Whow! Sure can tell the Columbia Closed early! LOL

I'm so excited I get to start fishing again on Friday for a 2 fish limit. I will be happy just to see my clients catch a few.

Aunty,

At what point durring the day did people stop catching fish? Those fish were hitting the bottom of those boats as fast as they could have. There were open tags everywhere, and never durring course of a day did the presure of catching fish become any less because of a one fish limit. It may have been transfered to another boat that didn't get their limit, but the river was never void of anglers attempting to kill fish as fast as they could.

Point is bieng missed by most here.

The idea behind the 1 fish limit was to spread the season out more.....AND help reduce the impacts on wild fish.

You catch your 1 fish and your done, now your not able to fish for your second fish wich would increase your chances on impacting another wild fish.

Did this thinking work? No! But dont tell anyone.

Dude, the fish didn't get the memo.. it was good fishing. Nothing needed changed. There is NO problem. The conditions your describing shoot your idea in the foot. 2 fish limit and you guys would have been done along time ago. Unless you wanted more fish yourself.. what are you really wanting ??

The fact that there were open tags everywhere does not have anything to do with you. You got your fish. Why are you worried about what other people did ??

Teacher: Here is how you add, multiply, subtract, and divide

Student: Why do I need to know this stuff? Gosh!

Aunty,

There are not as many fish in the river to be caught as there are tags to be filled.

Here is another way to understand it.

Today there were about 20 boats fishing the Oregon City area of the Willamette. there was about 8 fish caught. Would it have mattered if it were a two fish limit today. Would more fish have been taken from the river? Not at all. The pressure still exsists from the anglers, but the willingness to bite from the fish, or lack there of is the only reason 8 fish died. No matter if the limit was two or four, those 8 fish were dead no matter how many you could keep. A springer that sees a bait is dead. They are very aggressive, and most biters will die.

If everyone that fished the Columbia river caught there limit everyday, the quota would ahve been meet on day 5. You put 1500 boats on the water with three people in each boat, you got 4500 fish being taken every day. The amazing thing is the numers are not that good. One of two things is going on.

1. The river doesn't have 4500 biting fish in it that day. (Very likely)
2. The fisherman are not good enough to catch them. ( very unlikely)

The fisherman outnumber the fish something fierce and no matter the limit, the river is only gonna put out so many fish per day, period.

Does that make more sense?

Im not worried about what ohter people did. I'm trying to get a point accross that is 100% accurate. If you could imagine that there are more fisherman than fish, you would see that the river is giving up as many fish per day as it can. Whether it's a two fish limt or 1, the same number of fish are being taken daily. If not, how can you explain why everone didn't limit everyday. It surely wasn't becasue of lack of effort.

Quota is a quoata. No matter how you get there. Big chunks or little chunks it ends when the quota is reached.

Or, to limit the fishery where most of the sport impacts occur.
Again, this is being managed on impact rates on unmarked stocks not just the catch rate.

You want to limit the fishery at I-5? That is where most of the fish were taken. The guide efforts at I-5 were incredible. The fishing at the dam only got good the last two weeks.

Aunty -

I think you are assuming just as many things we are...

Just b/c people can retain more fish doesn't mean they are available to catch. I believe generally that the number of fish caught on a daily basis is limited primarily by the number of willing biters. Especially when you have the number boats fishing that all of our popular fisheries exhibit. You can agree or disagree with this premise, but it explains why you math doesn't mean a thing to me.

I agree with Kevin because I believe that biters will be caught so long as a bait makes it front of their face, regardless of whether it is a boat trying to get their first fish or a boat working on the backside of a two fish limit. In a sense, the overall pressure on the fish makes up for reduced limits to individual fisherman.

Thus, the one fish limit simply changes the allocation of the fish caught among the participating boats. Nodbody is singing this as the gospel, but I think it is a pretty solid theory that is born on rivers on a daily basis.

Dom

So what ?? everybody has to " Limit " or its not a success ?? Is the concern that there were people out there fishing that still had not caught a fish and you could have taken that fish ?? Nothing you have said would have reduced the number of boats or the effort. Your missing the point. What does how the quota is reached have to do with you other than you caught all the fish you were allowed, unless you wanted more. How are you being wronged ?? The allowed number of fish was reached for sportsmen. Why care who caught them.

Dom,

If there are 10 springers caught at the Trask hatchery hole on May 15th, and 20 guys on the bank. Did it make any difference that the limit was one fish or two. If it were 2 fish, wouldn't they have taken 40 fish?

I's rather it be 2 fish myself. It would be my dream to go back to the glory days, when the only fish that I consumed was the fish I catch. Since fish is the only meat that I chose to eat, any decision reducing catch size would get my attention. To bad for our kids that our fishery is going down hill, and jeopardizing their opportunity to experience, all that is fishing and the outdoors

I would give up fishing altogether for a few years, if it would save a fishery for our kids, and keep the Salmon a part of the human life experience.

I'm looking very hard in any of my posts to see where I stated anything you claimed above. It's not there anywhere, unlesss you can help me point it out. I'm not about taking all the fish I can, but simply to make the point that ..........

When ODFW/WDFW decided to make it a 1 fish limit vs 2. it did nothing to prolong or protect the fishery, period.

How about:

Water clarity
Water flow
skill
lure color
lure scent
barometric pressure
sea lions
time on the water
weather conditions
some guide taking all the fish and hoging up the good spots

Its just that you don't seem to get the fact that if you had a two fish limit, your season would have been shorter. Its really that simple.

You say it does not matter, it would be the same. If your right .. why does it matter ?? less boats.. nope.. less people.. nope. WHAT ?? WHO WAS WRONGED

They wanted you to have a longer season. A ton of fish showed up and got caught and the season got shortened. Who got screwed ?? if you can tell us that ?? I don't know whats harder, the years there are few fish and people try and invent reasons why they should be able to fish anyway.

I forgot:

crappy gear
bad netting technique
forgot my rain jacket and had to go home
snapped line
spit the hook

So Aunty,

There were 8 pro guides in the Willamette and they fished the entire day. If they had a two fish limit would they have got their limt of two. If so, why didn't they get their 1 fish limit? Were they not skilled enough? Maybe there were only so many fish in the river that were willing to bite? you can't catch what isn't there. Ten fish limt and you still can't catch what isn't there.

This coming fall will be a 1 fish limit in most of the Northern Oregon Coast. While the amount of anglers will not decrease, the fish will. When every hole in tidewateris full of boats and every fish has been taken that will bite, are there still lines in the water trying to catch more fish? You bet there is. Thus nothing has been saved by takin git to a 1 fish limit. The pressure of fisherman still exsists and the fisherman outnumber the fish by a ton.

Just a thought.

Aunty,

I agree 100% that the fishery was managed as well as it could have been. I'm not whining about the limit at 1 or 2, just making a point as to the nubmer of fish vs fisherman.