Just got my license at Monte square this evening and the clerk told me there will be no retention of sturgeon in the Chehalis for up to 7 years!!!
Prices for the opportunity to fish goes up every year & opportunity to catch & keep goes down, kinda sounds like fuel prices except no reduction in fees for no sturgeon fishing!!! We all know what the problem is....
WDFW SUCKS!!!!!

At least your moniker is correct.

Sturgeon retention was closed due to declining populations and alarmingly low counts on the spawning grounds at bonneville dam the last few years. Want more sturgeon, start removing the sea lions at the dam, something that both WDFW and ODFW are hand tied on.

For sure, sea lions eat a lot of fish, but they aren't the only problem, and they probably aren't even the major one. If they are truly the major factor limiting sturgeon, why are we seeing record returns of Chinook to the Columbia in the same years we are seeing closures on sturgeon? It seems to be time to start managing pinniped populations, especially near dams, but I seriously doubt that will make a big enough difference in the sturgeon numbers to open up closed fisheries.

Whatever the case, I suspect we're done fishing for sturgeon on the Chehalis. If we do get to fish for them again, it won't be because of any harvest management decisions on the part of WDFW, and it probably won't be because we killed a bunch of sea lions on the Columbia. Much like the salmon are showing us now, if sturgeon do rebound, it will be largely because of natural factors outside our control.

I do miss the sturgeon fishery. I only hooked one fish in about 10 trips (and that one handed my a$$ to me), but it was a fun excuse to go hang out by the river and have a fire at night once in a while.

THis is a case of simple overharvest in the face of poor reproduction. Once upon a time shorts outnumbered fish in the slot 20+/1. Now its the other way around. The writing has been on the wall with this for 5+ years, but WDFW/OFD have had their head in the sand and allowed pretty much the status quo for seasons in the face of an obvious shortage of recruitment. This action is closing the barn after the horse has run off.

Sturgeon haven't had a decent spawning year in over a decade. Fish in the slot are 10-15 years old. Looks like we're at least a decade from having a decent year class of fish coming in to the slot (assuming they had a good spawing year this year).

My hope is that if I ever get to retire, I might be able to fish sturgeon then (~ 25 or 30 years from now).

I agree the sea lions at the dam should be killed and that might protect some of the existing spawning stock, but that's not going to make them having spawning success, its just going to protect the spawning stock until they have a good year.

Were pinnipeds the (only) cause? No, but they did have an increasing impact while managers responded both too slowly and with insufficient incremental restrictions on both commercial and recreational harvest.

But we are where we are so what is restricting recovery? The resource has to maintain the greatest possible reproductive potential and that potential is clearly being impacted by pinnipeds - especially Stellar sea lions.

When we look to recovery efforts for sturgeon and other long-lived species with haphazard reproductive success we need to be both willing and able to address all factors limiting that recovery to include but not limited to control of predators.

The Quinaults have netted Chehalis sturgeon to near extinction in under 30 years.

I asked Billy Franks approx 15 years ago (who at the time was the head of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Tribal Council) what they could do about the fact that the Quinalt were netting the center of the Chehalis at the bottom with weighted nets to harvest sturgeon under the guise of fishing for salmon and. steelhead. They were getting $8 a lb. for immature sturgeon when salmon (chinook was going for $1.5 to $2 a lb.)was the "targeted fish". He told me, When we complain they tell us to go F*** ourselves!" I used to talk with Bob Bascomb or Balcomb(sp.?)(a rod builder out of Monte) about sturgeon, but never got to fishing for them as it was already pretty wiped out. Anyone know what happened to Bob? He was certainly a wealth of info on rivers around here. I know he had some health and ex-wife issues, but lost track of him. Bob R

We have a winner. Game over.

fp

fsih4brains -
There is no such thing as Chehalis sturgeon. The fish are Columbia river fish that are foraging in the Chehalis. You will see a recovery of the Chehalis fishery as the Columbia river population recovers (if it does).

White Sturgeon spawning has only been documented successfully spawning in three rivers system on the Pacific coast; Columbia, Fraser, and Sacramento systems. They do however roam quite a bit and often dip into other river systems to feed. The juvenile sturgeon don't mature until teenagers and once they reach maturity typically spawning only every 4 to 6 years. So those that go anadromous have lots of time to move about looking for foraging opportunities.

Curt

Curt,
So are Puget Sound Sturgeon likely Fraser River fish?
SF

Stonefish -
The Columbia population was and probably still is much larger than the Fraser population. Those fish found in the Sound are likely a mixture of the two.

Over the years a number sturgeon that were tagged in the Columbia have been caught in Puget Sound and several its rivers. Tagged Columbia river sturgeon have been recovered as far north as SE Alaska and as far south as SF bay area.

Curt

Curt,
Interesting information.
Thanks,
SF

This might be true......BUT here to tell you that the "non tribal" gillnetters are also a problem....both Chehalis and Willapa system....and those were under the control of WDFW.

Late 60's, 70,s and 80's, Chehalis River... Pinnick's Bar, used to have 15 -25 rods fishing for sturgeon. Small boat fishing from S. Monty to areas way below Central Park took place, year around.

Gone, gone, gone....all gone......like the native steelhead, late Coho....days are numbered for sportsmen and my grand kids.

Some guys that love to fish Sturgeon get tagged fish and the majority are Columbia with the remaining fish originating in the Fraser.

That's what I was getting at, the netters targeted them and wiped them out. Soon it will be the Steelhead then Salmon & we will have to take up malita duties against unjust land grabs down in the SW!!!

We own this just as much as the netters. Our take has been much higher the last few years than theirs.

The umpqua used to be a major strugeon spawning stream, but the small mouth bass have essentially eaten all of the young that have been successfully bred for the last few decades..

Check out any gillnet in the lower Columbia or Chehalis. They are full of dead juvenile sturgeon. I have personally seen piles of dead small sturgeon in the back of Tribal "enforcement" vehicles.

My point is that WDFW is managing our resources into extinction...

F P if you want to keep your Gubberment you can keep it.
Now be a good little Commicrat biatch and stay on topic...