WDFW Fishing Rule Change: Salmon fishing rules to change on Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and Wallace rivers
WA

WDFW Public Affairs
Thu 9/27/2018 10:54 AM

WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov

September 27, 2018

Salmon fishing rules to change on Snohomish,
Snoqualmie, Skykomish and Wallace rivers

Action: Closes all salmon fishing in the following areas: Snohomish River, Snoqualmie River, and the Skykomish River upstream of the Wallace River.

In addition, all salmon must be released except for marked hatchery coho on the Wallace River and the Skykomish River from the mouth to the Wallace River.

Effective date: Sept. 29 through Nov. 15, 2018.

Species affected: Salmon.

Location: Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, and Wallace rivers.

Reason for action: In-season run size updates indicate that the Snohomish wild coho run is lower than the pre-season forecast. These measures are needed to protect future runs of coho by increasing chances wild spawner escapement goals are met.

Additional information: Areas that remain open for salmon have a daily limit of two fish, release all salmon other than hatchery coho. Gamefish remain open in these rivers as described in the 2018-19 Fishing Rules Pamphlet.

For the Wallace River, the area between the hatchery weir and 400 feet downstream of the weir remains closed until the weir is removed.

If coho salmon abundance improves, fisheries may be reopened.

Information contact: WDFW, Mill Creek, Region 4 Office, (425) 775-1311.

Theres been tons of coho. Visually doesnt add up!!!

And MA 8-2 was open for wild coho retention this year, which made absolutely no sense.....
SF

Exactly Brian! What about all the fish that were killed at the Everett Coho Derby! That was literally last week right?! What in the world is wrong with this agency!?

There are Coho all over the place on the Snohomish system right now and to my eyes it just makes no sense at all.

I think it might not just be about numbers but about water levels at this time.

If fish were actually moving upriver easier then I would assume these systems might have been kept open.

Hopefully this will just be a closure until some rain comes in.

Theres a bunch of fish in the Sky right now too. Quite a few rolling in the usual spots.

They do indicates that if numbers improve, they will reopen but its like the wdfw havent been on the river and witnessed the numbers. On the opener, i dont think ive ever see that many moving fish shooting thru the shallows and riffles. It was Non-Stop schools of fish moving through all day long.

This is strange. Fished last week and my buddy and I got our limit. Went Tuesday this week and hit 3. Seemed to be a lot of fish in the river.

Columbia closed, Cowlitz closed, Snohomish system closed....Skagit next?

Weve been experiencing that same success. The first week was rediculously good. Still a bunch of fish showing and moving in.

checked the web site, Skagit to close on certain days below the baker to allow the tribes to net in October.

WDFW was concerned about the Wild Coho return and making Escapement at the Mill Creek NOF meeting. Various options were discussed. I was actually a little surprised to see the whole Snohomish System open on Sept 16th.


I also know that on a lot of systems, the Wild Coho seem to come in later than the hatchery fish.

WDFW has shifted more and more into in-season management as a tool to manage returns that suffer from inaccurate forecasting.

From the public's perspective, I think it would be helpful if WDFW created a platform where they would share ALL the data as it is collected so that the public can follow their work IN SEASON... before they close the door on a fishery that we count on, and plan on participating in.

I know that there are very experienced, hard working field biologists, creel checkers, surveyors that all collect the best data they can. It would be nice if the state shared this data with us in real-time. If we have that available, then I think it would be more apparent what details they are using as evidence to close off opportunity.

The Tribes, commercials, and wealthy rec fishers have won. It's over for the in-river angler. Only in years of vast overperformace against forecasts will there be enough left over for the lowly bank angler. Buy a salt boat or get cut out of the game. Those are your options moving forward. It's just that simple.

Look at what they did with Willapa; MA2-1 is open for selective harvest. Tribs? CLOSED. Who benefits from that? It ain't the average Joe or the fish....

From Triangle Tackle Snohomish Facebook....

SNOHOMISH RIVER COHO UPDATE
A meeting was held today with WDFW officials and local retailers and Tackle representatives before WDFW was to meet with the tribes later in the day. A lot was discussed during this 2 hour meeting. The end result was to maintain the current closure at this time.
The main reason for the closure was that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) told WDFW that wild Coho escapement on the Snohomish River system needed to reach 150,000 the next 3 years or 50,000 per year or the Coho would face endangered species listing. This notification was given just 1 month ago. WDFW had escapement goals of 33,000 wild Coho during North of Falcon process and thought they had clear sailing. Once NMFS's notification came, WDFW had to scramble to assess the run. Their most recent modelling showed 50,044 wild Coho, just a 44 fish surplus. Rather than gamble on what's left to come, they will keep the river closed until such time as a larger run of fish come. Should they get to 60,000 fish, they would reopen. Commercial and tribal fisheries (whether or not they could fish) were not disussed.
Let me know through your comments if you would like me to share more from this meeting.

Also heard about few days ago that a WDFW official admitted the Tulalips pressured WDFW to shut the Snoho down. Evidently, as the story goes, the guide that brought this all to light was criticized by this WDFW guy that said (and this was supposedly recorded which I haven't heard) that this information was not supposed to get out and was not public knowledge. The fishing guide also claims he has been receiving death threats.

Has anyone else heard anything about this? If this nonsense is true, this is big time curruption!

"WILD" Coho seem to be in abundance as witnessed in area 5 during the last two weeks of the season. While preparing to head for home this one gentleman was more than upset when he reported his nine day fishing report. "We boated 200 fish and 15 were marked"

I kept 2 of 20 brought to the boat, for 7 days.

Meanwhile the Makah were drifting gill nets directly through he sporties. day and night. Who was counting their fins?

I've learned over the years that just because they aren't Clipped, doesn't mean they are Wild. Various hatcheries have studies where they don't clip all the tagged fish. Not sure how much they do it in general. I know it happened on the Sol Duc & Samish for sure. They want Tagged fish to return.

Area 5 is a mixture of all PS stocks, plus some Canadian. Just because there are a lot of wild fish does not mean there are a lot of wild Snohomish fish.

Rumors are flying around the possible recorded conversation. But my guess is that if said guide recorded the conversation, he did so without consent. And since Washington is a two-party consent state for recording conversations, if the recording was released it could be trouble for the guide. And it wouldn't be useful for any legal purpose, since not legal to record a conversation without consent.

In situations like this, there is legal and there is ethical. Does it really matter that there is no legal recourse or that a recording could not be used in evidence in a trial?

I think not. IF they said this, and it is recorded, then simply being able to hear it said, identify the speakers, etc., would be useful in future dealings with WDFW.

Not legal? Or just not admissable in court?