I live in Wapato, so recently I've made trips down to the Diversion dam just off I-82 around Union Gap. The Indians (or Native Americans to be proper) have been killing the fish!!

It's early, and I believe the best is yet to come....so why aren't we having a season? Is there any way to appeal this closing and somehow have a very limited/restricted season? Two-fish limit for the season or something like that.

It just bothers me that there are fish already in the river, more to come, and we non-natives can't go get them.

Welcome to the wonderful world of tribal fisheries.

rola76, it dose stink. I was told by the local head WDFW person that we'll not get a season.

Remember the low water 2 years ago...that made fishing so easy? Well now we're paying for it. Forecast is for 6,000 nates and only 1,200 hatchery springers...they don't want us harming the nates (some are ESA protected) to get @ the hatchery fish.

Bright side forecast for next year looks great.

A lot of those fish are truly native. I have seen springers, way up rattlesnake creek in the William O Douglas wilderness area, when I was hunting for elk in early September. Now thats a pack… Especially up that bony creek!

KORE, you are right...our local Steelhead club helped the WDFW build the fish latter @ the falls on the Upper Little Naches river back in the 80's. It helped open up their spawning ground by a few more miles.... we need to protect these fish

I know this might sound lke a foolish question to some, but when it is deemed that a fishery is closed, does that mean to "catch and release" as well?

Don't get any ideas like I'm a poacher!! I have just been asked this question several times, and don't really know the response. One guy said, "Just because there are salmon in the river isn't gonna stop me from fishing for trout with Blue Fox!"

I agree with him, but it's a pretty scare situation.

closed means closed

Closed means closed as Rapid Robert stated, targeting salmon in a closed fishery will get you a ticket.

That said, I've been a dedicated hardware fisherman on the Yak for years catching my fair share of trout and an occasional Springer here and there. As long as it is open for trout you can fish but I wouldn't get caught fishing with a K14 if I were you

Thanks for the clarification. No way am I going to go out and actually fish for them... was just curious.

Thanks Eric

rola 76, you will see that the natives get to kill these fish under the term "ceremonial purposes" then they take the same"ceremonial" fish and sell it out of the back of there pickup.. they also get 1 dollar more per squawfish they catch, than the "white man" and also get to with a trot line, with as many hooks as they want to..as i have been told to believe..its all modern day racism in a nutshell..have you caught any channels on the lower yak?

Berk,

I haven't managed to get into the cats on the Yak, although I should. I mainly fish the Canyon and when it's open, salmon. If I'm bored in the winter, I'll go catch 50 whitefish!!

You're absolutely right about the "natives," damn they have it good!! Last year I saw a guy selling salmon out of the bed of his truck piled full of shaved ice, and I asked him what he does with the leftover fish he has at the end of the day when his ice melts, he told me the throws them away!! I swear there were at least 25 fish left!!

Why then couldn't sportsmen sue under the ESA to get this indian slaughter ended? If the fish are divided up 50/50 and we get none shouldn't the indians get 50% of 0. This current system makes no sense to me.

WRO, you would think we could. BUT we can't get sportsfisherman to all vote to get the comm. nets out below Bonnie....how many years has that been on the ballet...remember SOS ?

The fish count over Prosser Dam has been going down for the last week. The highest day so far was a count around 112 over . It's down to nineteen now. The total to date is 2000, so there is not enough escapement to allow a sport fishery for springers. Now when the silvers come in that will be a differant story. Let's keep in mine that for 40years we couldn't fish for springers and the natives were allowed.By the way Robert I was the guy doing the surveying for Jim Maine when we worked on that prodject. Jim Marquis

Jim, small world

The brake down so far is thru 5-7-03 over Prosser dam...

natives...............1749
hatchery..............342

we'll get'em next year