Just got a generic WDFW email alert...

Bad news: steelhead fishing will close in PS rivers sometime between mid-Jan (2 weeks away) to mid-Feb

Good news: opening day for planter lake trout might be a week early!!! yay!!!!

Anyone know exactly when the closing day for PS river is this year for sure???

Good News: Steelhead fishing will close on the "S" rivers, where wild fish need time to recover with no fishing pressure and incidental C&R mortality.
Bad news: The whole river is being closed. Why not keep terminal areas open to allow anglers to harvest fish their tax dollars paid for? Who gets all those hatchery fish now left to straying in the river or hopefully returning to the hatchery?
It's clear that many hatchery fish will return immediately following the closure date, this year, and next, and the next if the hatchery production continues and river management doesn't change.

There has to be a better way, a more sensible approach... don't you think Andrew?

If WDFW chooses to close the river, then they should also cut way back on hatchery fish production so as to not leave many fish in the system to comingle with the wild fish we are closing the system down for in the first place.

If it is the same email I got, it is a proposal for the 2012-13 season, not this season.

Im annoyed that WDFW does this damn "emergency closure" crap. Just print it in the regs that the river is closed a specific date and that is that.. Every year I get my hopes up that I might get to fish my favorite local streams for a couple days. Then about a week before the season is getting prime and I have a chance to fish, I get a WDFW email closing my local cricks and all hope of fishing them is lost. What a let down! How about start with the rivers as closed and use the emerency rule change to "open" whatever system they deem fishable... if that is ever to happen.

I agree with you as well ryley.. what about the hatchery fish? The last year we were able to fish my local crick in Feburary we bonked two hatchery chromers in mid febraury in a system which supposedly doesnt get hatchery fish. I can only imagine how many brats are diluting the gene pool in the streams that actually do get a somewhat decent run.

I agree. So tired of every year being an "Emergency". This is clearly not the case. We all know the state of affairs pretty well but we keep getting yanked around every season.

I couldn't find this info on the wdfw website. Anyone have a link?

It's a conundrum for sure. What if the regulation book read, "Most rivers are closed, but some may open for a while if enough hatchery fish return and there are no wild fish that require the protection of a closure." Who except lake fishermen would buy a WA state fishing license?

Sg

It is ABSOLUTELY a problem that there are a fair number of hatchery fish in the systems that are continuing to mix with wild fish. Either leave the systems open or kill the hatchery programs.

Many of the systems have a hatchery hole, so it would not be difficult, to leave Reiter and Tokul open and down to plum landing. Fortson, Soos Creek would also work.

Latest interior data = Begin early blanket closures from the Strait into PS.

Latest coastal data = Continued kill fisheries until same blanket closures are implemented for 2013-2014 season.

Maybe WDFW can pick up slightly newer model data machine off Craig'slist? One that factors in actual facts and helps break down realistic management scenarios based on updated fact finding.

what do you expect when there are millions of humans living within close proximity to rivers? fish will go away.

So we were supposed to hear an announcement last week on this. What's the word people?