Barbara's weekly Willapa report.

Hi Everyone,

This email is to provide you a weekly in-season update on Willapa Bay fisheries, hatcheries, and spawner surveys through September 30, 2020.

Recreational Marine Fishery
As of yesterday, September 30, 2020, the recreational monitoring in the Willapa Bay marine area 2.1 is officially complete for 2020. It has been an interesting season. First, we had to figure out how to deal with COVID and how to complete the work interacting with the public while keeping our staff as safe as possible. Next, the fishery started slow relative to effort and catch then things picked up in August and September. Effort peaked the week of August 24 – 30. Chinook catch peaked the same week as effort but coho catch peaked two weeks later the week of Labor Day, September 7 – 13. We sampled 4,270 anglers and observed 2,104 boats at the Tokeland and South Bend boat launches during our four days per week monitoring dockside. We actually sampled 346 hatchery Chinook and 300 coho for the season. Given the issues we have all faced the last six months due to COVID-19, I think this recreational marine season turned out pretty well. (See attachment: 2020 WB Marine Area Recreational Data & Catch Estimate Summary Draft 09.30.2020.pdf)

Commercial Fishery
Over the last two weeks, the Department has made four adjustments to the commercial fishery via emergency regulation changes.
• First, the Department closed two of the commercial fishing areas (2M and 2U) on Sept. 17 due to concerns regarding unmarked Chinook impacts.
• Second, the two days scheduled in week Sept. 22 – 25 were shifted by one day from Monday, September 21, and Thursday, September 24, to Tuesday, September 22, and Friday, September 25 to allow for additional data analysis after each opening day.
• Third, the Department switched the allowable gear for that same week in the second bullet from small mesh gear to the smaller tangle net gear to help minimize the impacts to any remaining unmarked Chinook.
• Finally, the Department added an additional day to the commercial fishery this week, Sept. 28 – Oct 2, by removing the originally scheduled day, Thursday, Oct. 1, and adding Wednesday, Sept. 30 and Friday, Oct. 2. This additional day was due to several factors:
o The Department uses a modeling tool to evaluate the runsize of coho in-season that is based on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of the current commercial fishery. The significance of the model improves as more data are added. Currently, we are in statistical week 40 and the in-season update model (ISU) is predicting a higher natural origin coho runsize than the preseason forecasted runsize that we started with during North of Falcon.
o The Department also utilizes a model to plan fisheries preseason, the Willapa Bay Terminal Area Management Model (TAMM). This model will estimate catch, impacts, escapements, and harvest rates for each fishery by species. When adding the data from the ISU model to the TAMM, the TAMM model predicts a natural origin coho escapement almost three times higher than the natural origin escapement goal of 13,600 fish.
o Since the commercial fishery lost opportunity early in the season to conserve unmarked Chinook salmon coupled with the predicted increase in harvest potential of hatchery coho, the Department decided to add the additional day this week.
• Early indications from the ISU and TAMM models suggests the preseason management objectives would still be attained for all three species; Chinook salmon (14% impact rate cap), coho (13,600 natural origin spawners), and chum (10% impact rate cap).

The Department is actively monitoring each day the commercial fishery is open and analyzing the data as quickly as possible as well as having daily updates on hatchery broodstock and spawner surveys. (See attachment: 2020 WB impacts by area total catch summary Draft week 40 10.01.2020.pdf )

As of today, after further evaluation of recreational and commercial fisheries as well as hatchery returns to-date and the in-season update of the coho runsize (see above), the data collected to-date indicates there are remaining unmarked Chinook impacts available as well as a coho runsize larger than the preseason prediction. Based on these factors, the Department will be making additional changes to the freshwater recreational fisheries within Willapa Bay.
1. Sections currently open in the Willapa and Naselle rivers will see an increased bag limit from a two fish salmon adult bag to a three fish salmon adult bag limit, one of which may be a wild coho and a release requirement for unmarked Chinook.
2. The section in the Naselle River from Hwy 4 bridge to 300’ below the upstream entrance of the Naselle Hatchery attraction channel will remain closed until October 16th as planned preseason but will have similar regulation as the rest of the Naselle River when it opens.
3. The sections of the Nemah River (Middle, North, and South) will open for salmon with a 1 fish adult bag limit and a release requirement of all Chinook.
4. All other traditional freshwater fishing areas of Willapa Bay that had been closed to salmon fishing for 2020 (North River, Smith Creek, and Bear River) will be open with a one adult bag limit with a release requirement for unmarked Chinook.
5. The emergency regulation will be filed tomorrow, Oct. 2. These regulations are planned to take effect as of Saturday, October 3, and run to their traditional closing dates of either December 31 or January 31.

The commercial fishery schedule will also be adjusted next week, October 5 – 9, from two twelve-hour openers scheduled for Monday (Oct. 5) and Thursday (Oct. 8) to three openers planned for Monday (Oct. 5), Wednesday (Oct. 7), and Friday (Oct. 9). All other rules will remain in effect.

Hatchery Chinook Rack Returns
We started spawning Chinook salmon this week. We typically spawn one day a week per facility but we have so many fish at the hatchery, both Chinook and coho, that we spawned twice at Nemah Hatchery this week and three times at Naselle Hatchery (Tuesday, Wednesday, today) this week. Our first day spawning at Forks Creek Hatchery was today as well. We have a high proportion of coho that have already volunteered into all three facilities. This is probably due to the higher than predicted coho runsize we are seeing for 2020 (see the commercial fishery update above). We are also finding at all three facilities that there are a lot of Chinook, both males and females, that are still not ready to spawn. (See attachment: 2020 WB Hatchery Chinook Eggtake 10..01.2020.pdf).

Naselle Hatchery:
The Chinook program release goal for the Naselle Hatchery is 5,000,000 eggs. The increase in production for Naselle is directed at increasing prey availability for Southern Resident Killer Whales. To make program goal, we will need 1,833 females. To-date, we have spawned 305 female Chinook. To make the program goal, we still need an additional 1,528 female Chinook. Currently, we have 2,000 Chinook on-hand (males and females combined) in the pond. These fish on-hand will be kept in the pond until next week then we will attempt to spawn more fish if they are ready.

Nemah Hatchery:
The Chinook program release goal for the Nemah Hatchery is 3,300,000 eggs. To make program goal, we will need 1,210 females. To-date, we have spawned 271 female Chinook. To make program goal, we still need an additional 939 female Chinook. Currently, we have 1,653 Chinook on-hand (males and females combined) in the pond. As with Naselle Hatchery, these fish on-hand will be remain in the pond until we spawn next week.

Forks Creek Hatchery:
The Chinook program release goal for Forks Creek Hatchery is 400,000 eggs. Today was the first day we have spawned Chinook at Forks Creek Hatchery. Those data have yet to be entered from today’s spawn but to make program goal, we will need 147 females. Typically, we have made program goal at Forks Creek for Chinook.

Spawning Ground Surveys
Salmon spawning season in Willapa Bay is officially in full swing. We saw 4,100+ coho and Chinook salmon staging below the weir on the Naselle and we recorded 30+ Chinook redds. The survey below the weir on the Nemah River had 61 redds and a large number of live Chinook. Surveys throughout Willapa Bay are observing Chinook spawning from Fall River to the Upper SF Willapa. There have been no coho redds observed yet, but we expect to start seeing them in next couple of weeks. A couple of chum have been observed in Canon River, which is early considering traditional run timing, but hopefully a positive sign for things to come. We will be conducting more surveys over the next few days to complete this week. We are excited to see what is out there in the rivers.

As always, in-season data is preliminary and subject to change. This email and any attachments will be posted to our website using the link provided below for the Willapa Bay Marine Area 2.1 Recreational Creel Monitoring.

If you have any comments or questions regarding any of the information provided in these emails, please submit your comments to WillapaBay@dfw.wa.gov.

Additionally, if you know of anyone who might be interested in receiving these weekly in-season updates or any other information we may send out regarding Willapa Bay fisheries, please forward this email and have them reply stating they would like to be added to our email distribution list.

Thank you and Happy Fishing!
Barbara McClellan
Willapa Bay Fisheries Management
WDFW Region 6 Montesano