This was in my email.

Hi Heather

Sorry to bother on a Monday morning but Fuller Hill boat launch needs your immediate help to correct a problem. What I thought was a job well done, when someone cleaned the mud/sand off the launch was not such a good job.

I don’t ever launch there but the bottom part of both ramps never got cleaned completely. This has caused problems with 2 wheel drive vehicles getting stuck and when trying to get “un stuck” caused big ruts. In a few cases other rigs have had to pull them up the ramp, until they could go on their own.

Its not a good way to start a fishing day, both for the stuck person BUT also for others that are trying to launch their boats…..

It needs to get done….right now that launch is used about 15 hours a day, out of towners, guides, and local people just can’t believe the job never got done correctly, in the 1st place. Shame on me for not doing a follow up to see if the job was done RIGHT……grrrrrrr

John’s River, 28th Street, Hoquiam River, small launch just above 101 bridge, Cosie, Monty launch and of course Fuller Hill are used LOTS, I understand that they aren’t all WDFW launches but WDFW is the lead agency and needs to take the lead in making sure who ever should be taking care of the ramps are getting the job done. October 1 the Wynoochee and Satsop will be getting lots of use…..are they ready????? I know for certain White Bridge, is a full 2 year from having anything done.

Money, money, money but people need to have safe launches.



Oh forgot about Friend’s Launch

Well, they did get more from license fees and it is the fee-payers who want to use the launches.

Some conversations on fish and best I can do for you all is there are fish moving. Not a lot and the QIN didn't do all that great from what I found out. Thing is QIN numbers are reported to WDFW the next week after a set and I was told WDFW will not make them public due to goverment to goverment concerns. The QIN is not required to make catch numbers public so they don't. Why? I have no idea but again tribal managers are not required to do so and thier responsibilities are to tribal fishers not non treaty folks.

The QIN should have caught arounr 547 Chinook and 2836 Coho in the two day set in the first of the week. Could be wrong but from what I and others could see that did not happen. In fact my bet is they were way short. Hopefully I am wrong but I doubt it.

Took a look around yesterday afternoon. Fished all afternoon for one bite from a psycho coho that ran me into a side channel and broke me off like it thought it was a big king or something. Fun to get absolutely smoked once in a while.

Water is still very low, and it looks like rain is done for a while. Fish numbers seemed about the same as angler numbers most places I went, which is to say there were a lot of people fishing, but there wasn't much catching from the banks. If the Tribe's numbers aren't good, I think we should prepare for some of the flavor of in-season adjustment we don't like. Hopefully, if that happens, it comes in the form of reduced limits (not closures).

They're not going to in season manage anything on the first 2 day set. A LOT of fish have already went past the lower river.

I do believe your right. One bunch of fish went up with that early rain and a steady trickle since then. No way tribe pulls unless we get to the last week of Oct. with the same pattern. Coho concern maybe but Chinook in my view its nearing red flag time but again not until week 4 could anything change.

Just 2 days? Shoot, they barely got any benefit from the rain if they pulled on Tuesday. You're probably right; that shouldn't affect anything.

For sure, a decent number of fish must have moved in, because even I managed to wrangle a few in late September. I guess I always worry when I hear about poor tribal fishing; seems like the Tribe takes every opportunity to shut down our fisheries lately, so I like to hear they are catching fish better than that they are struggling.

I saw a LOT of chinook in varying condition at a likely spot on a lower tributary yesterday (even more than usual). I wasn't entirely thrilled, since I was hunting fresh coho, but at least there (anecdotally), the numbers look pretty good to me. Haven't spent enough time on the other Chinook-producing tribs to make any assessment. Hope that outlook improves.

Next week is 4 days QIN with 610 Chinook and 4800 Coho impacts so next week is the make or break for Chinook. 11,216 is the basin Chinook goal and the Satsop is a big hunk of it but they manage Chinook as Grays Harbor total for the goal. If I recall the Satsop escapement is over 4500 so you bloody well better see a lot of fish.

Two years come to mind on runs falling short. Cannot remember the year but Steve did it when the NT Comm numbers showed catch way off forecast. If I remember correctly we made Coho escapement but only because of the shut down. The other year was just back year and NT and QIN both gave up during Chum fishery because Coho went up early. No Coho the Chum fishery is not profitable. History says the peak for Coho is around week 44 which first week of Nov. So have Coho came in earl or running late or the forecast is way off ? To early to say but if you compare history to this year something is off. Now the biggy just what is different ? No idea here but the next two weeks should tell the story.

I would also look back to the specific brood years. What was the behavior of the coho then? That would be the easiest one as most coho will be age-3 so from the '22 brood. I know that while nothing down here seems as cyclic as Fraser sockeye stocks, the old "what survives is what spawns" works together with Darwin so they should behave similar. That is, unless the streamflows are really crazy like high flows one fall and low ones the next.

The managers should have this at their fingertips.

DW & I took a drive around middle tidewater and the Satsop. So what I know, good fishers are catching fish but its not everyone across the board. Lots of fishers on the Satsop and witnessed one guy packing a Coho but dark gray is NOT a good Coho color. Boat launches have room but are being well used.

So fresh fish coming in but not a huge movement upstream fish slowly working their way but bright is not a word I would use for condition for many of them. In other words early rain fish did the scoot but lacking water in the spawning grounds are hanging out in the river high low middle reaches. So Flea has got it correct I think but remember the river can eat 10,000 fish to look like 100 and make 500 look like 5,000. My 5 bucks is on the early rain scoot was rather large so inland great but tidewater rec and QIN commercial oh not so good to maybe terrible!