Thanks for the info Sky.

Why does it cost us money to allow fishing on a river that is operated by mother nature? There should be no major expenses incurred by the WDFW. 5 minutes to post the opening on their website and some salary for enforcement. They don't need half of their staff up there. The expenses should be minimal. Why does the WDFW always have an excuse for not getting something done instead of finding creative ways to make things possible? Besides the obvious answer that it's a government agency. I would submit to the WDFW that they've already spent more money just talking about it, than it would cost to open it.

Like Evo said, make a stamp or whatever. KISS principle. Get creative, find a solution. It's not hard, so don't make it hard. Maybe I'm being obtuse here, but it doesn't seem like it should be this difficult.

On this note, how many other "opportunities" are we missing out on because they don't have the funds?

"Sorry folks, Wallyworld is closed. The moose out front shoulda told ya". BS.

I talked with Barkdull yesterday. Federal approval hasn't happened yet and he was going to have a meeting with Warren in the afternoon.

One another note, he mentioned the coho forecast this year be enough to keep the Skagit open for gamefish this fall.

A fishery like that would require both enforcement and on the water monitoring. The days of auto-pilot management (should) be gone. WDFW simply no longer has the staff to do those things. Not only other priorities but simply lack of people.

Open a fishery on the Skagit and the enforcement that was doing shellfish, other steelhead, salmon, wildlife would have to be shifted. Due to the way money is managed, staff is assigned specific budgets, tasks, and times. When we wanted to open new/odd/different fisheries we checked with Enforcement to see if there were any officers available as they were given monthly (I think) work plans. Deviation meant either overtime of not doing something else.

The Columbia Endorsement was initially intended only for the Upper River because WDFW always said they didn't have the money to add monitoring and enforcement on those ESA-constrained fisheries. That may not be how it is used now, but that is how it was drafted.

Why would anybody bring up an endorsement fee? I'm already paying for a license that gives me VERY little opportunity to keep and kill fish. Living in Whatcom County and fishing mainly the Nooksack River gives me little opportunity to actually catch a fish let alone keep one. I'm absolutely fine and on board with C & R and depending on if the Skagit turns into a zoo fishery or not, I do plan to fish it. However why should I pay even a dime more for the opportunity to fish a river that requires me to release my catch? Open the river and give me some value for the license I'm already paying for!

Monitoring and enforcement will absolutely be required. And since nobody likes to work for free, it's going to cost money. Welcome to the new era of fishing under ESA listings.

Very interesting to say the least.
A lot different then the party line I'd expected after the 2015 coho season.
SF

To answer a couple of questions earlier in this thread.

"There should be no major expenses incurred by the WDFW. 5 minutes to post the opening on their website and some salary for enforcement."

To allow us to fish they will have to meet the requirements of the plan for monitoring. At minimum this will be four techs at various and moving locations in the areas open to interview anglers as to encounters, locations of encounters, number in party, number of vehicles in party, and a couple other things I can't remember off the top of my head. All of this is in addition to a minimum of two enforcement agents. Estimated cost for a 10 -12 week season; $110,000.

"C&R mortality rates."

The rate used 10%. Best to err on the side of the fish.

"Like Evo said, make a stamp or whatever. KISS principle."

WDFW cannot impose any fees without legislative approval. In their recent budget increase request was the funding to run Skagit C&R seasons and the sockeye seasons for two years along with a host of other programs. The budget increase, which included higher license fees was turned down by your elected officials.

"I would submit to the WDFW that they've already spent more money just talking about it, than it would cost to open it."

You might actually be right about that. We first approached them about creating this season five years ago!

"I'm already paying for a license that gives me VERY little opportunity to keep and kill fish."

Lowland lakes will still open this year!

"However why should I pay even a dime more for the opportunity to fish a river that requires me to release my catch?"

When was the last time you got a pay raise? ESA requirements will make it more expensive for WDFW to provide opportunity.

What I'm saying is that it costs nothing to open a river. Just say its open. That's it. That's all it takes. Studies, monitoring, enforcement et al. is job justification and NOT required. ESA or not. Are they around "monitoring" when tribes are netting the crap out of ESA listed fish? Nope - they're nowhere to be found. It's not a requirement, it's a "nice to have" for job justification.

For example, there is exactly ONE WDFW officer for all of Whidbey Island. The largest Island in the US. Do they shut down deer hunting on the Island because of that? No, they do not. Can he be everywhere at the same time "monitoring" all of the hunters? No, he cannot. The show goes on with or without them around. Why would this be any different?

It's just excuses, excuses, excuses all the time.

Not taking the bait Nick. Have a nice day!

The enforcement cost smells funny. WDFW apparently doesn't put any enforcement on closed rivers, so they're not busy doing that anywhere in the area. Waterfowl will be closed, so they won't be doing that. Deer and elk will be closed. Bear will be closed. Lowland lakes won't be open yet. I'm not a saltwater guy but I know there can't be much going on out there in March and April. Exactly what will enforcement personnel be doing if there's no Skagit season?

No enforcement for the river in March & April, but they'll have a bunch out checking people for the trout opener at the end of April?
I do love the announcement that they can't open it without enforcement. Another way to say it is that nobody will be around to catch you if it doesn't open and you fish anyway.

Not sure if this has been covered.

I attended the Mill Creek meeting. I've followed this some but not nearly as involved as a number of the people at the meeting. Meeting was packed. Standing room only. The Bio in charge of the project (not Brett)was reviewing the project and went into Days that we will be able to fish. During his explanation, he mentioned 14 days. I caught it but figured I was just not up to date. That the people there pushing this for us knew what he was talking about. I was wrong. I think it was after the Bio mentioned the 14 days a 2nd time Tom Nelson spoke up and asked something like "did I hear you right? 14 days we will be on the water?".

The answer was Yes!! You could hear 100 + jaws hit the floor. The bedlam erupted. People were like where did this come from etc. Turns out that between NOAA, The Tribes & WDFW this will be a Highly Monitored fishery. The deal they made was that 4 Biologists & 2 WDFW Enforcement Officers have to be there every day we are fishing. That is where the funding comes in and what WDFW says is the lack of Man Power. Throw in that it is North of Falcon time for the Bio's and you have problems.

Then the funding issue got more interesting because people pushing this had been to 2 meetings where the WDFW Director had pledged to get Full Funding for the season. They stated he said it at 2 meetings and it was on tape.

At this point I'm not sure where the funding etc stands. I will tell you they use a 10% Mortality # to give the Tribes a quota and Sportsmen a #.

At least 1 person brought up "why bother for 14 days" because if the river is blown out it would still count as a day (not sure where that stands). My experience is if you don't take an opportunity or give it back there is a tendency to not get it again. I hope this helped.

Blu, that's a pretty good wrap on the meeting at Mill Creek. I'm the one that mentioned the director's promise and asked what funding would be needed for a full season. Edward Eleazer was the main presenter.

Personally I would take the 14 days if that's all they can afford. It would be a start and would demonstrate the popularity of the season.

The monitoring is a two-edged sword. Since the fishery it to a number of encounters, when that is hit the fishery should close. But, if for whatever reason the encounters allocated are not met (storms, angler incompetence, bad luck) then the fishery should be extended based on observed encounter rates.

Too often we have seen the result of auto-pilot fisheries.

Much better than 2/1 to 2/15

I agree with Nick and Talent on the enforcement and monitoring issue. Up until Jan 31st there are many, many Puget Sound rivers open to steelheading, including the Skagit and Sauk. If they can afford to monitor and enforce these plethora of rivers right now, why can't they afford it when it will be the ONLY system in PS to monitor?

Back when it was open, Todd and gang fished it from Wed - Sun every week in March and April. That's a lot of days on the river, and I don't recall being checked one single time, ever...on the river, at the takeout, or at camp.

Ike

Those were the good ole days! And all of that was before the steelhead were listed as "threatened" under the ESA. The simple fact is, the rules have changed. And, there is a close to 0% chance that the rules will change back. In order to fish the C&R season, these are the rules that will govern the fishery. Liking it is not a part of the equation. Not fishing is certainly one of the choices...one that we'd like to avoid.

Is there any news? I bet last weekend would have been good after the high water we had.

Season is still under NOAA review per Susan Bishop last week. She said it would be early march before they issue a response to WDFW.

Thanks for the quick reply! I wish government was that fast.