Wow, what a slap in the face....

Read below:
Retention Closures

Keith

definately expected I'm not surprised

Jerry,

How can you sit there and say that??

Keith,

Are you saying that the numbers of fish returning are greater than what they are reporting?

Another fine example of the guys at the end of the line taking it in the shorts when they get royally low-holed by downriver users. And right after a state-sanctioned LCR gillnet opener when they already knew that LCR Tules were in trouble and that the overall fall chinook return to the greater CR basin is only tracking at 40% of pre-season forecast!

It doesn't bug me so much that they are closing things down in the name of conservation, but the circumstances and timing REALLY send a crappy message to sporties... OUR NETTER FRIEND WILL GET THEIRS, AND YOU DON'T MATTER!

Well at least you still get to fish and keep coho.

We gotta sit on our frickin' hands for another 9 days before we can target ANY salmon in my neck of the woods!

Thanks WDFW, thanks!

OMFG! Aunty posted hers while I was typing mine!

This is absolute bull$hit!

Another fine example of sport allocation being curtailed to subsidize the non-selective gillnet fleet.

When will the abuse and insanity stop?

Yes, not to act like a know it all but I've fished the Lewis for the last 18 years and over the last 12 years it has only missed it's escapement goal for true Lewis Bright Fall Kings one time and that was 1996 when they closed it before the season even started, sadly enough the river received over 15,000 kings exceeding its 6000 fish escapement by 9000 fish and all we could do was catch and release...

I've been fishing the Lewis since late August and I've caught more chinook this year than I have in the years of 12-15,000 kings returning. There's no shortage of kings in the Lewis but the sad thing is the game department has no clue of it and won't until they spawn and die and do their spawner counts....

Keith

It always comes down to politics. Maybe with a Federal beaucracy thats less hostile to salmon recovery, and growth in the sportfishing lobby, we might see some changes...hopefully before we lose anymore runs.

Leaves me absoulely speechless.

1200 Sturgeon, 1200 Salmon in one clear-cut.

That's what it is.

Clearcutting.

WDFW is to Aquatic Habitat is what DNR is to Woodland Habitat.

Keith I can say that I'm not surprised because NOAA and WDFW told us last spring in thier meeting process that this was going to happen. Don't you remember? We were all talking about the lack of "tule" fish below Bonneville thus resulting in the 10 day Buoy Ten season.

The Lewis may get its fish but what about the others? All I was trying to say is that closures by NOAA , ODFW and WDFW do not surprise me anymore.

Was just glad to have a 10 day King fishery on the lower Columbia this year.........

Also I expected all these to close when they restricted us from fishing below Bachelor Island at the mouth of the Lewis for Kings on the Big C starting back on September 5th. No wobbler fishery told me that they would also stop us from the tributary fishery as well.

Just have to adapt the fishing and do something else.

Are you talking about CCA? Seems they are in the money gathering process right now and that they are 4 to 5 years away from being ready to take on any big challenges like the lower columbia gillnet fishery?

Jerry and others,
CCA has made no statement regarding this gillnet fishery. To say that we are 4-5 years away is just pulling numbers out of the air.

Jim
CCA State Board Member

Paleeez.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

JimB,

That has been Gary Loomis' big CCA pitch for over a year now! Getting rid of the Lower Columbia Gillnet Fishery. I have heard his speech at various meetings n the CCA subject. If we are just pulling numbers out of the air, then clear the air.

When will CCA have enough money in "their warchest" to make impacts? 12months? 2 years? 4 to 5 years?

All I have ever got from them is a magazine in the mail............

Looking forward to the reply

My letter to the Legislators in Districts 18 and 19 (Orcutt, Curtis, Zarelli, Hatfield, Takko, Blake)

Gentlemen:

You are no doubt aware of the growing frustration in the recreational angling community regarding the gross unfairness of gillnet seasons currently being prosecuted on the Columbia River.

Fish managers on both sides of the Columbia have curtailed sportfishing opportunity in the name of “conservation” to protect ailing returns of ESA-listed Lower CR Tule Chinook as well Upriver Bright CR Chinook.

The first hit to the angling community was the pre-planned restriction to a shortened 10 day season for chinook retention in the estuary (Buoy 10) which closed on Sept 4 and a closure of chinook retention in the lower reaches of the river (from just above the Lewis River confluence down) the following day. OK fine, recreational users were prepared for this conservation action in April when the original salmon season-setting NOF process was completed.

But yet after these pre-planned closures, non-selective gillnets were unleashed upon the river for several more openers.

When the run-size update showed that the Upriver Bright Chinook were only tracking at 40% of the pre-season forecast, the entire Lower CR below Bonneville Dam was closed to chinook harvest.

On the same day that managers closed the CR chinook sportfishery, they declared two more gillnet openers for Sept 19 and Sept 20 with a projected take of 2000 chinook.

Immediately after allowing the gillnets to further deplete these ailing chinook runs, WDFW promptly declared an emergency closure of virtually all SW Washington tributaries to the Lower CR on Sept 21 to protect the Tule stock. What a slap in the face!

But it only gets worse.

Immediately after announcing the closure of the Lower CR tributaries, managers on both sides of the river declared another gillnet opener downriver from the Lewis River confluence for Monday Sept 24… today! That is the very same stretch of river into which the vast majority of the afore-mentioned tributaries drain. The expected chinook take was another 800 fish.

Where is the fairness in this form of “management”? No ethical angler would decry sport closures when they are necessary for conservation. But when such closures are used to subsidize the indiscriminate killing of depleted chinook runs… ESA-listed chinook at that… sanctioned and ordained by these so-called “managers”…. something is fundamentally wrong!

Disgruntled anglers have lost all faith in the agency collecting their ever-rising license fees for ever-shrinking recreational opportunity. The citizens of this state deserve better! WAY BETTER!

Enough is enough! I ask that you submit a formal inquiry to the WDFW regarding these brazen shenanigans. Attached is a letter from one of your counterparts on the other side of the river making a similar inquiry to the Director of ODFW. Please read it. Is it asking too much for you to submit something in kind to Dr. Koenings at WDFW?

Still on the bandwagin, just wish I could get more than just the "Tide" magazine thats all.

And I believe that this is an allocation issue as the fishery in Buoy Ten this season was so poor for Chinook but overall excellent for Coho.

Just my thoughts....