I've heard a very nasty rumor last night,and it's just a rumor.I heard that the springer season may end on the columbia on 4-8-03.
Due to over harvest by the net's.Does any one have more accurrate information available????.
This would totally suck.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE
P.S. What I heard was they were allowed 15K
and ended up with 25K,so the sporties have to
eat $hit do to there over harvest.

I also heard the rumor, but I don't know if it is true. I hope not that would really screw up my plans.

States are meeting today about restrictions to slow catches because gillnetters had too great an impact on upriver wild stocks. Sporties have had some impact, too, but the commercials went way over their allowable impact in a one-day fishery about a week ago. They might lower limit to one fish or close it certain days of the week or close the stretch from Bonneville to I-5, but I hear they don't plan to close it completely.

I talked to the Fish and Game in Vancouver and was told the nets got under 4,000 salmon total including the earlier season. They said the commercials were over their quota for upriver protected stocks by about 30%. Compared to last year where they got 14,000 fish, I'd say the sportsman are doing pretty well. Most of the fish the commercials caught were upriver Columbia fish with very few Willamette fish showing up. This is great news for the sporties. With what the commercials got and what the sporties have caught we are still under 50% of the quota so I think we are ok on the Columbia for a couple of weeks anyway. I just hope the Willamette fish are late.

That's about right. The commercials folks went over their allocation by quite a bit. Therefore the sport anglers on the mainstem have to cut back to prevent taking too many listed spring Chinook (Snake Rv or Upper Columbia stocks). The State bios are meeting to determine how they are going to make up the difference. Reducing the # of sport fishing days and closing various section of the river (e.g., above I-5) are being considered.

All of this could be avoided by requiring a more selective gear by the commerical guys. Get rid of the gill nets, switch to trap nets, and this problem goes away. Plus, the commerical guys could catch 100% of their quota with almost zero mortality of wild fish.

Do you also think it would help survival of the listed upriver fish if sporties were required to use barbless hooks, and not remove unclipped fish from the water?

I know that our (sportfishers) mortality impact from current popular methods (barbed trebles on Kwikfish) has already been figured into the overall equation. But it does seem to me that if we lowered the sport impact to "almost zero" as well, there would be somewhat less of a need for emergency closures, and we could (sporties) enjoy a longer, more productive springer season?

What's "ordinary care" though Aunty? How exactly do you define it? Do you ever wonder why barbless hooks are required in salt water? Or during C&R seasons for steelhead? Here we are demanding that commercials absolutely fish selectively, yet we're not doing all we can to lessen our impact in this mixed-stock fishery.

I would like nothing better than to see ALL commercial netting (Tribes included) stopped in the Columbia. (and everywhere else for that matter) All I'm saying is that we (sportfishers) definitely would occupy the moral high ground and perhaps one day even the legal, if we did ALL we could to protect ESA listed species of fish.

That's about how I figure it too Aunty. Let me ask you though, how many pics ya think are up on your favorite board, ifish etc. of unclipped fish, netted and held out of the water...

The salt water reference was an example, not an attempt to revive some old debate.

The reasoning behind that reg. is to reduce mortality on undersized, unclipped, and non-targeted fish. D'oh!

You know me... always the greedy one! Yep, what do I care if they close the sport season tomorrow!

The quitting smoking thing must be gettin' tough huh?
Either that, or you just can't resist the urge to argue with me... :p

Thanks for your replies and in put.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

P.S. BAN ALL NETS!!!!!!!

aunty m, congrats on no smoking, been a year and 4 months for me, no copenhagen either!!! i got the cleanest tackle box on the west coast...

Aunty:

Aunty, I said it before, and I will say it again, behind every good man is a better women!

To bad 4Salt hasn't learned his lesson on that one yet! You got it, and he knows it!

Maybe you better talk to his better half!

Cowlitzfisherman

Ya know what, this time I think Cowlitz may actually be right. (what are the odds!)

Aunty, every time you and I discuss an issue, we never seem to be on quite the same page.

I think you do that to me on purpose, just like my "better-half" does.