2015-2016 fishing regs

Anyone know when they come out?

Sometime in June. Last year's brochure is good through June 30. You have to depend, unfortunately, on WDFW press releases about saltwater openers to get your fishing dates correct......

Mid to late June.

Typical Government work at play here. They had to reprint our massive Area 10 and 9 screw job into writing. How hard is it to delete text copy from Sporty seasons? Must take a long time huh?

Free doughnuts in the WDFW break room if anyone is interested.

They are preparing, as usual, a whole new pamphlet. Last year's, for example, wouldn't have much for pink seasons. As noted elsewhere, they changed the dates of the pamphlet to begin July 1. That means anything in there for salmon, which might be covered in NOF, was based on no credible information because it was done in 2014.

Everybody should recognize that spring/early summer salmon seasons will change. Ideally, WDFW should probably do a separate pamphlet for salmon. Make things easier to understand and cut down on news releases for changes.

Funniest, yet most horribly tragic post of the year.

Anyone else remember when the Federal fiscal year was changed from
1 July-30 June to 1 Oct-30 Sept solely to allow Congress time to agree to a budget? That sure worked well, didn't it? Will be watching to see how this reset works out.

I believe that the doughnuts where managed into extinction.

And what alternative would you propose?

Bagels?

Fish on...

Todd

That would be an improvement

Rec'd the following email this afternoon. If you want to see the proposed WACs for fishing regulations, follow the link below. The salmon regulation proposals start on page 133. If you're going to want to follow the regulation process, you're going to need to sign up.

*****************************

Good Afternoon,



The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing rule changes for recreational salmon fishing. The agency developed these changes through a pre-season planning process known as “North of Falcon” that includes a series of public meetings with federal, state, tribal and industry representatives and other concerned citizens. Rules based on the North of Falcon planning process change from year to year to reflect resource availability and achieve conservation goals.



The CR-102 and proposed WAC can be viewed and downloaded at: http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/regulations/development.html.



In accordance with RCW 34.05.320, a public hearing will be held on Wednesday, June 9, 2015, at 9:00 a.m., at the Natural Resources Building, Room 682, 1111 Washington St., SE, Olympia, WA, 98504.



Please also be aware that to reduce paper and associated costs, from now on this information will be provided through email and public news release. To continue receiving this information, please sign up at this website, http://wdfw.wa.gov/lists/, and select “WDFW Regulation Updates.” The public news release will continue to provide contact information for those that need a hard copy.



In case you are unable to or do not wish to attend the public hearing, you may submit written comments to me, Charmane Ashbrook, as shown below. WDFW must receive comments by June 9, 2015. For an electronic or printed copy of the proposed rules, please email me at Charmane.Ashbrook@dfw.wa.gov or call me at 360-586-0734.



Charmane Ashbrook

600 Capitol Way N.

Olympia, WA 98501-1091

via e-mail at Charmane.Ashbrook@dfw.wa.gov

via fax at (360) 902-2183.

Not to pick too many nits, but NOF is a negotiated process wherein the State and tribes agree and the Feds adopt (for Federal waters). So, there really is no "propose" about this, is there? This is simply adopting what was agreed to.

If they change anything does that void NOF?

Recent developments in the rail, oil, and coal industries have brought to light the true meaning of "public hearing." Bear in mind that while they DO have to "hear" us, they don't have to act on our behalf. Also germane to the conversation is that hearing and listening are very different capacities....

Part of the process for this years publication is to find the right wording for the termination of more steelhead fishing, shutting down of more area's for access and of course, additional closures on more rivers to accommodate tribal netting.

And yes, public hearings sole purpose is to create the illusion that the sheep have a say to the butcher. They (the power brokers) have already done the deal with their cronies. The sheep get Fu#@ked.

Recently there was a proposal for a two pole endorsement in a portion of the Chehalis. In the WAC 220-55-220 it is not there. Did the QIN veto it? Or does anyone know what happened?

None of the changes to the Rec seasons in Grays Harbor were in the NOF bit. No idea on what is up.

Hang in there......Rivrguy gets credit if and when the 2 rod endorsement is finally approved and adopted. I also get some credit for pushing 12-15 years to help sports fishermen, I just didn't have what it took to get the job done. Rivrguy and I just happen to be neighbors and have been going to ALL the NOF meetings for both Willapa and GH. Lots of miles, lots of meetings.....lots of information heard over and over.....The ball is in WDFW's court, they just need to "get it done".

4/3 will long be remembered as the tool that helped "fish" make escapement AND allow the in-river sportsmen a chance. This must stay in the GH Management Plan !!!!!!!!

I received the following response this morning from Ryan Lothrop, WDFW


For starters, you can send folks to the List of Agreed-to Fisheries on our website contained within the Fishing regulation section of the website (http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/) which the actual link is: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/tribal/2015-16agreement.pdf. We apologize for the delay in getting this document online as there are a lot of components we needed to be sure were correct prior to posting online.

When writing in my comments, I noticed written comments are due by June 5, 2015.

Just thinking out loud, I'm trying to figure out if the recreational industry took the Area 10 chinook closure to court, why the court would not agree that singling out and closing one fishery out of 56 that fishes over the Lake WA stock would be anything but arbitrary and capricious.

I called WDFW, Olympia.....this morning, 5/18/2015 and got the following email back.....part of which I'm posting...

Hi Bill,

Following our phone conversation, I spoke with Steve Thiesfeld (Region 6 Fish Program Manager) and learned that the document you request, Coastal Freshwater Exceptions WACs (includes Grays Harbor), is not yet complete. When it is finished, a CR-102 will be filed and you will be sent notice. The goal is to file this Wednesday, May 20th .


So it looks like Wednesday is the earliest we can expect some kind of a answer.

Just hope the Wednesday news is positive for the vast majority of sport fisherpersons.

Herd the hoh closes tomorrow till August and some parts till October..... There goes some summer run fishing. That sucks

Only the upper stretches and the mouth, the areas within ONP, are closing I believe.

Fish on...

Todd

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/articl...-south-fork-hoh

For sure, it was recreational anglers that destroyed the springer run on the Hoh. This is a prime example of fish managers working together to get to the root of a problem and addressing it as effectively as possible... or not.

The worst part is that they open the mouth up in September, when all those summer Chinook are still milling around the tidal reaches. If there is a significant recreational impact on those fish, that's when it happens.

What the Hoh needs is a year-round, no bait, C&R regulation, with the possible exception of October-November, where it should be safe to bonk a couple coho.

It's really frustrating to be one of quite a few sportsmen who have been writing legislators, park managers, and tribal leaders, urging them to implement protective rule changes on those fish, for years now. Do it now, before the only option is closure was the mantra we repeated every spring. Seems closure is the easiest option for the Park, the Tribe, and WDFW, so that's what we ended up with.

They might as well close the Queets now, too. There aren't a ton of people fishing the Hoh in the summer, but those looking for a similar experience will likely default to the Queets, where in recent years, the Chinook runs have been in terrible shape (even in the fall). Better close it before the horde of bloodthirsty sport fishermen descend on it and start killing fish with reckless abandon....

Managers get all worked up over paper fish numbers. They do not see beyond production. IMHO all lower river harvest needs to be stopped as well.

The Hoh is controlled by the ocean. As long as Hoh fish are taken in the recreational fishery in the ocean there will continue to be net fisheries in the river for "balance". Regardless of run size or stock status.

Oops. Read it wrong. Same rules as last year. That still sucks, but at least the whole thing isn't closed... yet.