It's ironic that we are worried about the survival of the species and of having enough fish for s sport fishery yet in the same conversation people are excited about how many fish can be kept?

i also forgot to mention that more fish to kill more $$$$$ that the state will make...

Springers are in...I forget the opening date but ending date is June 30th.

We are trying to keep the proposed schedule and subsequent discussion to a minimum until after there is agreement between the department and QIN. If you know someone who was at the meeting and want to find out specific meeting info give them a call. Otherwise we should be patient, airing out our concerns/problems on the board prior to the final meetings will not be productive. Doc, rivrguy, or someone will post an update as soon as there is one.

Well I tried to keep the Wynoochee closed to any boat/fishing from White Bridge to 7400 line.......would have been a good area to protect Chum and Chinook spawning.

Thought maybe the opening for Coho and any remaining summerrun, from White Bridge down would have been enough but I was wrong again.

I want you to remember this, "there is plenty of bank access from 7400 line to White Bridge"....direct quote from 1 of the local guides...

Did get to keep the "NO BAIT" above White Bridge....

Eric and others:

From 9:00 a.m. to around 12:10 p.m. when we took the "lunch break, things were swinging in the plus column for sports.

Phil Anderson got to the meeting about 11:15 a.m. and just sat in the back and listened......whatever took place at lunch was a "complete turn from the morning".....I knew something was up, when I walked back into the room.....my seat was close to Kirt Hughes. Kirt and Ron Warren were "punching numbers on the computer" and talking.....I left my seat and went to back of room........meeting started back up.....down hill from there.........

I'd say from 101 bridge, up river, going to be a tough fishery during the whole month of October.........gill nets probably 6 days and maybe 7, plus sports marine fishery.....even if Saturday is net free.......it won't be enough time for many fish to clear Monty before the "tribal gillnets and set nets" go in on Sunday. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ohhh another thing.......2 rods, even with the amount of fish comming back.........no go!!!

They know sports really doesn't impact the runs to any amount but still we have "our hands tied"...barbless hooks and 1 rod.....

Been down with the flu crap and been so cranky my dogs are ignoring me. Anyway DW pretty much captures it, In another thread Francis lays out Willapa and how it matches into the GH bay fishery. Bottom line? Inland fresh water will get screwed. Look at the generous season bit then overlay the nets and you get .............. all together now .............. SCREWED if you fish fresh water. Your Chinook retention is great on paper but they will be mostly harvested by the nets. It is the same scenario that has been in play in the past four or five years, on paper great seasons but your setting behind a net fishery that is wiping out about 90% of the fish coming in and it takes place Friends Landing down.

So hope for a early rain to move the fish so you can get in on the action in the tribs. Nov. outlook? Now that is about the QIN nets and weather and maybe the folks on the tribs will luck out.

We will have to wait and see what the QIN comes up with but bank on 5 weeks in late Sept. to the end of Oct. with QIN 3 but more likely 4 days a week and could be 5 . NT nets 2 days a week first three weeks of October minimum.

Unless there are a number of flood events in Oct, I fear this will indeed play out if the above netting scenario happens.

Remember when Washington State used to be touted as "sportfishing capitol of the world" and it meant something?

Business as usual in Region 6.

Sigh.

doesn't make him sound like he's ever even fished that river from the bank!

Rivrguy,

The way it looks on paper when the gillnet days are over-layed makes it consistent with how the state has always planned to manage terminal area salmon fishing. Since the sport fleet is inefficient, the commercial net fleet is used to take the run down to near the escapement goal, with the freshwater salmon fishermen fishing on the escapement plus a few crumbs to harvest. The strategy actually achieves what the co-managers want, which is for no more fish than the escapement goal to hit the gravel. But that means fewer fish swimming past the freshwater sport fleet. The hard realization is that high quality freshwater salmon angling is not part of the salmon management plan.

Sg

Ya think?

R6 and Q's reached agreement on GH seasons last night.

Will list good news first... progressing toward the bad

1) R6 GN's lose a day in 2-C... down to 6 from 7 at Oly.
2) Hump rec package remains intact.
3) MA 2-2 package with 3 wk chinook retention remains intact.
4) Chehalis FW package with 4 wk chinook retention remains intact EXCEPT the clipped chinook piece was cut out of Satsop.
5) The GN day cut from 2-C was transferred to 2A/2D... from 6 in Oly now up to 7 days at PFMC... 2, 2, 2, 1 in each successive week in Oct.

I know Rvrguy is gonna blow a head gasket.... sorry, I'm just the messenger here.

Final allocation of our 2900 available Chehalis chinook ended up 1100 MA, 1000 FW, 800 GN. Chum impact at 4.7%. We left 23K wild coho on the table.


R6 GN's go into 2A/2D (12 hr periods, 6am to 6pm) Oct 1, 2, 12, 14, 19, 20.... then a final 24 hours on Oct 22.

QIN's will officially go 2 days (in at noon and out at noon) in stat week 39.... Sept 23-25.
2 days in stat week 40... Oct 3-5.
4 days in stat week 41... Oct 7-11
3 days in stat week 42... Oct 15-18.
Then a long break until after mid-Nov for "steelhead".

Gonna be a brutal October. It is what it is.

so what it looks like is 2 days Sept then 16 days of nets in Oct?????

They should let the recs get first shot in the rivers then recycle the fish downriver after they pass the recs

So here's what October looks like in a day by day composite...

1 - S 6-6
2 - S 6-6
3 - Q begin noon
4 - Q 24 hr
5 - Q til noon
6 - Saturday net free
7 - Q begin noon
8 - Q 24 hr
9 - Q 24 hr
10 - Q 24 hr
11 - Q til noon
12 - S 6-6
13 - Saturday net free
14 - S 6-6
15 - Q begin noon
16 - Q 24 hr
17 - Q 24 hr
18 - Q til noon
19 - S 6-6
20 - S 6-6
21 - Sunday net free
22 - S 24 hr
23 - 31 net free for chum conservation

Bottom line 12 net free days on the Chehalis side for the entire month.
Pick your river dates accordingly.

Francis,

Thanks for the info. Though it's anything but rosy, I actually thought it would be worse(but not by much). That net-free window the last week of Oct and into Nov will be prime time for coho.

One question. The non-tribal gillnetters are given 800 chinook out of our allocation. What if they reach their impact in, say, the first 2 days of their scheduled netting? Would they lose their remaining days thus freeing up a few more net-free days in Oct?

Any news on the net schedule for Willapa?

Do we have the full break out for QIN & NT for Sept / Oct / Nov by days?

Nope... days are now set in stone.