Spoonfed,

I disagree about WDFW's desire to raise fish. They love, love, love to raise hatchery fish. Why? Because hatcheries are the largest line item in the Department's budget. They spend more license and tax dollars on hatcheries than they do anything else. If you know anything about bureaucracies, then you know that growing the empire ($$$) is job number ONE. The only reason they cut back on hatchery production is because of lawsuits and NMFS requirements for ESA to reduce conflict between hatchery fish and wild ESA fish. The Department loves to raise hatchery fish so much that they will raise hatchery salmon even if most of them are harvested in Canada and WA commercial and treaty and few are harvested by taxpayers and license buyers.

The reason why GH streams are closed and north coast rivers (and Skagit) are open to steelhead fishing is the WA steelhead management plan of 2008 (which is supposed to be updated every 5 years but never has been). The plan says that if a wild steelhead run is forecast to be less than the spawning escapement goal, then that river will be closed to steelhead fishing. It seems to me that a wise fish manager would update the management plan to take note that we now have wild steelhead release regulations statewide, and that rivers could remain open to take advantage of harvestable hatchery steelhead while imposing CNR regulations on the wild fish. And then there is the tiff between WDFW and Quinault. If the Tribe says "No" to sportfishing, then WDFW is going to cave every day of the week.

The Skagit is open because the grass roots group of Occupy Skagit showed the Commission that Skagit steelhead are not endangered or threatened, but just needed an ESA compliant management plan in order to open. The Skagit is open under very strict regulations so long as the run forecast exceeds the minimum threshold level for fishing.

C'man,

The Cedar is open only from June 1 to Aug. 31. If it were open (CNR) in March, April, and May there would be fantastic fishing for larger rainbow trout. As it is, the best fishing for larger trout is the first week of June before they all return downstream to Lake WA. Managing the Cedar and Lake WA for the fish that are there instead of the fish that they wish were there would require a major paradigm shift at WDFW (think also Willapa Bay and tribs.).

Tug 3,

Managing Lake WA for sockeye is so "last century," which is where WDFW keeps its head firmly planted. As long as taxpayers will pay the Department to do things that don't make ecological sense, they will keep doing it. Sadly, I believe the heyday of LW sockeye has come and gone, with fishing opportunity foregone due to that insanely high escapement goal that was not supported by any sane spawner-recruit modeling.

20 Gage,

It wasn't so much seals but sea lions that whacked LW and Cedar steelhead in the 1990s. Also during the 90s, steelhead smolt to adult survival rates, especially in PS, began declining, first significantly, then drastically. Anti-hatchery teachings have next to nothing to do with the problems on the Cedar. WDFW could plant the Cedar with all the hatchery steelhead that General Evo wants, but very few would survive to come back. That's just how the state of things are these days. Yes, there were decent runs of wild steelhead during the 70s and 80s, just like most other PS rivers. But they are all gone from all the rivers now. And it's because marine survival rates have crashed. The causes range from too many harbor seals and sea lions in PS, poor coastal upwelling conditions some years, the "blob" in coastal ocean waters, changing ocean surface temperatures on the high seas, changes in the forage composition on those same high seas, and who knows what else that scientists have yet to figure out. And if there's any upside to any of this, it's that WDFW is not to blame for it and couldn't change it if they tried or wanted to.

C'man,

Interesting hypothesis about LW spring wind causing sockeye fry starvation. I'll need clear, cogent, and convincing hard evidence to believe it. My reason? Salmon fry are amazing swimmers and can disperse quickly over a wide area. When I was working in the Baker River system, we found that fry released at the north end of either reservoir could be down to the southern end in a little over one day. Salmonids are extremely well adapted to periods of starvation, and apparently highly motivated to travel in search of food. But yeah, there are more problems on LW than we likely know about. I just don't think the prevailing wind is one of them. To wit, that wind is analogous to the offshore coastal winds that cause upwelling and bring nutrients from the substrate up into the water column to form phytoplankton and then zooplankton that juvenile fish feed on.

This thread delivers, folks!