August 2, 2001
Contact: Bill Freymond, (360) 249-1225

WDFW warns Hoh River anglers
about mishandling wild chinook

MONTESANO – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is warning Hoh River anglers to properly release any wild adult chinook they catch or risk early closure of the summer fishery.

Bill Freymond, WDFW District fish biologist, said the agency has been alerted to a number of cases in recent weeks of anglers holding wild chinook salmon out of the water for photographs before they release them.

"That is not an acceptable way to handle these very sensitive fish before releasing them," Freymond said. "It greatly increases the odds that those fish will die and requires us to consider whether we can continue with the fishery."

State regulations for the Hoh River require that anglers release any wild chinook measuring 24 inches or more. Wild adult chinook are identified as having all of their fins intact. Hatchery chinook are identified by a missing ventral fin near the belly or a missing adipose fin, clipped from the back of the fish near the tail.

"Photography is OK as long as you leave the fish in the water and release it as quickly as possible," said Freymond, noting that guidelines for releasing fish are spelled out in the WDFW Sport Fishing Rules Pamphlet. Those rules direct anglers to:

Minimize handling. Leave the fish in the water.
Do not net the fish. If you must, use a cotton mesh, it's less abrasive to the fish's fragile scales.
Use a hook remover to take out hooks imbedded in the mouth or jaw.
If a fish has swallowed the hook, cut the leader.
Keep fingers away from the eyes and gills of the fish.
Freymond said the sport fishing regulations on the Hoh are intended to target hatchery summer steelhead, hatchery spring chinook and chinook jacks under 24 inches.

"We understand that wild chinook salmon are going to be caught incidentally to fishing for other species, but they must be released properly," Freymond said.

The lower river, from the mouth to the Oxbow campground operated by the state Department of Natural Resources, is currently scheduled to be open for the harvest of marked hatchery steelhead, marked hatchery chinook and chinook jacks under 24 inches through August 31.

The upper river, from the Oxbow campground to Morgan's Crossing, is scheduled to remain open to the harvest of marked hatchery steelhead and chinook jacks (under 24 inches) through October 15.

"The continuation of these fisheries is really up to the anglers, themselves," Freymond said. "We don't want to close them down, but we may have no choice if we continue to receive reports of people mishandling wild fish."

I wonder how good those Indian gillnets are at releasing wild fish unharmed...

They want to crack down on sportsmen, but then they allow the river to be netted at the same time. What a joke!!

-N.

There's some northwest sport fishing show on Fox Northwest that I've stumbled across from time to time where the host of the show will gill these fish that he is catching and then let them go.

HELL-EFFING-O??!! Why don't I come over there and ram my fist down your throat and grope your lungs from the inside? It never ceases to amaze me what these "sportsmen" do on their shows. Those gills are a vital organ for the fish and gilling them not only potentially damages these gills but also introduces germs into them.

It's great to have pictures of these glorious fish, but it is better to let them go as quickly as possible with as little handling as possible.

StorminN
I couldn't agree more. Nets don't know if a fish is wild or hatchery. What a bunch of bull$hit.

BTW, the Indians are entitled to 1/2 of the fish harvest right? Does that mean they are entitled to 1/2 the harvest of hatchery fish that are state managed? Fish that wouldn't be there if a hatchery weren't being run with our money? I don't know how the treaty reads, or how the hatcherys are run/financed. I just don't understand how that works. If anyone else can give me an idea of what the intent of the treaty is, please do so.

This post was not intended to be a slam on indians but strictly informational. I've seen the scenario many times on the pennisula this last winter. Three maybe four shots of a beautiful wild fish before being released. Then a 5 minute recessitation, I'd say the chances of survival had dropped expotentially. That is what they're talking about. Play nice with your toys or "DAD" will take them away.

OXCAMP1

If "DAD" keeps screwing around with us, MOTHER just may divorce "DAD" and you KNOW how powerful MOTHER is! Most of us know how to put our toys away so that we can play with them again! Just because a few kids don't put their toys away right, doesn't mean that we can't play anymore!

Cowlitzfisherman

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

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: cowlitzfisherman ]

Now wait a second, let me get this straight... the Hoh tribe is saying that 80% of the chinook they're netting are hatchery fish?

If I'm not mistaken (and I easily could be) there isn't a hatchery on the Hoh that releases chinook... am I right?

If so, I highly doubt the tribe's numbers, and would easily believe the guides.

-N.

I think the tribe is done netting untill Fall but I could be wrong.

They were saying most of the clipped Kings were SolDuc dipins.

This is just stuff I got second and third hand.

i think they should just close it, bob is in alaska anyway.

Rich G and the rest of you that want the real answer! There is one particular guide in the Forks area that catches and kills most of the fish he catches especially the spring chinook. Every guide out here knows who he is, the game dept has even given me his name on more than one occassion, and it is all about money in his pocket incl tips. He either stops this behavior or we all have to pay the consequences. His clients have boasted about the fish that they caught and filleted to people in this community not to be questoined for their honesty while fishing with this man. Nothing goes on in a small town that we all don't hear about. Hopefully he will stop before it is too late.

Al, Both you and I know there are such people out here but knowing somthing and proveing it are two different things. I here the same things, but without proof being physical evidence there's nothing. To bad there's not enough enforcement to be on the Hoh all the time. If we had enough enforcement we wouldnt have this problem to begin with. Our enforcement Officer is spread about as thin as it can get.

And good ol' jim knows it. Makes me want to hurl an *****, for christ's sake.

The other arguement would be, why should you release those kings if you caught them, only to have them get caught in a net upstream the next day and sold for $1.00 a pound, (other than the obvious reasons, it's highly illegal to keep them, and bad for the resource)

-N.

Stormn has a point. How can you hold one group of people to one set of standards and then hold another group of people who are doing the same thing to an entirely different set of standards?
Blueback: Try posting something intelligent for a change. I'm sick of your stupid one-liners.

Stormin,
I have heard this arguement many times in forks bars both alcohol and gravel. It seems to be a consensus amougst the local fisherman that they might as well bonk em. I understand the frustration but this is pretty short sighted. With this logic, we might as well build some nice dams or maybe poison would work. Come on guys let em go. Please.

Al,
I think most people on this board know who you are referring to, if this is such an ongoing with him (what rhymns with him) I`m suprised somebody doesn`t keep a watch on jim,(oops,typo, meant him)*L* be it the local fisherman,the fish and game or whoever, take a video tape, and just flat out shut him down, or is there nothing that can done anyways?

[ 08-14-2001: Message edited by: rainycity ]

Ive got it we will tell the warden to check his hidden fish box when he is floating closed native waters he thinks hes got everyone fooled???Let the WILD ONES GO!!!!

nets