mean while Willapa was on fire and Grays Haror NT commercial got nearly 4400 in a three day fishery early with few boats. Thats about a 1000 more than modeled. I have come home to the idea fish do what fish do and it is not open for discussion from the fish view.

WDFW is saying they don't have a way to know if any coho are coming in without tribal gillnets. WTF? All of the years of changing faces, biology, promotions, science, new trucks and boats, no drug testing, and they can't tell if the fish are coming without tribal gill nets? How about buying a F'ing gillnet then? 20 years later, "we don't have a model for that", "we don't know if fish are coming without a tribal gillnet", it's as bad a politicians. "I'm not going to raise taxes"...gets elected, raises taxes. FFS, it is your job! No one wants to pay you to make excuses. The tribe isn't going back in even if the fish are everywhere. Once they pull out like they did it's all about federal fishery disaster assistance, or a great big welfare check!

11/04/26

fish4brains.......You said it "just like it needed to be said", thanks

Since at least the 70s adult salmon runs in PS, GH, and WB have been, or could be, updated by commercial fisheries. A single net tells you something; that some fish were in one spot. Not much else.

For the agency, it is a hell of a lot cheaper to use fisheries to update. But, it requires a few things. Staff to develop the models. They did this in the 70s and 80s with much more primitive technology. You need catches to be fully reported within a couple days of the fishery. You need to be a nimble manager; monitor the fishery, evaluate catch, change openings to match catch.

Following Hoh V. Baldridge management went from meeting conservation needs (escapement is paramount) to fixed schedules so that catches would balance.

When I was in management, we had almost all the catch within three days of the landing; most in one. When I retired we had some fisheries still unreported three months after landing.

The target of management has shifted from reasonably pure conservation which heavily punished the last in line (Tribes and in-river recs) to stable seasons and balanced catches. And as long as marine mixed stock fisheries are pushed for, that is the way it will be.

Bingham Coho rack count is 10,600 at the present and same time last year 26,000. All that said time is pushing the fish now spawning as time is here. NOAA says the rain is opon us flows are going to go up when all is said and done but only to average flows this time of year. Bingham and the Wynoochee trap returns kinda mirror the wild Coho.

https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/weather/10_day.cgi?v=20200803v1

Little edit: The basin always gets a Nov. salmon stamped when the rains come. So let us hope it happens otherwise this year is a disaster for Coho but not so for Chum from what I can tell.

11/04/2026

Chehalis River

Monty boat launch, daily showing......Sea lions, 6+, hard to get a good count but there "are lots". Breakfast, lunch and dinner lot's of fish won't make spawning grounds.

Yea yea I know Chum are in the rivers but I also know this is the time of the year that the late Coho are heading up the rivers.

Yea I know why the rivers are closed, but the sea lions and seals have a wide open river to just snack, snack, snack...........grrrrrrrrr

Latest I could find on 2026 QIN harvest for the Chehalis River QIN catch.

The exact catch numbers for the Quinault Indian Nation's off-reservation fishery specifically on the Chehalis River mainstem are severely depressed due to the emergency conservation closure enacted during Week 43 of the fall season.

Because the fishery was entirely shut down by the Quinault Off-Reservation Fish Committee to protect vulnerable spawning populations, the total tribal commercial harvest inside the Chehalis River system for the 2026 fall run was effectively cut off at a negligible amount.

The broader context of the regional failure reveals why the catch remained so low:

Regional Catch Metrics & Factors

• Overall Fall Coastal Catch: Across the entirety of the Quinault Nation's managed coastal waters, rivers, and bays, the total tribal harvest generated fewer than 10,000 coho salmon, failing to meet the projected preseason expectation of over 50,000 fish.

• State vs. Treaty Openings: WDFW and tribal co-managers recognized early that the Chehalis wild fish runs were tracking thousands of fish below mandatory escapement needs. While limited non-tribal gillnetting in broader Grays Harbor landing zones squeaked out preliminary tallies (such as roughly 551 coho and 16 Chinook before those areas closed completely), the in-river netting windows inside the Chehalis mainstem yielded almost no sustained harvest before the nets were permanently pulled.

• Environmental Impact: Severe low water flow and elevated river temperatures early in the season caused the arriving salmon to pull back or stall out in the marine bays, preventing a viable entry run into the lower Chehalis River and entirely wiping out expected harvest quotas.

I think this has been a bad year coastwide for Chinook. Also have not heard a lot about coho. Maybe something's happening all over the range.

11/08/2026

Rivrguy, Good post, Thanks

I've watched fish totals decrease since I've moved to Grays Harbor in 1968...... Bolt Decision, increase targeting by Alaska and Canada on fish from the Washington, deceasing hatchery production, No follow thru on commercial netting buy back of licenses, just a ever increase in population into Washington and a ever increase to people that want to fish, less wild fish that get a chance to spawn because of ever increasing attack by EVERYONE... troll, Purse Seining, gill nets, and all methods used by sports fishers.

I've been to "lots of meetings, where lots of things have been discussed but we still have decreasing populations of wild fish...Models just don't work or the personnel that should be making major rule changes just are afraid to make those changes.

My proposal-----Release all WILD Fish that are not making escapement for at least a 5 year period, at the same time increase hatchery production to levels far greater than current levels. That is in all waters in Washington State AND at least 10 miles off the WA coast and maybe even further South.

It would be awesome if the tribes would buy in but with hatchery increases maybe they would????

Something to think about!!!!!