We got checked in tidewater by the man today. He said he was observing the gill net fishery last night on Grays Harbor. asked how they did and his reply was " they killed them". I asked if it was coho and he said, "coho and kings,we think the kings were bound for the Hump." He also commented on how nice AND big the fish were. I didn't think to ask him how many they took, although they may not know by now.

super! Glad to hear they're still getting their fish...
Toff (or anyone else)- I'm assuming that they don't really go off of what they actually haul in, it's what days they're allocated to net till someone at the hatchery tells WDFG that there aint shat in stevens creek and it needs to go to emergency closure?

They get to fish the days they have open, unless they shoot by their quota...they're actually netting less days than usual in Grays Harbor this year.

Fish on...

Todd

so if it rains and the bulk of the run deceides its time to go on a net day and they hit their quota then and there do they forefit the other days? or do they leave um in....... <X))))))< <x)))))< <X)))))))< <X)))))< <X)))))))< <X)))))< <X))))))))))< <X))))))))))))))))< <-thats the 50lber that was swimming up the hump

well did they leave any fish for you laterun or did the nets get them all

We caught a lot of dark kings, no coho. I talked to 2 guys who were just getting there when we left. They had been to the lower Nemah , said it was chuck full of chums. They didn't fish it, just saw the fish running around and rolling. I would have at least floated a bait or two of eggs to see if there were any late running coho. We tried something today that I had talked about earlier. You cut your hook off at the bend then see how long those kings will keep your float under and see if you can get one up to the bank. Tons of fun. When you pull it away from a fish then let it settle back down they hit it like a bum on a biscuit.

the nets should take out the 18th and not go back in till nov 12th... but i bet they get a few extra days inbetween..

Laterun,

I thought the schedule this week was Sunday noon to Wednesday noon.If that is so, how could he observe last night? I may have misread the schedule.

I see my error. The area open is not the area that is Sunday-Wednesday

I can see me getting some use out of that one.

There are two areas that are open, sometimes at the same time, sometimes not...one is the mouth of the Chehalis River deep in the Harbor (2-2), and one is clear around the corner several miles away up by the Humptulips River (2-C)...

Fish on...

Todd

When I trailered the boat at Westport Sunday the 12th around 2 PM the fish buyer had his truck severely listing to the side! The Gillnetter that was on the launch slip had about 40 Chinook all chrome bright and very long! Your basic Hump fish! He had no Coho in the hold. The first 4 fish placed on the buyers scale totaled 118 pounds and they were NOT the biggest of the bunch. They didn't want to talk at all!!
There were 3 other Gillnetters trailered up already - hence the buyers truck list!
The one thing to note was that Fisheries was no where to be seen but I'm sure they were all properly reported!!

Here are the official comm-fishing zones in Grays Harbor. Non-treaty openings occurred in the Chehalis Basin in areas 2A and the northeastern-most extent of 2D (three 12 hr openers) as well as the Hump estuary in area 2C (two 24 hr openers).

clcik here

Wow, That map makes it look like a large area for fish to travel through the estuary.

It isn't necesarily so...

For the record, these were non-treaty kings harvested commercially out of 2-C (Hump Estuary) on the first white opener.

A total of at least 563 chinook were taken in the two 24 hr NON-treaty gillnet periods for 2-C.

At least 578 coho were taken during the same openers.

There were negative 1227 NON-treaty wild Hump coho available for harvest.

There were 736 NON-treaty wild chinook available for harvest.

Interesting that the only harvestable stock was chinook and the season was prosecuted with 6" mesh.

Tell me again.... what was the target stock?

Wish I could have hung around for that portion of the "do-or-die" meeting in Oly.

The incomplete non-treaty landings can be found on the WDFW website:

click here

The landings from the 2nd 2-C opener are NOT posted yet, but the totals from both openers are at least as big as I stated in the last post.

i thought they had to have live wells in order to keep the kings alive to be released?

Yeah, right. Like gillnets are selective?
The bay is open to retain one wild coho for sportfishers just to provide cover for the commies.

We have to release unmarked fish above the 101. Who does DFW represent???