Just checked the WDFW page and as usual they decided with their super secret math skills that the second opener for halibut will only be two non-consecutive days rather than three consecutive days. First they close the season by saying effort was up 50% in La Push and 20% in Neah Bay, and no one that I have talked to, including charter Skippers, agrees with that, they left 8000+ pounds on the quota that should go to the second opener and now they cut it back a day. As my good friend Fishinut says WDFW only has a minus key on their calculator when it comes to the recreational sector.

Hey, I’m all for more fishing days but WDFW must be using some of that King County Elections math.

If it takes 7 consecutive days to catch 67% and it takes 2 non-consecutive days to catch 33% then what does WDFW equal?

Select one:

A. Zero
B. Less than we hoped for
C. More fish for commercial fishers
D. All of the above

what 2 days might they be?

Was scheduled as June 16-18, now it's going to be June 16 and 18.

Wonder what number they use to multiply our actual catch numbers by to close us down. No way we reached the quota early. Probably the same number they use for crab.

I don't know about you guys, but my but is getting sore.

NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091

May 25, 2005
Contact: Michele Culver, (360) 249-1211


Halibut fishing to open for 2 more days on north coast
OLYMPIA - Anglers will get two days in June to fish for halibut off the north coast of Washington, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

Marine areas 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay) will be open to halibut fishing from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Thursday, June 16 and again on Saturday, June 18, said Phil Anderson, special assistant to the WDFW director.

"We wanted to give anglers two more days of fishing, but our catch projections show we don't have enough fish remaining under the quota for a Friday-and-Saturday fishery," Anderson said. "By staggering the days, we're hoping to give more people a chance to participate and still stay within the quota."

Fishing was excellent earlier this month, when anglers caught 76,967 pounds of halibut off the north coast in seven days of fishing, Anderson said. By his estimate, the number of anglers fishing off La Push each day was up 80 percent from last year, with a 20 percent increase in anglers at Neah Bay.

After closing the fishery to confirm catch totals, WDFW fish biologists determined that 38,470 pounds are still available for harvest under the recreational catch quota for the north coast.

"Barring foul weather, I expect that anglers will catch most - if not all - of the remaining quota," said Anderson, noting that the two-day fishery was approved by both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

While the north coast is renowned for large flatfish, anglers are also catching their limit of hefty halibut in other marine areas, Anderson said. The south coast, which includes marine areas 1 (Ilwaco) and 2 (Westport), is still open for halibut fishing, as are all waters of Puget Sound except Hood Canal.

"There are still plenty of opportunities to catch halibut in the state's marine waters right now," Anderson said.

That's quite a spin, they originally had scheduled a three day opener, drop it to two non-consecutive days instead and they are doing us a big favor.

Anyone wanna bet that the reason is so they'll have a day to assess the catch for the 16th and not let us fish on saturday? I'd bet a pretty penny on it.

Kris

Here's the press release from May 17 when they announced the closure. 3,637 halibut at a 20.5 lb average = 74,559 lbs and leaves 40878 lbs to be caught on June 16 and 18 assuming folks will be able to get out. That is 1994 fish or over half of the total caught in the early opener......I love the new math....the new announcement would indicate that 117 more fish were caught in the early opener based on new poundage estimates in the release.....


Halibut fishing to close May 18 off La Push, Neah Bay
OLYMPIA - The recreational halibut fishery off the north coast of Washington will close May 18 at 11:59 p.m., when the May catch quota is expected to be taken, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

In just five days of fishing, anglers have hauled in 3,637 halibut averaging 20.5 pounds apiece in marine areas 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay), said Phil Anderson, special assistant to the WDFW director.

"Fishing was excellent, and the number of anglers on the water was phenomenal," Anderson said. "With those factors in play, the quota goes pretty quickly."

According to preliminary estimates, the number of anglers fishing off La Push was up 50 percent from last year, Anderson said. The number of anglers fishing off Neah Bay was up by about 20 percent, he said.

Once catch figures have been confirmed, WDFW plans to reopen those areas for up to two days during the week of June 13, Anderson said. Specific dates and times for the fishery will be announced prior to that opening, when anglers will have a chance to harvest the remainder of the annual 115,437-pound quota for the north coast.

Anderson noted that halibut fishing remains good farther south on the coast and in Puget Sound.

"Fishing is good off Westport and Ilwaco," Anderson said. "Most anglers are getting their limit of one fish per day."

Imagine that the story changes a little. First la push had 50% more pressure. Now they say 80% more pressure. That's a big difference. Apparently the fake numbers they made up before didn't add up to the quota being met in 7 days so they had to change it to fit their needs.

Kris

Come on guys! You really think there is some kind of conspiracy here?
Get REAL!

Think about it...
Whats more accurate?
People hired and taking data (Science)?
Or fishermen that are always sceptical and unhappy with the way things are?

You can't judge catch by what he saw...or what she saw...

Get a grip.

Good Lord...

You can't be serious. Apparently you didn't realize that the person hired by your state to take notes about who was fishing la push is the one that told us the season would go into a 3rd week. Now if the one person with a first hand look at what is coming into the dock tells you the quota has lots of room left what is going to go through your head. Probably not that he misplaced several thousand pounds of halibut and then miracously found them. Don't throw the angle that he didn't know what was going on at neah bay because he did know. He talked with the girl checking neah bay.

There wasn't even a checker at neah bay on saturday according to several people on here that was fishing there.

Re read the prior posts. I didn't make up these 50% and 80% numbers. Your state did. It was in two seperate news releases.

Born To Be Wild said, "Come on guys! You really think there is some kind of conspiracy here?"

I can only speak for myself, and I think that if it's not outright conspiracy, it's outright imcompetance, caused by WDFW people trying to cover their backsides at the expense of the sportsmen.

I was at LaPush on Wed & Thursday of the opener. The fish checker did not measure the halibut. He did measure my larger one when I requested & gave me a estimated weight. He did say that the ones we had (3) 25-27# & (1) 45# were about average for what he was seeing on Thursday. However the rest of the crew stayed & Friday the Feds were there being very thorogh & even wanted proof of where you caught your fish, (GPS tracks). My guess is that they (the Feds) never used the fish checker's data but used theirs & mulitplied it by the number of days, including the Saturday when it was so rough that virtually no one went out.

Plus, if you mulitiply the number of slips in LaPush (96) & figured about 3/4 of them were sports fishermen with an average of 3 fishermen per boat, the total numbers do not come close to what they figured even if you use their 20.3# average.

Here we go again! Well i'm sure most of you have done the math from the info the state has given us in their various releases. The state has said in an above release that 74,558 pounds of fish were caught in five days of fishing. That breaks down to 14,116 pounds per day. Actually, there were seven open days of fishing, tues to the next wed, minus two days of closure. (Granted not many boats made it out at La Push during a couple of these days) With seven days of fishing added into the equation, the daily catch was 10,651 pounds per day. We have 40,879 pounds left in our quota for the late season. Now if we ignore the other two days of open fishing, it would be true that 3 days of fishing, with similar success, would take us beyond the approx 41,000 pounds. I'm just not sure how they can make two calendar days disappear. (I guess I missed that release) I'm pretty sure there are still seven days in a week, you add another tuesday and a wednesday you have 9 days. Two of nine days are closed, and the state comes up with five days. It sometimes seems as though they go out of their way to put the screws to us just to show that we have no input or control over our own fishery. If someone (not a state employee) could please tell me when nine minus two started equalling five, i would be forever grateful. The bottom line is that if the truth be known, yes i said truth!, the actual number of pounds per day most likley would fall somewhere in the middle of 14,900 and 10,600. If these numbers were used it would easily allow a three day late season to fill our remaining quota of 40,800 pounds.

Here's a letter I recieved from the state today.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission has reviewed your message regarding the halibut fishery out of LaPush this year. The Commission has asked me to respond directly to your concerns.



Halibut fishing out of both LaPush and Neah Bay was excellent the first week of the season. Both LaPush and Neah Bay are managed as one area for halibut so we add the catches in both ports to estimate the catch and manage the fishery. As you know the fishery opened on May 10 and closed on Wednesday May 18. For the first week of the fishery (May 10-15), here is a summary of the fishing results:



LaPush 184 charter boat anglers caught 184 halibut (1.00 halibut per trip)

772 private boat anglers caught 690 halibut (0.89 halibut per trip)



Neah Bay 601 charter boat anglers caught 583 halibut (0.97 halibut per trip)

3,149 private boat anglers caught 2,159 halibut (0.69 halibut per trip)



These results indicate that halibut fishing from charter boats was quite successful with nearly 98% of the anglers catching their limit.



You note that fishing effort on opening day out of Neah Bay was lower than last year. Here is our estimate of the number of private boats fishing halibut out of Neah Bay during the first week of the fishery:



Tuesday- 130 boats

Wednesday- 204 boats

Thursday- 249 boats

Friday- No sampling

Saturday- 211 boats



These results indicate that effort on opening day was lower than effort on the remaining days of the week. The fishery closed on May 18, when we anticipated that the quota would have been caught. Subsequently we reevaluated the catch and now estimate the catch to be less than originally thought. Our estimate of the catch during the first opening is 76,697 pounds, which is less than the quota of 83,115 pounds. We have evaluated the options and are reopening the fishery in June.



We work hard to provide accurate and timely catch estimates. The procedures used to estimate the recreational catch of halibut have undergone scientific review to ensure that validity.



We continue to review the procedures used to ensure that they remain accurate and met the needs of the ever-changing fishery. We are in contact with many of the participants in the fishery to ensure that our estimates are accurate


Now tell me how we are going to catch 40,000lbs of fish in 2 days when we were averaging less than 11,000lbs of halibut a day in the early fishery?

Come on tell me I'm skeptical. Please show me I'm mistaken.

Kris

This just gets better and better. I read what "Born To Be Wild" had to say. Now sir if you would read what one of your employees wrote to Glow Ball, yes the state employees are suposed to work for us, I would assume that you can see some kind of a problem. The state had estimated that we would catch over 83,000 lbs of fish in the early season and we actually caught just over 76,500 lbs of fish, their numbers. Now this is where it gets tricky, we caught Less fish in the early season, and they SHORTEND our second season by 33%. Read it a couple of times and it will occure to you that this process is a-- backwards. If it's not a conspiracy, which I doubt, it is a very clear example of incompetence which is rampid in our state. What do we pay these people for, mistakes like this in the private sector would result in firings and a very unsuccessful business.

maybe they will give us one more day later like when salmon is also open.

maybe instead of GIVINg us an extra day during salmon season they could just keep the earlier comitment of June 16, 17 & 18. I know that many people have plans arranged around those dates and when people have arranged to take time off of work, set up camping arrangements and so on, it's just b.s. for the state to change things with no logical reasoning to base it on. The other thing to keep in mind at this point is that we are still sharing a quota with Neah Bay, the people that have plans to fish La Push will again be pressured into going out in whatever weater we are giving simply due to the earlier example of how this fishery is being managed. Every person reading these post needs to be asking themselves, their friends and the state, what the h-ll is going on. All I have seen from the state at this point is contradictory information, and information that would only support the earlier dates of 16, 17 & 18 if not a longer second season. We need to start making as many peolpe aware of these problems as possible and we all need to show the state that we are paying attention and are madder than h-ll. If we do not start to band together and fight these things it will continue to get worse and spread through all gorvernment (not that it hasn't already), so if not for yourselves, those of us that are lucky enough to have kids, do it for them, it needs to stop.

To be honest, I think it is about time that our state officials are setting up seasons in which they can EFFECTIVELY monitor catch. To have one day in between available days to see the catch per effort seems like a good way to let people know if there is going to be another day added to reach the quota. At least the quota is being taken seriously. I think I would hold back on the whining until the fishery is permanently closed and the quota hasn't been met.