North coast rivers reopening, Saturday or Monday.

10/28/2022

Grays Harbor tributary fisheries update
October 27, 2022

Action: Returns Grays Harbor and local independent tributaries to permanent rules as listed in the 2022/23 Washington Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet.

Effective date: Saturday, October 29, 2022

Species affected: All Species.

Locations (includes all tributaries to listed areas):

Black River (Grays Harbor/Thurston Co.)
Chehalis River (Grays Harbor Co.), mainstem from Fuller Bridge upstream, and all forks and tributaries from the mouth upstream.
Cloquallum Creek (Grays Harbor/Mason Co.)
Copalis River (Grays Harbor Co.)
Elk River (Grays Harbor Co.)
Hoquiam River including West and East forks (Grays Harbor Co.)
Humptulips River including all forks (Grays Harbor Co.)
Joe Creek (Grays Harbor Co.)
Johns River (Grays Harbor Co.)
Moclips River (Grays Harbor Co)
Newaukum River, including all forks (Lewis Co.)
Satsop River (Grays Harbor Co.), including all forks.
Skookumchuck River (Lewis/Thurston Co.)
Van Winkle Creek (Grays Harbor Co.)
Wishkah River (Grays Harbor Co.), from the mouth to 200’ below the weir at the Wishkah Rearing Ponds and from 150’ upstream to 150’ downstream of the Wishkah adult attraction channel/outfall structure (within the posted fishing boundary).
Wynoochee River (Grays Harbor Co.)

Noticed the Queets system is still closed indefinitely, due to (paraphrasing) "conservation concerns from recent fisheries activities." Can't tell for sure if the mainstem is still closed, but the Clearwater and Salmon rivers were names specifically.

I'd be curious to know what those "activities" entailed. Has there been poaching? Is it the spectre of snagging being thrown in our faces again?

unfortunately, yes. No snagging in paradise.

We all hate snaggers, but that's such a BS justification. The responsibility to control snagging lies solely with WDFW enforcement. I know they're spread thin, and I sympathize, but enforcement is their job, especially now that they are using illegal tactics as justification for closing fisheries.

I don't fault WDFW for a lot of the cards stacked against them, but they shouldn't pass the buck down to us.

What are they supposed to do? If there isn't sufficient enforcement why open it for snagfest? If they don't have enough officers they need to publicly explain why they can't be fully staffed.

But just letting the snagging or other illegal activities proceed doesn't seem right.

I suspect big game enforcement is a higher priority than babysitting a few sleaze ball snagsters

Could it be possible that the Quinaults took a lot of Kings on the Queets while netting in low water. Maybe someone should check into that. If the Park doesn't open it has nothing to do with WDFW enforcement issues. We'll know next week.
I know it happened with the Quileutes a few years back and resulted in our fishery being closed early that year. I believe that year the # was in the thousands and had everyone freaking at the time.
Thank You Quileute tribe for not netting during the low water this year and thinking about the future.

To be clear, I don't think snagging is okay, nor should it be tolerated. My point is that if people snagging is what is keeping the rest of us off the water, and WDFW is aware of where it's happening, there is no excuse. Send somebody to a known hotspot and have them ticket every person who is observed snagging. The behavior is sure to change if appropriately penalized....

I mean, it's kind of like the thing with the timber companies closing all the logging roads to public access. I understand their point of view, but man, does the outcomeof the few who misbehave misplace the burden on the many! At least WDFW has SOME authority to punish offenders....

Big wow we get 7 days on the Snohomish system ! 7 days ? Really? They’ve got 4,000 fish at hatchery already and more coming and we only get 7 days ? What a joke.
Good news is the Sky river guys are collecting chum starting this weekend for the “ fisherman will do what the useless game department wont “ chum rearing program. Just hope they add a collection point at Lewis street bridge again because we all can’t get down to two bit to drop off fish. A Big Thank You to these guys for putting in the work to bring back Skykomish chum after you know who department tried to wipe them out.

Snagging or whatever behavior comes with people just as a commercial using the recovery box for a trash bin. The question should be how does this effect escapement? How many fish are we talking about removed from escapement? 1, 10, 100, 1000 just what is the number of fish removed from the spawning population? In the big picture of harvest/dead fish it is my thought that it is small. It is about perception within the department becoming reality and the optics of bank angling mixed in.

I'm curious. What makes you think it was a problem with snagging? The state only controls a small piece on the Salmon & none of the Queets. There was no water until recently. I never fished the Clearwater so I have no input on that.
Could it be possible that the tribe who nets the Queets is the issue and they netted way more fish than anticipated? It wouldn't be the 1st time. The Queets has had a hard time meeting Coho escapement goals for years yet they keep on netting.
Once the rivers go up snagging usually diminishes.

it's a problem when the rivers are at record lows with no rain in sight. the river get's closed because salmon are not able to go up with any semblance of normalcy. The rest is people's imaginations and assumptions. Notice how as soon as we had one decent rain and were close enough to a forecast of rain that will bring flows back to normal, the river opened up? Snagging is one of the things that happens in low water, but not why the department closes rivers.

Two problems with that generally correct (IMO) statement:

1. Flows on the Queets went up sooner and more dramatically than in any of the Grays Harbor streams. If flows were the entire reason for the closures, those rivers should be open, but they're not.

2. The statement from WDFW cited "recent fisheries activities" as the reason why those rivers are still closed.

I don't suspect any sort of foul play or ill intent; I'd just be interested to know what really happened there.

Exactly my point. Snagging is bad, but is it really a significant factor in the overall decline of salmon runs? If not, it's not a legitimate justification for closing sport fisheries.

To be clear, I have no idea what the reasoning was behind keeping the Clearwater and Salmon closed, and I'm not making any claims or looking to promote any conspiracies. I'm just curious to know what's really going on, because flow and numbers of spawning fish were not mentioned as reasons; only the mysterious "recent fisheries activities."

Interesting that snagging seems to be such a large issue here. Based on my (huge) sample size of fishing sockeye 4 days on the Kenai I saw a whole lot less snagging than I see on Minter or Kennedy. The anglers themselves seem to police it pretty well. Plus, ADFG has folks out there watching and enforcing. It just seemed, to me, that the folks up there were more willing to comply and snagging was defined as not hooked inside the mouth.

Keep an eye on what the National Park does on the Queets in the next few days. I predict they will be opening their land back up with all this rain that has given the fish time to get upriver. I

It's probably just the opposite. The National Park Service will check with WDFW on re-opening the Queets. The NPS doesn't manage fish. WDFW does.

But you are still correct. The Queets will most likely open within the next few days.

10/31/2022

WDFW held off long enough that the "bank bound" anglers, missed a chance to catch a fish.

It'll be a while before tributaries will be fishable, then the November 1, down to one fish kicks in.

You can bet your ass that the QIN and the NT nets won't be protecting any fish, should be perfect for some money making in gill net or set net water.

Looks like the Park opens tomorrow. The press release has gone out.
The Queets & Salmon will remain closed. Conservation issues. Sounds like the tribe did not stop netting until mid Oct.