Emergency closures have been announced for the Nooksack and Puyallup Rivers.

See below...

Nooksack River Closure

Puyallup River

wdfw can suck my kiss!!!! them peeps need to pull there heads out of the unique position its in....

Call Pete Castle, this spineless bio is on his way out and is against sportfishing anyway. Here is his number (360) 466-4345 ext. 230 at the LaConner office. the only way to get it reopened is to bug him about it. It happened a few years ago on the Skagit. No one from Whatcom county usually bothers him so it was easy for him to make the decision. I am asking Whatcom County anglers to start bothering him.

This is bull**** ! Doug Huddle was at our T.U. meeting tuesday night and never said a word about this, what a bunch of wussies these state guys are. I don't know but there have been alot of fish up here. Why do we always take it in the shorts? They're going to turn us into a bunch of renegades.

Well I see that they've closed down all of the river fishing in the Puget Sound area from March 1st again. I have just one more question to ask. Who or what determines what the percentages of wild fish that spawn. Do they go out and count or is it just a guess-ta-ment. Well if I can't fish these rivers I might as well just tie flies for lake fishing. Jim S.

Old man-
up here on the nookie Doug Huddle "biologist" counts redds but he told us that they don't know the numbers for sure. The river conditions when counting are poor so he doesn't get a good count. We are supposed to help him in March but I don't know if I want to now.

I have been told that there is no agreed upon methodology for estimating the run size of fish in the Nooksack River. This is only a guestimate and they freely admit it. I still believe that flying over the South Fork and North Fork in April and May with the snowmelt (especially this year) is a joke. One guy counting redds in the whole basin is a joke. I do not believe that the wild steelhead population is severly threatened.

just frickin great, some of the best two weeks of fishing on the nook are toast! this really burns me. i think i'm going to have to make a phone call like suggested.

Everyone call him! I talked to Pete this morning and he told they were closing it for 2 reasons. #1 Low red counts last year, even after I explained we were catching more fish in the last three years than the 10 yrs before that. He believes the counts to be a good indication of no fish. What fishermen are doing doesn't really mean anything. We could be catching the same fish. Really?

#2 Bonkers. Too many people killing Nates. He agreed, it is mainly older guys, bankies, doing the killing, mostly around the Lynden area. He said they would consider and open to, a CNR season open above Nugents bridge to start next year to help pervent this. (not easily accessiable by foot above the bridge long walks) but it's too late to lift the closure as this would take about 3 weeks to go through. Screwed again by the WDFW. Please, can someone remind me WHY I buy a License every year? Did they forget who really pays their salaries?

well, it sounds like it's pointless. so much for takeing some time off to fish that last week of the season. maybe it's time i check out what's north of the border.

I should also add that I have personally talked with a few different anglers that have told me they have fished the Nooksack during March and April while it was closed. They were like the rest of us and just enjoyed C&R and had no interest in poaching fish, just catching em and letting them go. All of them have told me it's incredible fishing. I actually told Castle this and his remark was just that these were fishing holding in the deeper pockets before going on to the spawning gravel. Hum.......does that mean there's more fish than one red per mile that's spawning?

Ya pete said it doesn't matter if we are catching these fish because they are being caught multiple times, What the ph-k does this clown know? When asked about escapements the clown has given everyone different numbers. Some of the numbers are the same as the Skagit. Get real petey. Also he says that this is an enforcement issue. They need to say that to the public and not blame poor fish runs. We submitted two proposals for closing the lower sack but no.........we get kicked in the sack once again.

sorry but I'm pissed

Hey fishbreath I heard that he isn't going to retire he is taking a potion on the coast. I feel sorry for those guys out there. If he trys to screw with those rivers by closeing them to catch and release he will have one hell of a fight on his hands. Doug Huddle told us that redds can be coverd up in high water and are only vissable for a short period of time. So when that idot Pete told me that they flew 2 times one the North Fork and 1 time on the South Fork how can he say there are no redds. If someone calls Petey (thanks pimpinshrimp for that one) remind him that last Feb. at our T.U. meeting he told us to go to the state and ask for a longer season. I did this at the Vancouver meeting in Dec. with a pettition of over 200 signatures.The letter we gave to them was very well wrote thanks to our T.U. president Todd Rightmire, but we haven't even recived a call from the WDFW on the issue. Also if Petey says that it is hooking mortality tell him that Bob Leland (head guy for WDFW steelhead) told me that they don't even worry about it on Boldt desision rivers. I don't know about you guys but the Vedder is looking better and better every year.