I love to give him crap about all the picture takin. But this time of year I am so greatful for em. Just wish he would find a camera that doesn't add 150 lbs to my ass.....shut up Drake

Aww, my eyes! That was awesome! Thank for sharing.

Geez, Doc, drinking in the boat? Surprised no sobriety test. Or, is swimming your version of "walking the line"?

Great stories and photos. Can't wait for Kenai Kronicles 2012.

Some dandy photos in that last batch there Doc. That shiny hen was probably my favorite although the net explosion is pretty cool looking also. Thumbs up for the sunset shot as well.

More to come?

Hey Doc, Did you get your FT.Stevens camp sites yet????????? Better get on it.I didn't get my J-loop favs for 2012 I'll be in the getto loop which is C-loop by the dumpsters.Ohh well more sun in the C-loop for the ladies to work on there end of summer tan's while the fellas and kids hit the water.Good luck,
SZ

I'll be staying at the KOA in Chinook-Ilwaco for 2012... just like I've done every year prior to 2011.

I found myself heading across to Chinook every time I needed GOOD bait and E-0 fuel. I'll just save myself the hassle this year by staying on the WA side.

Besides, I think LMWS misses "surfing" on the foredeck on that bouncy-ass roller coaster ride back to Chinook every afternoon.

OK.... looks like I just hit the threshold for exceeding PB's bandwidth limit for free accounts. You guys have looked WAY too many times!

Didn't even last three days after uploading that mess of pics to PB. 10 points to Sky Guy for calling it.

Doc is going Pro!

Yeah, looks to be the case.

But how long before they put the kaibash on the "unlimited" thing for pro users?

I use both PB Pro and Imageshack.
When PB says I've exceed my limit, I use Imageshack untill the following month when my PB allowance rolls over again.

DONE.... generic PB icons should all be gone now. Whatever it takes to keep the fans happy, I guess.

OK moving on to the final day. I think you'll really appeciate the final shot of the thread, Coley.

Wow-You never disappoint Doc!

Awesome as always! Love the chrome and sun on a cold winters day!!

Doc. Thank you.

First, for the fantastic photo essay and highly entertaining story telling. Very well done.

Second, for not saying spit the hook. Much appreciated

And finally, yes, the last one was gem among beauties!

Thanks again.

Another great photo write up as usual Doc, thank you for taking the time!

Great pics! I always look forward to them. I love the one of 3 kings sticking out of the bucket.

Not sure which of them it was....



.... but one of these "wild" kings set off ODFW creel checker Brooks' CWT wand at the EMB that day. Turned in the snout and it came back Lyons Ferry Hatchery.

Lyons Ferry is a mitigation hatchery built in 1982 as part of the the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan. In 2011 WDFW lethal-spawned 578 adults for an egg-take of 1.7 million. It is THE dedicated LSRCP facility for producing Snake River falls... an ESA-listed wild stock that has recently seen a remarkable resurgence.



We as anglers generically refer to any non-Rogue bright chinook caught in the CR estuary as URB's, but there is quite a diversity of "bright" stocks moving thru the fishery. This was an eye-opening catch for me. The very fact that we even encountered a Snake fish is a pretty good indication this stock is on the mend.

Probably the biggest single factor driving the recent large chinook and steelhead returns to the CR is federally mandated spill since 2005. Spill helps the system of impounded lakes to function more like a real river from April thru August. This significantly improves the passage of juveniles during the spring/summer out-migration.

Did a little Googling on SR falls.

OMFG!

That Lyons Ferry program is a frickin' mess! A fully integrated hatch/wild population constitutes the listed ESU. What an oxymoron. Being the staunch segregationist that I am, the whole notion of integrated hatchery anything just makes me cringe. Can someone brighter than I please explain how the hell hatchery fish become "endangered". Must I now reconsider my now infamous "ALL hatchery fish MUST die" position?

http://www.fws.gov/pacific/Fisheries/Hat...2011_FINAL2.pdf

Salmo g and Smalma.... please open the PDF and start at page 50 to review the broodstock criteria for this convoluted program. Let us know what you think.

These guys are trying to meet a benchmark P-NOB without the ability to reliably determine which fish are NOB. Mission impossible? They freely admit that half the HOS in the basin are not clipped. My fish was obviously one of those unclipped HOS.

Feeling very conflicted at the moment.... SHEESH!

I was on the PSC website last night looking at exploitation rates on WA coast chinook. Happened to take a peek at the Snake River falls while I was at it. As noted above, Lyons Ferry Hatchery is one of the principal LSRCP hatcheries involved with recovering Snake River fall chinook. It's also one of the indicator stocks followed by the PSC.

Based on CWT recoveries in the two most recent years in the report...

http://www.psc.org/publications/technical-reports/technical-committee-reports/chinook/

SRF's are currently being exploited at 65%. That means 65% of the tags showed up in fisheries up and down the west coast including inside terminal areas. 34.5% of the tags showed up as escapement in the Snake. The other 0.5% showed up elsewhere (strayed to others basins)

Does anyone else find it ironic that an ESA-listed species is managed for 65% exploitation?

So naturally, I had to find out, " Where did all the fish die?"

Using the appropriately weighted averages for the two catch years 2013 and 2014 (modern-day RECORD returns of upriver Columbia kings)... just over half the fish harvested were taken in the ocean before a single Snake fish crossed the Columbia bar.

Within that ocean piece, AK/BC took just over 62% while local fleets here in the PNW took 38%.

Within that local PNW ocean catch, commercials took nearly 4 of every 5 (78%).

....

For the other half of the fish that were harvested in the big river itself, 7 of every 10 were taken by gillnets while the rest were taken with hook/line by guys like us.

This from the latest (2015) rendition of the SR Fall Chinook Recovery Plan...

http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/...covery_plan.pdf

In theory, the effect of large numbers of hatchery- origin fish spawning in the wild can be alleviated somewhat by inclusion of natural-origin fish in the hatchery broodstock. In recent years, however, the proportion of natural-origin fish in the broodstock has been under 10 percent, and the proportion of hatchery-origin fish on the spawning grounds has been over 70 percent (WDFW et al. 2011).

A useful metric that puts these two gene flow rates (hatchery to natural and vice versa) in perspective is proportionate natural influence (PNI) (Mobrand et al. 2005; Paquet et al. 2011). Based on a mathematical model, a PNI value of 0.5 or above indicates natural selective forces dominating hatchery selective forces. No empirical data are available on the fitness effects expected under various levels of PNI, but the Hatchery Scientific Review Group (2009) has recommended that populations intended to reach viable status be managed at a PNI of 0.67 or higher in the long run.

However, they recognized that lower values may be appropriate in certain conservation situations. The Snake River fall Chinook salmon population currently has a PNI of approximately 0.06, which is considerably below this level.