From the Wednesday edition of the Chronicle in the Chehalis/Centralia area. Tacoma power came to an agreement with the WDFW to start treating the returning adult coho as surplus. This is 180 degrees opposite from the agreement that they both signed during licensing. (2002). The article also states that last week the hatchery personel killed 1518 adult coho,241 coho jacks,3 adult fall chinook, and 21 STEELHEAD. The spokesman for the WDFW could not explain why other than adult coho were killed. It seems that the feds in all their wisdom decided that no more than half the salmon to be released above the dams could be of hatchery origin. (FERC) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision issued this decision with the WDFW. The "surplus fish" from last week were to a processor for distribution to food banks throughout the state. If they were sold to these processors, then it seems like the money from this should go to the fisheries enhancement programs and not Tacoma Power as these fish belong to the people and NOT them. Up to this point, the surplus fish have been transported above the dams to the Cowlitz,Cispus,and Tilton rivers. This sounds like just another sell out to big business. The power company will not only save the cost of trucking the fish,but line their pockets as well. Any thoughts?

I have lots of thoughts but awaiting the results of a late afternoon/evening meeting between WDFW, Tacoma Power and possibly the Feds. Will know more tomorrow.

Jim

Soon you will see atotal end to "trucking" of any fish on the river. Did you happen to see in that same report that all the salmon on October 17th were transported downstream to the Barrier Dam Boatramp? Must have been to close to quitting time to go to Mission or I-5 like normal.

TPU has indicated that "trucking" fish is too expensive so "surplusing" them is cheaper.....no gas for the truck and you don't have to pay a driver. What a joke???

i can't see how trucking the fish upriver really helps out with anything. in my book the only guys that lose out are the hillbilly snaggers in morton. those fish are mostly boots anyway.

Thats a heck of a statement. I have fished this fishery, I have seen guides fishing up thier. As far as boots. Their are plenty of bright fish along with some boots. You dont know what your talking about. It seems to me that any fishery that gives us more chances to catch fish is worth while. A few years back the springer fishing in the lower cowlitz wasnt very good slow at best. I saw two different guides fishing the lake and I personally have seen very bright fish come out of their.

If it's the feds doing, it involves a Bush appointee slashing a budget so that more $,$$$,$$$ can be diverted to the "No Bid Contracts" over in Iraq.

Just my $.02

i was mainly talking about the tilton river fishery. that place is a mess, and makes the skokomish look tame.

There might be a right answer somewhere, but I don't think anybody knows what it is.

Coho salmon are recovering in the upper Cowlitz fairly well. That is, through a program of stocking hatchery fry in the upper river to rear naturally and migrate downstream through imperfect fish passage facilities, and trucking surplus hatchery adults to the upper river (both Tilton and upper Cowlitz/Cispus), naturally produced (in case you don't want to call them wild or native) coho are making a come back.

In some recent years, Tacoma has trucked as many as 80,000 adult coho to the upper watershed. The vast majority of those are hatchery surplus, with maybe 4,000 or 5,000 being from natural production. We hear about and read the evidence that hatchery fish are inferior spawners in the natural environment. With that in mind, is it really wise fish management to truck 20 times more hatchery fish than wild (excuse me, natural production) coho to the upper watershed for natural reproduction? With so much uncertainty, for the time being, half the fish trucked upstream of the dams will be hatchery surplus, to supplement natural spawners.

Under Tacoma's old FERC license, the primary purpose of hauling salmon to the upper river was for recreational fishing around Morton and Packwood. Under Tacoma's new license, the primary purpose is fishery restoration and ESA recovery. Recreational fishing is also a goal, but it is secondary to restoration.

WDFW and the federal agencies do not consider the cost savings for gas and truck driver time when specifying what Tacoma should do. We love to spend energy utility money, but most of us prefer to spend it productively - although that is certainly open to debate.

Ich, in this case at least, I can assure you, the Bush appointee doesn't have the slightest clue what Tacoma and the agencies are doing at the Cowlitz hatcheries. Fortunately perhaps, it's way too far below his radar screen.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

You are prolly right. It's hard to trace that ultimate decision back to it's source.

Hmmm. They raised the limit:
https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=448

Wonder what the reasoning is?

Yea, they raised the limit, but if you look at the creel counts you will see that nobody is catching them. It is a feel good gesture at best, but at least they are being somewhat responsive. What they need to do now is lift the deadline like they have in the past. I know, but the snaggers will take over. There is nothing I hate more in life then having government govern to the lowest element.. For example, there is crime in the park, so we are closing the park.. We could do something about crime, but hey, its just a lot easier to restrict you then to do what should be done. it never stops anything, just moves the activity somewhere else or to another realm and we all loose our rights.
At least this is a step in the right direction, though.

The way this is written sounds like you can fish in the closed water section right up to the fish ladder at the dam? Anyone know?

They should move up the boundry marker!

They should move up the boundry marker!

Looks like you can fish up to, and upstream of, the barrier dam all the way to the base of Mayfield Dam. Kinda' sloppy boundary writing, it looks like. Anyway, those who want to fish between the 400' marker and the barrier dam are free to do so, it appears. Please, no fishing in the fish ladder, though. That's really poor form for sport fishing.

Oh man time to wrap up some 8/0 jigs.

I don't know that I would go so far as to interpret the wording to mean that the boundary has been temporarily suspended. I would cal the WDFW and ask for clarification before making that assumption.

Just my .02 cents

Looks plain enough the way I see things

Just came back from our property I have on the Cowlitz near the Barrier Dam. Yes they are fishing clear up to the fish ladder. Saw around 30 to 40 fish hooked in an hour....all foul hooked and nothing but snaggers there. Shoulder to shoulder just like the point at Blue creek in July