This post wouldnt have been complete without a pic of someone passed out at the Bogey house and an embarrasing pic posted on PP. Good show.

Nice Steelhead up there, the rest of this post is garbage

The real tragedy of this post shows what us anglers received as a "consolation prize" after the tribes destroyed their netting quota back in September.

The Quil tribes went over their salmon quota by many thousands of fish, and were rightly scared about it. The Quil has MISSED their escapement goal the last 2 years. If it's missed 3 years in a row, the Feds get involved, as the salmon are now close to being listed. The tribes are afraid of the Feds and what they will do. The tribes are not afraid of the state, and rightly so.

So, instead of penalizing the tribes, the state closed the fishery to us and said this was the stop gap measure to meet escapement. What? The salmon were ALREADY netted!

The Sol Duc was open in the middle of November - truly well after most of the wild coho run had come and gone. The only thing left were a pile of hatchery turds at the hatchery. These fish came in when the river was closed.

The river was given an emergency opener on the 1st as a "see, the WDFW isn't so bad, we are letting you fish longer"....on those same pile of now-moldy hatchery coho turds.

What a joke. The tribes continue to rape our fish and the WDFW does little to nothing about it.

Oh, and in case anyone cares to know, Quil tribal fisherman are receiving $2,000 a week NOT to fish. You know, to protect the salmon and all........

The state people I know want to make situations like this better for Sport fishermen, but they can't. The department in whole lacks the necessary negotiation power against sovereign nations. The Feds are simply inept..... and the swirl of our fisheries going down the drain remains intact.
There are several tribes with a modicum of morality, but the rest have, can, and will continue to do almost whatever they want without consequence. Then scream habitat when all the fish are gone.

Not to make light of the current River Raping... but back to the SRC. It looks like a blast and looking for more info. Assuming its the first weekend of Dec? and is there a link to rules? Equipment question and forgive me if this has been rehashed many times... Popeil's Pocketfisherman, legal? And is there any stigma that goes with this venerable legend of angling gear?

The SRC is always the first Friday in December. The SRC Committee only emails the rules to participants.

Basically, there are two ways to get in to the SRC: 1) Ask myself, CanyonMan, or Bob for an invite. 2) Find yourself on a team spot and that automatically get's you in the SRC for future events.

It's not a free-for all and it really does help if the person asking for an invite knows, or has met any of us. The Committee needs someone to vouche for a person/crew.

We would like to see more newcomers to the 2017 SRC. If any of you have a drift boat/raft and would like to get a team together for next year, get in touch with us. Just remember that team captains are responsible for the actions and whatnots of their crew.

The SRC is a fun event that tries to raise a little money for Gordon. We are in it for the coveted Green Jacket (biggest fish) and the SRC Trophy (Team Award).

Can't believe Team Suck It won it all this year. Team Sky Valley still sucks, by the way.

While the rules state that qualifying rods must be of the 3-eye, one piece cartoon character "snoopy rod", I don't see why the committee would deny that fine piece of fishing technology! Hell, I'd fish it! We do restrict lines to 10lb test mono and braid is not allowed.

I can vouch that the Committee is a bunch of dicks, so act like them and you'll be in.

Worked for me

Fish on...

Todd

Well the "real" winter we are having in Alaska has me looking through internet forums to get my fishing fix.

So the SRC has inspired a small group of kayak anglers here in Alaska and I saw this thread. We held the 2nd annual Barbie Rod derby this summer. And since my 11 year old son won the event, I thought I better brag about it and more importantly thank all those that put on the SRC to inspire us to mimic it. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Unlike the SRC we were allowed to use braid. But still for halibut, its a trade off between yardage and pound test. My son used 15 lbs braid to land this 45 pounder for the win.

Though perhaps I should wait till he is no longer a minor given the "fun" you all have, if anyone needs a ringer for next year, I am sure he'd love to fish steelhead. lol.

^^^^ SUPER COOL! ^^^^

Noodle Snoopy Rod and braid aside, your kid is a bad-ass! He's be a shoe-in Winner for the 2017 SRC!

Ryu's got swag.

Outstanding!

Of course.

This thread is usually more fun. For some reason a bunch of fish that no one is going to eat strewn about on the side of a bank or parking lot feels bad regardless of whether the tribes did it for the eggs or recreational anglers did it for fun. Forks is a pretty amazing place, I wish both sides respected it more. Could have just let those fish die naturally to serve as nutrients for the other fish and wildlife in and along the Sol Duc.

You seem to be a bit over sensitive over a photo, Take-Down. Maybe Island life is getting to you a bit.

Why do you believe the fish in that photo were either left in a pile in the parking lot, or stewn about on the side of a bank? Why are you presuming that these fish did not end up back in the river as direct nutrients to the next generation of salmonids as well as direct nutrients to the plants and fauna on the Sol Duc?

Why do you believe these fish were ill-treated, or treated differently than any other harvested hatchery fish in the SRC? All of these hatchery fish were legally hooked, fought, landed with nets and quickly/humanly euthanized.

Are you upset because you see some blood and eggs in the photo? Both of those are going to be unavoidable on old, mostly spawned hatchery fish.

Hatchery coho are meant to be caught and killed, either by an angler, or in the hatchery. Due to tribal over harvesting in September and the lack of any actions by the state, resulted in a massive pile of "wasted" hatchery coho in early December. Most hatchery coho, once deceased, never end up back in a river, while some are used for enhancement purposes, most are not. Hatchery Sol Duc coho are not meant to "die naturally" in the river.

I will say that all of these fish were used in the Sol Duc Enhancement Project and were *not* strewn across the river bank, stripped of their Patzke Eggs, or left in the parking lot.

If anything, these fish were put to death in a much more humane way than naturally rotting to death in the river and did not go to any waste. The participants of this year's SRC did not negatively impact the environment or harm any of the local fisheries in any way.



Yes it is, as are the local guides there. So glad that the SRC raised over $1500 to an amazing Forks Resident in need.

I think that's a fair criticism. I was a little presumptuous. Still, I wish we as a group didn't think end of life salmon are ugly. I wish we didn't think of hatchery fish as lesser. Both things are sort of true, but it kind of ignores the fact that what those fish did with their lives, you know the life/migration cycle, is pretty damn amazing compared with a lot of other creatures on this planet. I just think references to boots, ugly fish, and kill all hatchery fish don't give respect to what salmon (hatchery or wild) do once they start heading down river as smolts, to come back years later.