Marine Area 10 will close to salmon fishing

https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1706

I've been out three days this month in MA 10 and observed light sportfishing effort. I've hooked silvers but no chinook whether of legal size or not. It stretches my imagination that sport fishers have hooked enough native chinook to close a season after a couple weeks that was supposed to go through January.

How many chinook encounters occur during chum targeted saltwater netting?

Smoke and mirrors boys...smoke and mirrors!

I'm convinced that nobody really knows what the hell is actually going on anymore!

Muckleshafted again.

Now that area 10 is closed, what's going to happen when area 9 opens? How long will it stay open?

If small fish encounters are the problem, why not limit us to plugs or something so we can still fish?

I have been fishing in the winter in A-10 for 20 years and have never seen a closure like this. Is it intended to protect out-migrating smolts? I fished this weekend and caught several 16-18" shakers, these look like two year class blackmouth, not smolts.

And the seiners were out in Central A-10 yesterday....now that makes a lot of sense.....I feel better now.

I believe the sunset on this proposal is December... Things that make one go Hmmm?

Is this what you are talking about: https://www.facebook.com/MuckleShaft-860098050741480/

I just wish they would say it like it is instead of making excuses.

At least in the river closures for the Skagit and Stilly they said "Co-managers" made the decision.

This closure is DIRECT pressure from the tribes driven by an inability of the state to produce accurate and scientifically rigorous in season updates.

I wonder if the same reason holds true for fall/winter crabbing. According to the WDFW press release all areas reopened except area 10 with the only reason given, “Sport crabbing will not reopen at this time in Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton).”

It looks like some tribes believe area 10 is their own private fishing grounds.

They don't want you to fish for Coho because you might catch a king! NOT KEEP ONE! you might hook one and release it.
Now if you want to buy one and eat one now that is ok... just go on Craigslist...Puget Sound King Salmon for sale...

I have both Smoked and Fresh Frozen Alaskan Sockeye Salmon and a limited supply of Fresh Frozen Puget Sound King Salmon.
King Fillets: $14/lb. (packaged in 3/4lb. servings)

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/fod/5267687837.html

I sure am glad the WDFW is protecting our resource from accidentally hooking one on a single barbless hook "the most deadly form of fishing"

"Closure to salmon fishing until further notice is needed to protect Endangered Species Act-listed sublegal chinook salmon that are being encountered incidentally by anglers at a higher rate than expected".

WDFW model shows that of all the 56 possible fisheries that fish over the limiting Lake Washington Chinook stock in this state, 74% are killed terminally as by-catch by the PS tribes.

If I want frozen fish, I go to my freezer. No Sale.

Conservation to the Muckleshoots must mean everybody else’s responsibility but theirs.

According to the department, there was 2,385,600 pounds of Chinook harvested to date in 2015, which was almost split evenly between North and South PS commercials. Majority of these salmon caught in mixed fisheries and if divided by 15 lbs. average (maybe a little generous considering the size of the Chinook I caught in area 9 this year) there would have been a little over 159,000 Chinook caught commercially in Puget Sound.

The summer closure of area 10 and the cut harvest quota in area 9 for recreational anglers did nothing conservation wise but save a handful of paper fish. The closure and harvest cut that the WDFW and the Muckleshoots agreed to was ludicrous.

BUT OF COURSE, IMAGINE THAT, SURPRISE, SURPRISE,
the tribes and WDFW did agree to at least 159,000 commercially caught Chinook already harvested in PS this year.

The least they could do is reopen Area 10 and restore quotas next year for summer recreational anglers like planned at the last NOF meetings this year. Anything less is unacceptable.

Chop, Chop get busy Ron W. Start making smoke signals instead of blowing smoke up our ass as you did at the last NOF meetings.

The least they could do is reopen Area 10.

Agreed, since the fishery largely targets hatchery blackmouth, which we bought with our license fees. The smolts largely clear out in November, let's hope for a reopener or my boat may be for sale.

BTW, quite a few fishers have unfortunately not got the update on this closure....there were a few out front of my place yesterday, and quite a few shore fishers in Agate Pass. I'd hate to see someone get a ticket for this sham closure.

They are.......for chum.


Chum salmon fishing reopens in central Puget Sound beginning Wednesday (Oct. 28) through Jan. 31.

The area – commonly referred to anglers as Marine Catch Area 10 – was closed to all fishing on Oct. 19 after state Fish and Wildlife biologist said anglers were getting near the chinook encounter guideline ceiling.

State fisheries has now determined that a chum fishery in the area will have minimal interactions with chinook.

The daily limit will be two chum salmon. All chinook and coho must be released.

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Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @markkyuasa. Mark Yuasa covers fishing and outdoors in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm puzzled......since smolts generally occupy the upper water column and favored tackle for chum is a small herring or hootchie, how will this reduce interactions? Perhaps merely because of the general lack of effort on chum by boat bound fishers?

2015, the year of the Chumpy fishery.

First we were bombarded with our pink prospects for the year, next we were left picking up the Chums (pun intended).

The direct MSF of blackmouth is what seems to have govern the closure not fishing for chum.

The 2015-16 Co-Managers’ List of Agreed Fisheries (May 1, 2015 – April 30, 2016) is what governed this closure. The fishery regulations and fisheries controls below came from this agreement and hopefully answers most questions that were on this thread.

Fishery Regulations

The winter Chinook MSF in Marine Area 10 will occur from October 1, 2015 through January 31, 2016. Anglers will be allowed a daily limit of up to two hatchery Chinook. All sub-area closures included in the 2015-16 Co-Managers’ List of Agreed Fisheries will remain in effect for the agreed-to dates.

Fishery Controls

The preseason prediction of total Chinook encounters in Area 10 is 2,220 (FRAM 2115). WDFW plans to manage this fishery as a season, beginning and ending on the agreed-to dates (above). However, if in-season estimates indicate that total Chinook encounters are projected to be at 80% of the preseason-modeled encounters, WDFW will initiate co-manager discussion regarding potential fishery actions. WDFW will ensure that the fishery does not exceed 2,664 predicted total Chinook encounters.

WDFW plans to manage this fishery as a season.

So the set limit on total encounters of endangered spring and summer run Chinook includes encounters with winter blackmouth? Is there any data showing that winter Chinook in the sound include fish from listed runs?

We're about to get the shaft on blackmouth once again. From what I can tell, they are extrapolating their "encounters" based on their lone test fishing boat.

It sure has been a weird salmon year. Year of the Chumpy - I like that.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20151029/SPORTS/151028958/1004/Winter-blackmouth-opening-uncertain-

"Anglers also reported hooking and releasing a lot of chinook “shakers,” as they're called, during earlier coho-directed fisheries in central Sound. This swarm of juvenile fish is composed of both wild and hatchery (fin-clipped) fish. When these sub-legals are hooked and released, there is a certain percentage of mortality, used by WDFW to calculate the “take” of wild chinook, just as if they were adult fish, caught and kept."

So 10 is closed for the summer fishery, and then gets closed before any of our "2 fish per day" limits are caught...

What happens to those hatchery fish that were (at one time) allocated for recreational catch?

....Into the trashcan I suppose with the rest of the paper fish and bullsh!t.

Gillnetters are out in force in elliot bay this morning...

Guess we should just ignore those gillnets....

They're expressing their cultural right to kill sh!t and sell it.

Don't worry, it's natural.

The Muks net the Duwamish mon-fri every week from late September to Christmas. I'm not sure why they've pushed out into Elliot Bay this week but it could be other tribes have come to share in the bounty. Area 10 is the Muks private fishing area, they can do whatever they want to and then blame us when there isn't any fish left!

I've heard a rumor the WDFW may reconsidering an opening starting in December. Can anyone confirm this may be in the works?

Thanks!

The advisors had a conf call yesterday. Salmon will not reopen in 10 for the rest of the year, but Crab might on 12/1.

Any hope for a chance at 9?

I hear that there is a whole lot of “shaking” going on in ocean salmon fisheries at certain times of the year.

I guess the tribes and state just stick their collective heads in the sand and pretend that it isn’t happening.

The conference call from staff to commission today indicated to hopefully open Area 9 and 10 at the first of the year or when the sub legal’s clear out.

Higher than expected encounters of sub legal’s earlier didn’t help any, now they want to error on the side of caution.

Are they still test fishing out there to confirm/deny the presence of an abundance of subs?

Yes,

If anyone is interested in first hand information about Puget Sound salmon etc., just contact Ryan Lothrop, (360) 902-2808 who is Puget Sound recreational fishery manager for the WDFW.