cowlitzfisherman.. I don't know where you are fishing but right now there is a commercial fishery for spring chinook in the lower columbia.using the tangle tooth nets wich have a mesh of either 5 or 5 1/2 inches. The problem is they are netting during the day when most steelhead traveling occurs. they should be netting at night while steelhead are holding and the chinooks are moving. Just a case of one step forward 2 steps back. Although these guys are supposed to be releasing wild chinook and steelhead by catch who knows how these released fish are being handled....

Steelhead holed up at night? Major upriver movement of steelhead occurs at night, especially during full moon cycles or clear high lit nights. I read an article in STS last year about tracking Steelhead movement by the use of electronic monitoring devices.

The fact that glowballing is so good to me during high lit or full moon cycles has me believing!

FJ...out.

Cowfisher...has it got crazy with sleds yet down there?

Robert Allen3
The fish that I am talking about are not from the Cowlitz!
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Fish Jesus

I have to agree with you about steelhead moving at night. And no, the fleet won't get bad until the springers show up. Water flows are running about 8400 right now and are expected to drop back down by next Monday.

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

Cowfisher, what is optimum flow for it...lets say just north of you...E mail me If you like>

Thanks

FJ...out.

My new sled had broadened a few options!

Is it possible they were chased by sea lions?

Cowlitzfisherman I know you said that.

No, I have seen my share of seal bit fish! These fish have the typical net marks that rap around the body and some fin damage. One fish had both sides of its gill plate torn and bleeding and the other two had deep cuts located just behind the pectoral fins. It may be possible, that a small net mess is causing the deep cut marks. Do the tribes have to use the same size nets as the commercial does? If so, who makes them adbide by any rule since they are not subject to white man rules or laws on their lands, or are they?

Since the Cowlitz has not been legally netted by any of the tribes, I have not really brought myself up to speed on this issue. What are their rules (if any), and who makes and enforces them?

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

Personally I would recommend taking a camera with you next time out and trying to take pictures of these markings. I'll bet that your local DFW biologist would like to see these, as if this is due to the tangle nets cutting into the fish somehow due to the small diameter then this could be disasterous for that program.

Cowlitzfisherman Were fishing below you and the nets are in sunday noon till fri 6pm Thats the Q nation .There net marks are normal marks, now the Chehalis tribes nets are mostly junk and they use anything that works is my guess. Bathtub

Ive fish some of the chehalis river and some of its tribs and have caught many native steelies with net marks on them and also a couple springers with chunks of net still on them. The biggest problem with the nets in the chehalis is once the tribes are done with them they seem to get tossed in the river and roll along the bottem until they hang, and they just keep killing fish until they fall apart or get destroyed. Ive seen chunks of net not being fish still stretched half way across the river. Whats it goin to take to get these nets out of these rivers.

I have to agree, I almost lost a boat due to hooking a net on the bottom with my anchor. I have also seen numerous nets laying on the gravel bars and in the river most of the time during the year. The Chehalis Tribe says they are doing a good job managing the fish, yea right.