wdfw changed the date ffrom April 1st to May 1st on todays news release on their web page!!!

Looks like they threw Forks a Bone after all.

WDFW says it wont make any nagative impact to wait. I wonder how much closer the Hoh would have been to escapement with 15 less harvest days since it is being managed for harvest under escapement this year.

Gues we wont find out this year.

The only ones getting "boned" are the fish.

So sad... this is the equivalent of removing the first brick that eventually leads to the whole wall coming down.

That is such BS

Total Bull****, that makes me sick, another months worth of killing nates, I hope they are proud of themselves, frikin losers !!!!
Peace
Superfly

A mixed bag in my book. Obviously people know how I feel about the issue itself ... but I also know how last minute major reg changes can affect a guide (the last-minute ruling to limit our AK king trips to one daily very late in the booking season was a major snafu).

So ... I can live with it to allow those that had trips booked through this season to run as they were booked.

Most guides though don't have a ton of April biz here anyhow and that's perhaps the strongest portion of the wild run too.

Just happy to see the next two years will be as ruled unlike the rumors that many have been passing around town

It seems like a wise move on the part of the WDFW that will help defuse the potential for litigation against their controversial decision.

With the exception of the Green River summer run they now have until December to mediate with all the concerned parties and stakeholders before the decision becomes affective.

The justification for the change is lame (longer time to go in effect so more people know about it). Clearly, this was a move to pacify a specific group of people. Pehaps those of us who support WSR should avoid (dare I say boycott) guides who practice catch and kill.

So it appears to me the sporties should get together and file some type of litigation on behalf of the fish. Forks can pay the lawyers fees when we win since they put pressure on WDFW to get this backed out.

lead thrower


Isn't that a two way street? If you loose, they can also ask the judge to require the loosing party (sporties) who filed the suite to pay their attorney fees too!

It's seems that it's "OK" when the Commission first passed this rule in your favor, but now that they have apparently "amended" it, it's now "not ok"?

What's the deal on that one?

It seems to me that WSC was "claiming victory" when this moratorium was originally passed, but now they aren't saying a word about it being modified. What the deal?

Cowlitzfisherman

We don't like the extended period to kill wild fish.

My personal take on it is that it will not be that big of a deal, in the long run, as it will extend the moratorium another month, too, and it makes sense to not implement rules like this mid-season, when it's only a month to the end of the season.

Fish on...

Todd

**edit** It would be interesting, though, if just like last year, the run size was big enough to make escapement, but the combined tribal and sport harvest pushed the run below escapement. Especially interesting if it is below escapement by, say, 100 fish, but another 150 get harvested in April. Wouldn't surprise me if something like that happened, since it's already being purposely managed to overharvest AGAIN this year.**

CFM

My deal is simple, I am against the bonking of wild steelhead on any river period.

Yes, what lead thrower said. It is just that simple. I have NEVER heard valid arguement for retaining a healthy native in Washington state.

It would not suprise me to see an emergency closure on quite a few rivers that may have stayed open a little longer with WSR...

cow
This could back fire on WDFW!

Playing devil's advocate here, what if someone simply wants to eat a steelhead? Seems valid to me. Not everyone has time to fish for every weekend during the hatchery run or like me last year, had no success (I couldn't catch a hatchery fish last year to save my life). Again, if the run's healthy (that's the crux here) then people should have the choice to harvest a limited amount. Would I do it? No, but if someone else wants to, they should have the choice.

Albertson's had pen-raised "steelhead" on sale for $3.99 lb. just last week! HELLUVA lot cheaper than a weekend in Forks and probably tastes the same or better than those wild winter run spawners.

The "I need to feed the family" argument fails miserably in this day and age of expensive tackle, gas, ferry costs, motels etc...

That dern devil sometimes just ain't got a leg to stand on.

JacobF,
I appreciate that you took the other side for the sake of arguement. Here is my logic:
-wild steelhead catch and kill is only justifyable in rivers with healthy runs
-a run is only healthy if the runs are at, or nearly at, maximal returns
-no Washington river is at, or nearly at, maximal returns (you can argue this point but just go ask an oldtimer about how things used to be)
-thus, catch and kill is not justified

What science can you or WSC show that supports this assertion to be a fact? Will you please define what "healthy" means? I understand your passion, but what science supports this theory of yours?

I think that WDFW has done the "smart" move on extending the start time on the moratorium. If they were to lose this issue through summary judgment on the facts alone, the City of Forks and every guide who may have lost business or customers because of an arbitrary and capricious decision that was made by the Commission.

Forks has shown both the WDFW and the Commission that over $684,273.93 is spent by tourism for lodging only in Forks from November 02 to March 03. Lodging represents about 35-40% of that, and the remainder being spent on food, shopping, recreation, transportation and fuel. Gross impacts for logging, food & all winter visitors for that time period would be 1.09 to 1.13 million dollars.

Now if WDFW or the commission were to lose their case, besides the attorney fees, what part of these figures would you think that Forks would ask for as damages? The "game", and stakes may be much bigger then some had counted on.

If the "Commission" was so very confident that they were legally right, why would you suppose that they would allow this time to move to May1?

I'd like to have a legal opinion on this question.

Cowlitzfisherman

( I changed logging to lodging and loose to lose)

Well CFM, for a little science check out the WSC charts that Jerry Garcia just posted. I'm sure the data is not perfect but you'll notice that the runs are going downhill (thus, they are not healthy). The only exception is the Quillayute. The runs are increasing (maybe even approaching maximal returns) so why would we want to screw thing up a good thing by retaining fish.
Maybe I misinterpreted your post but is it really you opinion that WA rivers are in peak condition?????

You need science to tell you that there aren't any rivers in this state anywhere near their maximum carrying capacity?

I'd be skeptical of science that said otherwise.

I believe Todd and Bob already answered this question for you Cowlitz, right here:


Todd:

"it makes sense to not implement rules like this mid-season, when it's only a month to the end of the season".


Bob:

"I also know how last minute major reg changes can affect a guide... to allow those that had trips booked through this season to run as they were booked."

It appears to me that the Commission is being rather accomodating to both guides and sportfishers by having the rule take effect AFTER the 03/04 season is completed.

With all due respect to both Bob and Todd, what else could you have said?


Cowlitzfisherman

They could have said "Scrambled eggs flew out my ass, so I fried up some bacon"..........but that wouldn't make much sense, would it?

That's the funniest thing I've read all day. Thanks Dan.

Dan

Are you sure that wasn't "eggs benedict"

Cowlitzfisherman

Scambled......Benedict, whichever.......they both go well with bacon.

CFM,

What I could have done, instead, is put on my foil covered, spinner topped, fishing beanie, strapped on the chin strap, spun the propeller really hard, and said...

"What the f@#k does throwing seagulls laced with M-80's at sea lions off the coast of California have to do with the price of tea in China, huh?"
Fish on...

Todd

Dan, you are a beauty

Hey Eddie..I think CFM should eat those eggs.

Wild steelhead retention moratorium
will take effect May 1 statewide

OLYMPIA -The effective date for a recently adopted statewide moratorium on wild steelhead retention will be May 1, consistent with the start of the next fishing season, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

The two-year moratorium, adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission during a Feb. 6 meeting, originally was to take effect April 1. The moratorium - which is scheduled to run for two years - requires anglers to release any steelhead that is not marked as a hatchery fish by a missing adipose or ventral fin and a healed scar.

"On review, the timeline for implementing permanent fishing rules of this complexity made it impossible to have the moratorium in place by April 1," said Larry Peck, WDFW deputy director.

"This was an administrative decision by the director's office, which will make the rule change consistent with the beginning of the annual steelhead management cycle."

(Maybe this is when Dan was flippin his pancakes instead of his 2 small eggs )

Shifting the date to May 1 also allows additional time to get word of the moratorium out to steelhead anglers and other stakeholders, Peck
said.

Biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife stressed that no significant impact to wild steelhead would result from
continuing with current regulations on those rivers currently open to retention of wild steelhead.

Wild steelhead retention already had been permanently banned in much of the state, but has been allowed on several Olympic Peninsula river systems where stocks are relatively strong.

"We are confident that the decision to move the effective date of the moratorium will have no significant impact on the resource, but will provide for better notice to anglers who fish for steelhead in the affected rivers," Peck said.

There is no justification for intentionally killing a wild steelhead in the state of Washington.... EVER!

Rob watch those "emotive" statements...or check your blood pressure.

And Dan..you might be a candidate for my new prostaff....Granpa's foil diapers....I need a field tester before offering them to the public.

I actually laughed out loud at work when I read your post about the scrambled eggs...too funny.

And in conclusion I will say that I think we have dressed up this WSR argument in all the different wardrobes in the closet and we have no more. Maybe all you smart guys should shift gears to WSR from gill nets. Now that's a moratorium we might get 100% concensus on.

Y'know, I might have pried myself away from springer fishing and gone up to Forks to C&R nates without the C&K crowd plugging up the rivers and reducing the run to the point where it won't be any fun, but now I'm not going anywhere near there. Forks will have to wait until next year to get my business

HEY Bob..you said: "Most guides though don't have a ton of April biz here anyhow and that's perhaps the strongest portion of the wild run too."

Does that say that C&R fisheries attract less fishermen? Sure sounds like it. If so that would be counter to the arguments I have heard over and over.That is that C&R only would be even more popular and would pose no economic threat to areas like Forks.

Because most Quillayute system fish in April are smaller than their Feb and March counterparts ... it's never been the most popular time to fish it even though there are often many new fish still coming to be caught.

I believe that it also conicides with the timing of many other activities for many anglers ... such as golf, which sees a huge pickup in play in the NW in April as the weather gets better.

Nothing to do with the impact of C&R ... it's just been a time of year when the rivers typically have far fewer people with the chances of a monster fish being smaller

I guess I see that...I always heard that late March and early April was the time for the biggest fish...but then again I fish the Quinault for steelhead with real live indians and a real shot at a fish over 30#....

Our non-genetically engineered fish from the Quillayute system seem to provide the biggest specimens in Feb

During a lengthy conversation with a WDFW muckity-muck, he admitted that it was in fact a poor decision to push back the April 1st moritorium date.

However, after concern was expressed that the an aggresive kill was taking place on the Hoh to "get the killing in while they can," he did promise that extra attention was going to be paid to that river because of concern about the river making escapement.

He said that if the Dpt. felt too many wild fish were being killed and that the river would not make escapement because of it, the river would be closed down.

It makes good management sense to me to shut down the fishing on a river consistently failing to make escapement or is it is predicted to drastically miss escapement.

I still don't understand why the Skagit & Sauk were open to spring C&R fishing for steelhead stacked on their spawning grounds a couple years ago when the predicted escapement was only 80% and the numbers had plummeted throughout the S-rivers for a couple years.

Plunker,
I agree!
The Skagit should have been close.