Cow'fisher', I noticed in your profile you registered at P.P. last year, in June 2000, yet it says this is your first post. With your apparent knowledge base it would have been nice for you to have been actively posting earlier. At any rate, I have already posted some things consistent with what you have posted here. As for Salmo G. having inside info about the dealings, it has been posted here before by members that he works for the NMFS - out of the Olympia office. I don't have first hand knowledge of that, but it may help explain some things? I know he asked me for access to the study I posted concerning C&R survival rates of spring chinook salmon. I haven't seen a Salmo post countering it since I put up the e-mail addys to access the publicly available extensive study info. Maybe because of disappointment that I was correct, and it wouldn't serve certain NMFS agendas; driven by Dept. of the Interior Secretarial Order #3206? Hmmm, don't know. Not sure why else it was requested. The more the public learns about what is unfairly going on behind closed doors with our money toward sportfishing opportunity the better; i.e.- Cowlitz R. situation and grossly unfair Columbia springer under-allocations for sportfishers! So keep correct and verifiable info coming guys. Thanks.

Seems like WDFW is willing to sacrifice all early winter steelhead runs to maintain a comercial fishery.

They seem to only acknoledge that washington state river systems had large runs of late winter/spring steelhead and very few early fish. I think they are trying to wipe out the early fish and erase their existance to ensure certian groups can maintain current hatchery steelhead comercial harvest.

fish them to extinction then claim they were never there or the genetics are to far mixed with hatchery fish to save.

I can see the writeing on the wall!

Seems to me the early run should have as much or more protection than the late run. There are much less of them left. But thats when the netts are in the most. When is the state/tribes going to grow some nuggets and save the last remaining healthy stocks we have. I can only hope its sooner than later.

RT,
You are right about my failure to post earlier on the BB. But that was then and this is now! I will no longer lie in the shadows and not tell the real facts about how bad the Cowlitz will be if we allow NMFS and others to control our fishery on the Cowlitz. Believe me, you have not heard the last from me. I can tell your reader's things about the Cowlitz (and I will) that will make the hair on their backs stand up. By the way, I was a former President of the Friends of the Cowlitz for 4 years. Some things didn't work out the way that I thought they would, but I still support the FOC and work with them when ever possible.

Stay tuned!

Cowlitz Fisherman

"Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook"?

Right on Rich G. and Cow. F.

Seems to me the most important aspect is the late run, You know, when the nates are coming on strong?


AND THE NETS ARE THICK!

Cowlitzfisherman, I am interested in your statement on Tacoma Power calling it's cards in on TU and AR. Can you get into the details on this? What card were called? Please expand on this.

Cowlitzfisherman,

You know the Cowlitz fishery better than I probably ever will, so I'm not bothered by what you post here. Yet, honest people can respectfully disagree. I'm sorry that you think the Cowlitz fishery is doomed. Personally, I think the fishery became doomed when the wild runs were wiped out by the dams in the late 60s and early 70s. The hatchery only fishery of the last 30 years was always at risk of not being sustainable in the long term. That risk was realized in the poor returns of recent years. Hatchery runs don't always deliver the goods.

It is largely WDFW who will determine if large runs of hatchery steelhead and coho return in future years. The coho return to the Cowlitz depends more on the number of days of Lower Columbia River gillnet fishing than hatchery production or ocean survival.

I get my information on steelhead stocks from two sources: WDFW and FOC. Frankly, I find WDFW's info more credible. WDFW says the hatchery late winter steelhead are genetic descendants of native Cowlitz stock, and that hatchery early winter steelhead are a mix of native Cowlitz and Chambers Creek stock. WDFW gave the later winters the priority for ESA recovery, and NMFS seems to have agreed. WDFW can continue to release hatchery early winter and Skamania summer steelhead smolts, but NMFS doesn't want those adults to be passed upstream of the dams where most of the ESA recovery will occur.

So I don't know why either the early winter or summer run hatchery fish would become a thing of the past. Has NMFS or WDFDW made ruling that I haven't heard about? I read that Tacoma recommends elimination of the early winter hatchery steelhead program, but I have no indication that WDFW will go for it. It's not the feds' turf, so it's doubtful they'll weigh in on it.

BTW, I didn't forget to mention that 50% of "true Cowlitz winter steelhead" returned from Nov-Jan. I never knew that and still don't. Records for almost all western WA rivers indicate native steelhead didn't show many fish until January, with just a smattering in December and fewer still in November. Was the Cowlitz really any different? If so, are there any data to support it? I thought WDFW was choosing to reduce emphasis on early winter hatchery production because high river flows in Dec and Jan. contribute to poor catch rates. If they have other reasons, I haven't heard about them.

Tacoma's settlement agreement focuses on restoring ESA species because that's the law. Your preference and my preference don't really count for much in that context. (As you know, if the summer run fishery is discontinued, there goes 90% of my Cowlitz fishing.) Only native species/stocks are slated for recovery, but there is continued mitigation and enhancement for unlisted fish like coho and "exotics" like summer steelhead.

I repect you as a friend and your point of view on too many things to really be interested in a one-on-one. However, we may debate the few things we actually seem to disagree on, as we always have.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Keta,

American Rivers were PAID over $23,000 to participate in the relicensing of the Cowlitz and oversee a technical advisor who was supposed to represent American Rivers, Trout Unlimited, Friends of the Cowlitz, CPR-Fish, and the Cowlitz Tribes. That did not happen and CPR-Fish filled a complaint with FERC. That is when AR and TU got rid of the other payers i.e. CPR-Fish. It's all documented, but TU and AR have kept it way down deep. It's all on the FERC record and they can't hide from that one!

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook?