That might be an option. But I think that you would have to limit drainages. Single rivers would see benefit for sure. But I think to really make an impact closing drainages would be the smartest thing. Consider the Grays Harbor area. Or the Columbia. If we closed the drainage atleast we would be giving the fish the chance to get into the individual rivers. Alot of the fish that are harvested are coming from the salt before they get to the river. The others that get into the river are getting chased around by us and the netters. Maintaining the same catch numbers or even decreasing them at the same time would certainly improve the returns. Closing them for five years at a time would be even safer a bet. I would think anyways.

$%&**$#@!!!!!!

I killed a 67lb buck on the kenai that I still regret to this day.

Closing the Hoh, as suggested, would leave the Hoh Tribe with no place to fish. The other tribes would probably not feel like inviting them over to fish.

Also. the fisheries in the ocean certainly take most of the Chinook harvest and a big chunk of the coho. So closing the river only helps some. the only logical place to harvest, especially when some runs are down, is to harvest selectively in the rivers.

It took us more than 100 years of fishing and habitat destruction to get here; it will take a lot longer than 5 years to get the trajectory pointed in the right direction.

Clsoing the HOH would leave a lot of people with no place to fish. But, if we don't start doing something, eventually no one will have any place to fish. 'Cause there won't be any fish to fish for! Sometimes dramatic action is what is required for dramatic results. There is not a single person here who WANTS to give up fishing for ANY amount of time. Bottom line, we have to to some extent. How long we wait to take appropriate action will determine what extent.

i thought that was why they made it selective gear no native coho retention till nov. rules on the quil,boggy,duc. to take pressure off thouse rivers and redistribute it to surounding rivers like the hoh and queets.

Closing the Hoh won't guarantee the steelhead population will rebound.

As an example, look at the Nisqually. Closed since 1993 but still not a huge rebound in numbers. I understand comparing a PS stream to a coastal stream may not be a fair comparison. My point is that just closing it doesn't guarantee an automatic rebound.

The problem with the Nisqually is manifold...besides the inner PS streams all going in the crapper, it's population was fished down to nubbins before it was closed...there are still fish in the Hoh, if we'd just let more of the spawn.

Fish on...

Todd

It did work with the dungeness they closed it for i believe 4 years to let the coho population rebound in the late 90's early 2000., and it did quiet well. after reopening up, untill last year, which was a tougher coho season.

Last years seson sucked big time. Tough? That is a gross understatement. That is what I mean by a drainage closure. It does no good to allow folks to net the mouth of a river. Plus, the type of fishing that takes place there by a lot people is anything but ethical. It is way easier to just close the whole thing so there is no confusion.

Redd_D,

In case Todd's oiling his reels for Thursday:

The NIsqually Tribe still fishes for salmon; chinook, coho, and chum seasons. They don't have a season targeting steelhead. They do catch a few incidentally in the latter part of the chum season some years, but not enough to be considered a causitive factor preventing run rebuilding; certainly not any more so than the whites who poach steelhead upstream of McKenna.

So in answer to your question, the Tribe still nets the Nisqually, just as the non-treaty recreational anglers still fish the Nisqually. Nobody gets to target steelhead - legally.

Sg

Like Sg said, no directed fishery for steelhead by any user groups, just the occasional incidental catch during the chum fisheries...very occasional, due to the almost total lack of fish.

Fish on...

Todd

This only one such specimen that is known to have been killed of late. There was a time when 30-pound steelhead were as common as 300 pound Forks women. How many 30's do you think wind up on the bottom of Jonas river scow down on the res in a season? Dozens....courtesy of the WDFW and ineffectual government policies, politics and personal.

How do you know? Have you had a chance to fish it?

if your refering to the dunggy, it was a tough season not a total loss, the hachery still got there fish weather just didn't play into the best conditons for fishing and alot of the old holes had changed or disapeard. and as on any small river with decent size fish on it there are alot of unethical things done on them. doesn't mean they don't or wont bite. i dunno how many seasons you have fished it, but as for methis season i only did a few times. and as far as nets at the mouth thats ganna take some big changes over time. and i am not sure what rivers mouth isn't netted here. i mean there targeting chum now......thats bad. i'm for the c&r but shutting a whole river down i do not think is the answer.

I'm pretty sure that no one is fishing for those fish directly at all, on or off the rez...it wouldn't be worth their time, there aren't enough fish there.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. It's pretty well-accepted that the sporties are mainly responsible for the destruction of that run...40-60 boats every Saturday and Sunday, and most of them had three to six dead natives in the bottom of the boat at the end of each day...

I've fished both the Hoh and the Nisqually. Growing up in Tacoma, I fish the Nasty a ton. Same with the Puyallup. Both are in the dumps now. Having been closed since 93, the Nisqually still hasn't recovered. The last numbers I remember seeing was between 600 to 1,000 fish returning. Those numbers are far from its past glory. Perhaps Salmo G or Todd may know a more current number. As I mentioned, comparing a PS river to a coastal river isn't really a fair comparison. Again, my point was that closing something doesn't neccesarily guarantee the fish will return. There are lots of variable involved, especially with PS rivers.

I'd rather see the Hoh remain open under total wild steelhead release and some cooperation with the tribe to reduce their impact.

Reading about the decimation of runs of Natives by "sporties" gets me to wondering about another small river that is I believe currently is closed to steelhead fishing.

What happened to the Dosewallips? It appears to be a river that would support a Run of winter steelhead. Yet is closed to fishing.

Was there at one point a sustainable fishery, and our co managers elected to collect 100% of the run. Or was there some kind of natural disaster that affected the spawning grounds.

The Nisqually is where I learned to catch Steelhead. Yes, the sporties caught lots of fish but the tribe caught just as many I believe. I think both user groups did equal damage to the runs. When the word did get out about the quality of the fishing it did turn into a mini Cowlitz. I remember when the pressure escalated ten fold I called WDF to plea to lower the catch limit from two fish per day to one and the answer I got was, "The Nisqually has a healthy run and we aren't going to let anything happen to it". I sure miss fishing and catching those fish.

dont forget the duckabush. my grandparents live on the river and the old timers who i know live there and have fished it for 30 or 40 years tell me all about the "good ol' days" on the duckabush. and the local indians i know that "use" to net it, openly tell me they are the ones that wiped that run out. "they" messed up and know it.