There's not many showing because this is "Celebrate Gillnets Month" on the Harbor.

QIN's getting plenty... one boat reported 45-50 fish a set with the incoming. 85% chums.

No one is getting any legal salmon in the Wynoochee.....need to come up with some creative ways to increase the "wild salmon runs" on the Chehalis feeder rivers below Fuller Bridge....before NOF.....shouldn't be expected to continue "things as normal" while Wishkah, Wynoochee, and Satsop fail to make escapement.

Since the QIN, gets what they want.....it falls on the non-tribal gillnetters, and the sportsmen to be the creative individuals.....needs idea's before NOF.....

Well maybe it is time for some just plain talk. What on earth does everybody think that sport fishing in the river was going to be with the seasons set for all user groups? Now really just what in the hell did you think was going to happen? Chehalis here folks, so lets see.......... Oh yeah no Chinook retention, ( tribes kicking the crap out of them over 1200 week one http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/salmon/landings.html then when the Coho show oops, it is netting time with not much gap to allow the river to replenish so fishing tanks but wait it NEVER GOT GOING. End of October and now netting slows and ......... now you release wild Coho as you are conserving them? You got to be kidding me after a month of almost non stop netting you are conserving? Because the hatchery fish are past? BS the fry plants altered the wild run timing years ago pull up the hatchery rack reports for years what a lame ass excuse the agency used to turn loose the gillnetters and their impacts limit the sports. Then we have the Bay fishery with a C&R mortality on Chinook that is sky high so sports can't bitch, which is about those sporties who have the MONEY to do it. Oh yeah and we have a few harvestable Chum, right, the tribe and non treaty nets a wiping them out as they arrived early and stronger numbers than I have seen for a while. Now the good news may be that it drives the stock down enough to limit harvest in one year of the cycle so less netting of Coho. Hows that for a mind set?

Now in certain reaches this will not be so, such as the Satsop, as early rain moved things up early and depending on the weather you should do OK in November IF the rivers do not blow BUT for the local Mom & Pop fishery going out in your small boat and troll around, the guy that runs down and fishes off the bank after work from S Monte to the Port, which is a huge number of local working folks, your season was going to be pure sh-- from the get go. If you have money for a good boat, time ( not working 60 hrs a wk ) and skill you get fish but Joe Six Pack out with the kids? Your picking with the sh-- chickens.

Could it have been done different, yes but those involved in NOF put their time in to fight for the fisheries THEY feel are important and do a good job. NOBODY AND I MEAN NOBODY approaches it from the perspective of creating and maintaining a good solid fishery on the Chehalis S Monte to the Port for the regular folks. S Monte to Fuller Hill your at the mercy of the nets, run timing, & weather your going to do OK or in the toilet with not much middle ground. The best sport fishing years on the Chehalis is one with a dry summer, Chinook or Chum restraining the desire to net things down to the bare minimum. This year and last it rained early and the Chinook & Chum were marginal so wella it is wipe out time!

It is the system and if you have the necessary money and time you will do OK as long as you like crowds or head out in the bay. Otherwise you should pick another hobby.

I was talking with a former WDFW bio about the GH fishery about how the Oct. gillnet schedule doesn't jive with managing for escapement of wild chinook, coho, and chum salmon. He casually offered that unless something has changed, there is no management intention to achieve wild chinook and coho escapement. It's like the Nooksack River where the management intention is to meet hatchery broodstock needs and nothing more. It's called a terminal area wipeout fishery. This left me confused since the meetings I've attended seemed founded on the notion that GH is managed for escapement for natural reproduction of salmon. However having 27 or however many days of gillnetting are scheduled in Oct. belies that notion. The co-managers behavior suggests they are managing for hatchery broodstock only, with the intent being to harvest all the rest. In that case, sport fishing in the tributaries, just as is the case on the Nooksack, is a matter of coincidence and not design.

If Mr. Warren has a better scientific explanation I'd love to hear it.

Sg

What a damn shame. I have some very fond memories of what that fishery used to be like so many years ago. I loved sneaking up on people in the fog of Halloween morning, scaring the heck out of them, and then tossing in a zip lock bag of candy, homemade spinners, sinkers, and old plugs for everyone that was on board.

Nothing seems to last forever anymore and it appears that the commercial interests will win again.

Hatchery run is just getting started. a pot full of jacks in the last couple weeks and some adults starting to trickle in through the nets. Even managed to get a hatchery torpedo today above the bridge.

You need to get "your ass back out in the Chehalis".....I still have, and carry in the boat...."your zip locked bags".....miss you out there...below Fuller but above Monty....

It's a lot of fun....sitting on the hook, 4-5 hours, watching 1 rod, knowing the nets are taking more than thier share in the lower river.............. grrrrrrrrr

I see the "cowboys" have already caught more than the 525 Chum that were "available"......sportsmen wanted those to "go to the gavel" but cowboys said "we want those fish".....Ron Warren said "you got them"!!!! Now they will be over the available limit PLUS THEY ARE TAKING COHO, while they are allowed this extra fishery..... double grrrrrrrrrrrr Region 6 fish management bites!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just looked.......Cowboys get another netting time.. 10/28..... 7:30 - 4:30, to go futher over the limit ........... they should be completely shut off this fishery !!!!!

DW at NOF you guys have all been told if it is harvestable then you fight for it as NOTHING ABOVE THE COURT AGREED TO ESCAPEMENT GOAL IS GOING TO GET PAST SM. Oh let them go to the gravel is the dumb dumb DUMB DUMB. NOF is about killing fish, Ron Warrens job is about killing fish, Kirt Hughes job is about killing fish.

I have said it before and I will say it again, sporties are their own worst enemies when it comes to harvest. Gotta love the release on unclipped Steelhead. In GH what a roaring success, not really. All it did was allow the tribe to net with out any worries as they had the non tribal share to cover over harvest. A bloody paper fish and space in harvest is damn near a contact sport, that anyone used the words let them go to gravel shows a level of ignorance of the system that is astounding.

So then cowboys taking "taking more is ok"??????????

If you don't have the "wipeout" fisheries to suck up hatchery fish there will be all sorts of bad press about restricting fishermen from "their" fish. Surplus fish at the hatchery is proof of poor management.

Since nothing in the Harbor is listed, management must be doing just fine.

Mr.Warren noted, at least once if not more often, that any additional wild fish produced through habitat restoration would be taken in catch, not escapement.

Those hatchery fish are grown to be killed. How much more money is brought into the Harbor economy by having a huge ocean fishery? I would guess that the average fish taken on a charter puts more money into the economy than the average fish taken by a bankie.

Years ago Jeff Cederholm wrote an artice about "Who speaks for the fish?". I think the answer, unfortunately, is nobody in power.

CM they are surplus ONLY because sports over the years allowed them to be called surplus. Chehalis Coho are integrated, hatcheries have weirs, and straying is minimal out side the hatchery source stream. THEY ARE THE SPORTSMANS BLOODY OPORTUNITY and they better get their ass in gear and fight for their share. The hatchery run has the same escapement as the wild as they are mixed together, it is total bull that only hatchery escapement reach the hatchery is crap and you know it. The fry plants utilized to rebuild streams ( I have the data in usable form if anyone wants it ) has A HUGE portion of the run timing W / H being the same. Just as the old WDG Chambers Ck stock plants and tribal netting targeted on them wiped out the front of the natural spawning Steelhead and late Coho this ugly clean sweep harvest is doing the same to normal timed Coho.

The agency uses " kill all hatchery fish " to justify these clean sweep fisheries and as I said it is a load of crap. They will be removed at the hatcheries and disposed of and THEY ARE NOT WASTED as they are the sports opportunity. We can not get every fish, are not supposed to, and to call them surplus is nothing but a ruse and ( stay cool my friend ) you damn well know it.

I bounced Ron on it on the Hump thing the other night and he went into the mumble that you know as well as I do. The average local working guy is not a person that hangs around this BB and he / she and their families are getting screwed year after year as seasons are set with little regard or consideration for them.

Hands down it brings more into the local economy for the bankie to fish than anyone else. Gas, gear, food, etc... it has always the bankie that brings in more revenue, this includes the individual who goes out in a boat. Commercial revenue and charter revenue goes mostly out of district and to the state in taxes, fees, licenses and however else the state can take their cut.

Somewhere there are facts and hard numbers behind this if I can find them again. Last time I saw them they were in print.

Now, does anyone else know how to fish the lower Chehalis and have any reports?

Stay home until Monday unless your above SM. Not much is getting past the tribes and the GN have a have the 23rd. With the rain ( if it does not blow things ) and the tides, the 25th through the 31st should be good as no tribe but the GN do have the 28th.

After the 1st of Nov it is release on W so just head up river some place because it will not be worth your time. As I said in a previous post this season set for the local sports stinks and somebody should be more than a little embarrassed and ashamed for this classic bit of discrimination, which is what it is.

well let's see.................

Region 6 Philosophy....Hide behind NOF, set season's, no changes allowed.........kick back, put feet up on a chair, act that you enjoy your job.....get ready for "next round of NOF".....try hard to make sure that Wishkah, Wynoochee, and Satsop DON"T make escapement because you "might upset some people" by cut backs in the cowboy and down river fisheries, in order to get these rivers up to enough "wild fish" for a sport fishery.

Wynoochee----Continue to truck fish over the dam cause you don't have any other plans....."Out of sight, out of mind". Funny how plans that called for 55,700 Coho are ignored.....part of the mitigation for the Wynoochee. 27 miles of prime river, lost to sportsmen, cause Region 6, won't move "to get it done"....

That's what I see.....before dam.........lot's of Chinook, Coho, Steelhead, even Springers.........now......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

If economic impact per fish is a driver in decision making, why is there a non-tribal commercial fishery at all? Granted, a number of commercial fisherfolks are poorly prepared for other employment; taxpayers are going to subsidize them, one way or another. You might be surprised how much the average bankie spends to catch a jack that has made it through the nets. Ask any fisherperson who launches their boat in the Chehalis how much each of their fish is contributing to this state's economy. They will need a calculator and a considerable amount of time to come up with the amount.

In the 70s, a very successful lobbyist, who happened to be an avid sportsfisher and a part time commercial fisher, shared details with me on how the WA commercial fishing industry, the WA legislature, and the Dept. of Fisheries conducted their "circle jerk". Three decades later, it doesn't seem like much has changed.

The commercials are basically getting state welfare in the form of their seasons. The amount they put into the local economies is nothing compared to what the sports do, and their standard rally cry of "providing fish to the people" is nothing but hot air. The tribe supplies more than enough fish.

A hobby that indiscriminently kills wild fish and prevents escapement goals from being met. How nice.

i think I'll take up constructing electrified grids among and above the tree tops to harvest forest grouse, if a few spotted owls, bald eagles etc happen into it... hey! it's my hobby - stop picking on me!!

No one would stand for such a terrestrial slaughter of wild game, why should it be so different under water?

Rivrguy,

Well, you got me pegged at astoundingly ignorant. I'm the dummy who proposed letting the small projected surplus of chum salmon hit the gravel, and that seemed to be the general tenor of the meeting. Imagine my surprise when the gillnet season was published.

My interest in GH is predicated on the premise that the co-managers actually intend to have enough wild fish escape to spawn and maintain natural production. I mean, they even have escapement goals.

I continue to be amazed that WDFW is like totally separate agencies in different regions. In Region 4 if the cowboys had taken more than the available chum allocation their coho season would be over. Different rules apply in GH, where conservation appears to be a coincidental by-product of unintended under-harvest.

Thanks for the heads up.

Sg