Gillnets in Grays Harbor?

Have the QINs started netting the river this season? I haven't seen for myself and the annual rant hasn't begun on the BB. Maybe they aren't going to? (Dream on...)

they have not stop netting. they basically net the chehalis year around for something 5 days a week

I think the better question to ask is when aren't they in the river.

I went to Westport yesterday and their were several gillnets near the mouth of the Chehalis.

They have been there, and the folks in South Aberdeen by the "oars" have been manning their nets more than they have in the past. At least the sea lions aren't killing as many fish as they have in the past when the nets were left unattended.

Lots of fish moving through, as evidenced by my observations of 10-15 fish netted per hour at this one location. It has been that busy for them for the past two weeks.

Hopefully they aren't doing as well upstream.

The annual rant, was 2-3 months ago. Doesn't do any good, they just fish thier 5 days a week, or more if the river has been "unfishable".

Wish I could find out what the ratio of wild to hatchery is???? Really to bad, they don't have to keep track......sure would be nice to know if the wild run is "increasing".

Dogfish.......do you watch them pull the fish???? Can you see if they are "hatchery or wild"????

Pressure on the "up trib. of Chehalis has been "the worst I've seen" and I can fish everyday. Unbelieveable the amount of people that "have time off during the week"....10+ guide boats working one of the rivers on Thursday and many today......wow!!!!!!

I am about 30-40 yards from them when the pick their net, and I'll usually stop and take a look at the fish when they land the boat. Yesterday the mix was 75% hatchery and they had about 30 fish. They run fish over to the fish house a few times a day. Didn't see them sell any, but I have seen them sell 4 or 5 in an hour once or twice.

I've seen them net tons of silvers in that spot.

I've been look'in too. I go over the chehalis bridge in Aberdeen everyday on my way to work and peer over at the location dogfish speaks of.

December-mid January, for whatever reason, was not heavily netted in the Aberdeen area. About the only steady net in the water was that mentioned above. Things have changed the last 2 weeks. I now see during the week at least a couple boats at a time drift netting the harbor before and after work along with 4-5 set nets at traditional spots along the bank.

Dogfish's 75% hatchery ratio ought to be shifting shortly to more wild......bummer!

This year has been an odd one, that's for sure. I've heard that the tribe is after crab, and has transfered most of their effort towards crabbing instead of their steelhead season. In recent years the ugly salmon gillent season runs right into the uglier steelhead gillnet season. This year was the best December I had seen in the past 5 years.

As far as the wild vs. hatchery goes, it gets pretty blury. Two years ago the QIN announced in early Feburary that they may have already overfished into their wild portion. An article ran in the Daily World and drastically the numbers of wild fish dropped. If I remember right they were averagin something like 400 wild steelhead every two weeks, the article ran and their numbers dropped to something like 100 fish every two weeks.

We all know that in February the wild numbers should be ramping up, not going down. So after the season ended our committee got the final catch numbers which were as ugly as we expected only to find out that the final numbers really needed some minor adjusting before being released to the public. So fast foward to December the following year to Montesano where region 6 WDFW is holding a public steelhead meeting. Wouldn't ya know it, when it came to the slide of the QIN final winter steelhead fishery the numbers were a little different.

About 500 fish different if I remember right. Something like 500 fish taken off the wild component and added to the hatchery side. So what's up with that region six Bob's? Well after the season the bio's took some scale samples from those wild fish and found them to be of hatchery orgin. So who cares of it's a wild fish to you and I and anyone else, the tribe goes by what the scales tell ya. And I guess we've got a good number of un-clipped hatchery fish making it into the nets. I know I've seen a fish or two that wasn't clipped that I would swear was a hatchery fish, but regardless of my opinion the law says it goes back, and that they did.

Be thankful for the lack of effort this winter, hopefully it's a sign of what's to come in the future? Yeah right! Sure seems like it has made a difference in the fishing...

Harbor Hog

Why can't the Federal government stop the natives from netting protected fish? I'm sure I don't have the complete grasp on things here, but it doesn't seem logical to allow this netting on wild steelhead on the chehalis. A majority of the river flows through State land and several tributaries have state hatcheries on them. If the State was to petition the Federal government for support in removing them, is it possible they would have a prayer? It sure seems to be a conflict of interest that your tax dollars and hatcher dollars raise fish for the natives to intersept. The State needs to step up. There is not a river on the Oregon Coast, excluding the Columbia, that the natives net winter steelhead. We have tribes on the Siletz and many other rivers, but no nets.

Maybe we could all agree to spend an extra couple of hundred a month at their blackjack tables and in return they pull the nets by the end of Jan???

how has that worked out?

To put this in perspective for the Chehalis the QIN is entitled to 50% of H+W+Summerrun. % year average at the 2015 / 15 years was Non treaty sport 5894 with 90 non harvest mortalities. The Chehalis Tribal numbers are part of the NT side with W 372 H 438 = 810 for a total of 6794 NT share. QIN was W 815 H 1498 resulting a average harvest impact of 2313 and this included a 2% drop out rate.

The end result is the Non Treaty harvest is 2.94 to 1 over the QIN impacts. Frankly I do not believe either of the non harvest mortalities be it REC C&R or QIN drop out rate. That is a different thing as to sharing but C&R allows for a far greater REC impact than our 50%. Just sayin.

Couple of folks asked if the Summerrun harvest are in the numbers I posted. I do not know but will ask when staff gets done with NOF but I do no think so as it would be under a different title in the harvest reporting. Would this change the sharing % between Non Treaty and the QIN. Of yeah and my guess is the total Rec harvest would end up near 4 to 1 in the Non treaty favor.

You took the bait.....

Not really I worked with the fish for 25 years and do not have a dog in the fight. It is what it is.

Sounds like the commercials get to keep hatchery kings in the Chehalis (2A/2D), can someone tell me how that's fair when sports have to release them?

I posted this a sometime back.


On the Chinook keep total NT Commercial Chinook impact is 106 with 24 being hatchery. Keep in mind that the hatchery Chinook are broodstocked Satsop from the supplementation program to maintain the Satsop and not a true hatchery program as found in places such as Willapa. The Rec harvest utilizes its share in C&R vs kill which from my seat is proper as the policy dictates it and frankly if allowed to do a Chehalis kill fishery we would blow the numbers in record time and be off the water. The NT Commercial season will be primarily Chum 12,655 and Coho 4239 with the few Chinook impacts very low and incidental.

they should have to release all chinook, you know, if the short soak and live boxes really reduce mortality. It would look way better if nothing else.

I go to all the meetings, to me it is MORE IMPORTANT to have time to fish.

If sports were allowed to keep hatchery Chinook on the Chehalis side, the total amount of people fishing from Johns River to Fuller Bridge would blow though the impacts allowed in short order and the river would be shut down/closed, that could be just a day or two after opening on September 16.


I'll take a Coho fishery that goes until December 31, than to worry about a few Chinook in the NT gill net fishery.


If a person wants to fish and kill a hatchery Chinook......When head to Willapa or do the Humptulips fishery.

Totally agree with you Drifter WA, but if sports aren't going to keep them, the commercials shouldn't either. No king retention should mean no king retention for the state side of the user groups, and if WDFW was cognizant of and working towards "everybody getting along" they would have the commercial fleet releasing all kings if nothing else to remain consistent and not create ill will between the user groups they manage.

NO RETENTION SHOULD MEAN NO RETENTION FOR ANYONE...no matter what nation you belong to.

And that would depend on what the non-retention rule was for. If pure conservation, then there should ne no retention. If for allocation, just because you chose to kill your there and I choose here doesn't give you free reign to kill here too.

The no retention in a targeted fishery is driven by the 3/5 provision of the GH policy and has nothing to do with the QIN fisheries. Rec impacts would blow apart the Satsop and our numbers in a minute. If the hang up is we can't so they can't is a valid thought I guess but frankly that is a little short sighted. Staff followed the GHMP to the letter and the NT Commercial used what small share they were allowed in that manner. It is about the GHMP and numbers not if you feel is fair or not.

I'd druther the NI commercial weren't killing wild Chinook, but I'm OK with things as described by Rivrguy for now. The long game needs to be the end of the NI gillnet fleet, which is an anachronism by any standard. It has simply outlived its utility, the management costs exceed the exvessel value, and the treaty fleet will be around for a long time to fulfill whatever commercial fishing need exists. Meanwhile, a productive coho fishery in the harbor is something I've been missing lately.

Totally correct! Bob R