Originally Posted By: Geoduck

This fishery is a shadow of its former self.

Why? Because we now fish behind the nets. No amount of cheerleading by the good Dr. or fine hosting will change the fact that the fishing was great then and not nearly so good now. The mid august and late august baywide openings absolutely gut the early season fishing on WB, confining the decent fishing to about a 1 week window.

Don't buy the hype.

Sure it may be better than 2010, but that was the worst season on willapa in 10-20 years, so that's saying very little. Considering the poor catch for 2011 came on one the biggest WB chinook run in a decade, it really is a shame the hand we were dealt by WDFW.

We need to demand better at NOF. The very modest gains beteween 2010 and 2011 are not adequate. A more equitable arrangement could ensure both better sportfishing and large catches for the commercials.


Originally Posted By: Geoduck
WDFW abandoned doing angler checks on WB, so we have no hard data to support it, but from talking to people the coho catches have really improved, but chinook catches are way down.


It's too bad that Geoduck and all the other naysayers are so convinced about how bad Willapa sucked in 2011.

CRC data says otherwise...

Sport landings for chinook in 2011 (the most recent available from CRC's) were 8.3K... an all-time record high eclipsing the previous record catch of 4.8 K in 2005.

So here's the possibilities...

1) The fishing really DID suck, but enough people came down to partake in the sucky fishing that the total fleet catch set a record.

2) The fishing didn't suck, but lotsa people with the perception that it did suck simply didn't bother to show up. Those who did show up enjoyed prime fishing and caught enough fish to set a record for total rec catch.

3) A helluvalotta boastful folks lied outright on their CRC.

Take yer pick.....

_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!