These comments came from RB a Willapa resident not one of us traveling sports or conservationist and are in response to the talking points circulated by Kirt Hughes the District 17 Bio that I posted a couple of post up in this thread. So I thought I would share them with everyone as he pretty much captured how many seem to feel.



Initial thoughts, not final comments:
1. Whereas nets get most of chinook and coho, if they cannot get any chum (except for a net mortality) then sports cannot have any. This is the old culture (see 6. below).
2. The "gaps" of two days a week are useless when one day at a time, especially with 2N fishery as such a big area. We already know what one day gaps do for escapement and recreational fishing. That is how we got where we are
3. With only one day gaps and the Nov. schedule, the coho wipeout now hits early and late run coho, and models or not, they continue to degrade any coho sport fishery in the bay.
4. With the early August 2T netting, it is now official, they are gill netting Columbia River chinook, plus any early North River natural spawners. Have seen no evidence these are not present in early August. Without such evidence, this schedule is evidence it is OK to risk this depressed run. We should demand proof North River fish are safe from the early 2T schedule, or oppose it.
5. Having seen your analysis of WDFW recreational harvest modeling, claims of a small increase in sport % harvest of chinook and coho are not only tiny, they are not credible. Any claims of increase in escapement may be just as questionable.
6. Chum have been arriving earlier than historically for several years in Willapa Bay. If chum are still in enough trouble that zero retention even by sports is possible, then netting "coho" through Oct 12 is tantamount to accepting a ruined chum run unless Mother Nature takes care of it. I suspect that chum have the high net mortality of chinook, because like chinook, we just do not see them with net marks. When observers see chum in the nets in Oct., the nets should come out. This would qualify as in-season management if we cared about restoring chum.


Edited by Rivrguy (05/24/14 06:51 PM)
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in