Here is a copy of the Chehalis basin netting schedule along with a copy of my e-mail that I sent Kirt and Barb. I will also post there e-mail addy's so you can play along too!!

http://209.206.175.157/Fishing%20Regs/chehalis%20commercial.pdf


Peace
Fly

Kirt and Barb,

Are you guys going to continue along the path of status quo or are you actually going to try and do the right thing and limit the tribes from netting the steelhead into extinction.

According to the copy of the netting schedule I just printed it looks as though you really do not care about the resource because once again you have agreed to netting 5 days a week deep into the native season.

This is totally irresponsible, I guess when people quit buying fishing licenses because there are no more fish to catch and you guys loose your jobs because of lack of revenue created from license sells you might get it.



Hopefully sooner rather then later.



Sincerely

Joe Superfisky

Joe Superfisky
Superflys Guide Service
360-888-7772
superflysfishing@live.com
www.superflysfishing.com


hughekmh@dfw.wa.gov
mcclebam@DFW.WA.GOV

I would try to be more direct next time...your point is kind of garbled in all of the niceties...

Good letter.

Joe has never been know for being subtle, especially when his home rivers are being raped in to extinction.

Waiting to see Doc's letter.

We all may need to put the Fish before our fishery for a year and make the WDFW call for a federal Conservation Closure to protect the remaining wild fish from this crazy net schedule that continues right into the heart of Wild Steelhead returns in March and April. I would guess that this schedule will be followed by a Spring Chinook or Sturgeon season that will run all summer, then another for Coho all Fall then all over again with four months of Steelhead gillnetting. Think about the fish and our Children having an opportunity to fish for and see wild Steelhead.

the thing is wdfw doesnt care.. and the tribe tell wdfw what to do and they to do it..

Our you sh-ting me on the schedule, I cant believe those idiots agreed on that.

The commision is meeting on the 6th and 7th with Grays Harbor Salmon Mgmt a topic. Doc has enlightened some of the commisioners on the status quo managment techniqies used by region 6 for many years. I doubt the Steelhead issue will even come up.

I have fished the nooch since 84 and have seen a serious decline of natives in just the last ten years especially in the upper reaches.

I have also seen an abundance of hatchery fish in those same upper reaches and have no doubt those spawning hatchery fish are counted as natives and those numbers effect the actual escapment.

It gets even worse... check out the queets net schedule...
http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/tribal/index.htm#humptulips

we all need to write letters

Get em Fly. Nice Email.

Not sure how you go about that but wouldn't we need the tribes to actually agree to accomplish this. I didn't think WDFW could make that call on their own. Maybe I'm wrong.

If we push WDFW they will call in the Feds and they can close the River.

E-Mail sent, come on guys quit talking and let your fingers do the walking

Chuck G

if enough sportsfishers will email and contact WDFW and their local state representative we can force a change in the way Grays Harbor fisheries are managed. Let your e-mails and phone calls protect our fishery resource.

We have to sacrifice this years fishery and call for a complete federal conservation closure of the whole river system top to bottom including Grays Harbor.

Grays Harbor is not the only river system in the state where aggressive netting schedules are in place. The problem lies with our "Co-managers" in certain areas. I dont know of any one in this State or the state government that will go against them and I dont know if the federal government even cares enough to do anything about it either.

E mail sent and cc'd to the commission.

Thanks Superfly for providing the info on this mf'n tragedy. Sent e-mail and hope they somehow will do some good.

Biolofisher,

What federal nexus would allow the feds to step into the management of these fish? They are not ESA listed and to my knowledge, are not under PFMC jurisdiction.

Thanks.

The scheduled staff briefing to the Commission about Grays Harbor salmon management is the direct result of the public testimony that T-Rip and slabhunter and I delivered back in November.

click here

I must admit I'm a bit shocked to see that it only took 3 months to bring it back to the front burner.



The title on the agenda is a bit deceiving (perhaps a staff diversion/distraction) because it's not primarily hatchery management that concerned us but rather mismanagement and mis-allocation of WILD stocks, particularly whenever runsize forecasts are marginal or below escapement. If you click on this next link you will see what the commission actually requested from WDFW Region 6 in their "blue sheet".

click here

If you click the next link, you will see an outline of what Region 6 will be presenting in its "green sheet".

click here

What hits me like a ton of bricks is what's MISSING in that briefing.

1) A summary of preseason harvest projections overlaid against run-size predictions.
2) A summary of preseason harvest projections vs ACTUAL postseason harvest.

The main beef's we have with the season setting process are

1) Seasons are crafted (for both sport and commercial) that willfully fish into escapement.
2) The harvest projections on paper fish significantly underestimate the fleet's ability to harvest free-swimming fish.

The unavoidable result is chronic underescapement. When I first joined the GH advisory committee 4 years ago, the chinook escapement had exceeded goal in only 2 of the previous 11 years. Not much has changed in the most recent 10 yr window. Look back at the chinook escapements in the blue link and you will see that WDFW completely missed the goal 70% of the time, barely hit it once (134 fish margin), and had fish to spare only twice. That's right, goal has only been exceeded twice in the past 10 yrs.... not surprisingly, they were the same two seasons in the 11 yr interval I first mentioned.

Correct.

Moreover an ESA listing often cannot be made for a single stream alone. It requires an entire ESU (evolutionary significant unit) be listed.... in this case the ESU would be "WA coastal winter steelhead" and you would have to show that the entire ESU or its principal constituents were threatened.

Todd can correct me if I mis-spoke.

I am having trouble understanding the reconstruction tables?????I would like to include this info into an email with a little substance but I am not sure exactly how.can somebody break down the reconstruction table.

Everyone keep clogging there in boxes !!!
Kirt left me a voice mail last night that stated they still did not have an agreement with the QIN. The way I see it if you dont have an agreement then Dont Fish !!!!!

It is ridiculous that we continue down this path to extinction!!

The WDFW motto should be as follows: To Little , to late, who cares !!


Peace
Fly

Superfly:

Way to go!!!!! I also questioned the WDFW schedule, as it had the net fishing stopping on 2/6/09.....so sent email to Barbara McCullen, Bio. in Region 6, she sent me the following email

"bill. i received the message you left with Rick Ereth. i don't have time to call right now but i wanted to send a quick email. regarding your question about the tribal schedule online, i have only posted the Quinault schedule for the Chehalis River thru this week because we do not have a signed agreement with them yet. for now i will post only a week or two at a time. once we have a signed agreement then i will post their entire season schedule online.
hope this answers your question.
thank you. barbara






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Barbara McClellan
Fish Biologist
WDFW - Montesano
#360.249.4628
"

Maybe a good question for WDFW would be why is this being figured out now rather than the Fall, coming to an agreement in February or March after the tribe has fished for months doesn't help anything? And why the set schedule for Quinault GH fishery is the same every year regardless of the number of fish returning to the basin? Why are other groups held to a quota number and QIN is not?

because the Qins run the show....

biolofisher:

Seems I remember that you work for the Chehalis tribe.....

1. Has the Chehalis tribe posted thier netting schedules???

2. Have the netted totals been submitted to WDFW??????

3. Did the Chehalis tribe, continue to fish on Spring chinook, when the river was closed to all sport fishing?

4. Did the Chehalis tribe catch close to what WDFW felt was needed for excapement????? That's the word "thur the grapevine"...

If this is not the same person, that wanted meetings to discuss the Chehalis fishery's then I stand corrected.....if so....then you have some explaining to do.....

Sorry, didn't mean to "high-jack" the thread.....but just want to get a level playing field.

The Chehalis Tribe posts it's schedule internally just like QIN does.
The netted totals will go to the WDFW when they begin to work on true co-management of the Chehalis Basin fisheries and work actively with the Chehalis Tribe to come to an MOU that will allow true transparency and co-management of the fish in the Chehalis. All commercially caught and sold fish are reported on Fish tickets to WDFW and NWIFC.
The Chehalis Tribe did not fish for Spring Chinook Commercailly in 2008 they had two ceremonial opening and caught less than 20 fish for their annual Salmon Ceremony to celebrate the return of their most prized fish the Spring Chinook a fish they hope to begin supplementing through hatchery production.
The Chehalis Tribe did not come close to the quota number for wild or hatchery Coho, Chum, Fall Chinook and Spring Chinook in 2007 or 2008.
In 2008 the Chehalis Tribes fishery for Winter Steelhead was closed as soon as they recieved an agreed to number from the WDFW in February 2008, they haven't fished in March or April for several years unlike the QIN and they only fish for 48 hours per week maximum inside their Reservation boundary for fish that pass through their section of the Chehalis River above the Wynoochee and Satsop.
If WDFW could work out an agreement with QIN on Steelhead prior to any commercial openings for either the QIN or the Chehalis Tribes it would benefit everyone I'm still unclear why this agreement can't be made before the fishery begins.
I hope this clears things up for you DrifterWA please feel free to ask anymore questions you might have and I'll try to answer them.

so the answer to the question (do the chehalis tribe turn in its netted totals to wdfw) is NO ?..

Here is the real question? if there is no agreement no one should fish!!!
What is going to be interesting to see is how many of these paper fish don't show up because of the lack of an agreement.

Peace
Fly