So Why is the Nooch closed to Gamefish

10/26 has it closed to Salmon
10/30 they added the Willipa system and closed both Grays harbor and Willipa system to all fishing
11/06 they open select river sections.
I call and am told the Nooch is closed to all fishing, and may remain so until they have thier egg take for Steelhead, and the run has not even really started....
What gives?

No hatchery Coho ( thanks to not getting the Mitigation done ) so the only thing left in the river is salmon. The Dec Steelhead season is in reality a late Coho season be it Rec or Tribal and natural Coho are in a bit of a failed return. Now after Jan 1 your fish in the river will be Steelhead and I imagine there are concerns that the Steelhead will perform similar to Coho which is a drastically reduced number available for harvest.

Extrapolating the coho return to predict hatch steel would be a bit of a stretch, no?

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Yup but it goes like that. They get the brood from the dam trap and I do not recall them not making eggtake. I imagine it revolves around the QIN Steelhead fishery in Dec which is in reality a Late Coho fishery. I guess it could be a reaction to the you fish I fish thing.

At least for now, part of the justification for the complete closure is they don't want hooking mortality on the coho while game(steelhead) fishing. As Riverguy said, the wild coho returns are in the $hitter this year.

Keeping it closed til' steelhead egg take is achieved? I don't agree with that all. For one thing, there's nothing to indicate a poor steelhead return at this point. If returns are grim by, say, the end of Feb….then close it. Too keep it closed after the coho are done, when it has a sizable hatchery winter run, and leave neighboring rivers open doesn't make sense………will they re-close all the GH rivers then until egg take is met?

Well let's see:

From the Hatchery report, as of 11/09/15

Summer run......Van Winkel Creek-----664
Wynoochee Trap------112
On Hand Adults-------154
Surplused--------------569

I'm betting there are summer run that some would like to catch, not me, but surplus/kill just doesn't make any sense on what is a high priority for many sportsmen.



That's all I have to say...on this topic.

This doesn't make me happy, as the Nooch is my best local winter steelhead fishing option. That said, if our inability to fish for steelhead means the QIN can't fish for "steelhead" in December, I'm good with it. Last I checked, they were planning to fish for "steelhead," so maybe it just means we're getting shafted again. We'll see.

Salmon and steelhead bite similar stuff, but the presentations are usually pretty different, and I've only personally encountered one late coho while targeting steelhead on the Nooch in Dec.-Feb. I'm pretty sure it survived the 10 seconds it was hooked before breaking my steelhead leader like it was a noodle. I think the "you fish when we fish" thing is playing a part in this, but as I said, as long as the QIN isn't fishing to protect salmon, I'll accept not fishing to protect salmon.

The Nooch was loaded with summer run steelhead right before the closure, all hatchery fish. Maybe a lot of them were hatchery strays but there were a lot of them. My step son hooked 32 two days before the closure. I feel there should have no closure on the gamefish, only how we were allowed to fish for them. Selective Fishery Rules, no bait would have been sufficient to protect the salmon instead of closing the whole damn thing.

I just don't know how they can lump Coho and Steelhead togather on predicting runs, Coho go who knows where, and don't steelhead cruse the coast line.
I did not really see a drop in Columbia Steelhead, it appeared to be a longer sustained run. Numbers not far from predicted, But it was my best year to date, boat wise, with over 300 to the boat.
I can see if they don't want pressure on the Coho in November. But if the Quin's go back to netting Wk 48, then the gamefish should also be opened Dec 1st.
But overall this past year was awsome for both food and game fish, Maybe not Coho, but kings, starting in the Spring never ended thier push....Awsome

It appears that Region 6 doesn't look out for the interests of the constituents who pays their salaries. It isn't necessary to close the Wynoochee to all fishing in order to protect wild Wynoochee coho. Closing the river to all fishing means a decision was made to leave a few hundred hatchery summer steelhead to spawn naturally in the system instead of removing as many of them by sport harvest as possible.

And the idea of leaving the Wynoochee closed until the steelhead egg take is reached doesn't pass either the red face or chuckle tests, not to mention the professional ethics test. How many salmonid populations does R6 manage on the basis of "no fishing until egg take is met?" For hatchery fish, that would leave only an abbreviated season on fish nearing sexual maturity, and for wild fish that would mean no fishing ever, since "egg take" would mean no fishing until after the spawning season is over. Matt should call the office again and ask for a professional answer.

Actually, we know were they go. Coho are essentially costal in the ocean, which is why the fisheries out there hammer them. Steelhead hit the high seas, way off the coasts. In fact, WA steelhead go over almost to Asia.

According to the WDFW In Season Hatchery Escapement Report as of 11/9/2015 shows a surplus of 562 steelhead returned to Van Winkle Creek and 62 surplus steelhead at the Wynoochee dam trap. Granted I do not want a summer steelhead to eat this time of year either but I would like an opportunity to go catch one. Any more we all buy our license just hoping we will be given an opportunity to use it.

Salmo, since when did R6 have red face, chuckle, or professional ethics tests?

I plan on calling back next week when Region Bio gets back from out of town meetings. I voiced my frustration, and was told I need to speak to The Bio that made the decision.

So staff was not told why the decision was made? Good communication there, to be sure.

Salmon and steelhead bite similar stuff, but the presentations are usually pretty different, and I've only personally encountered one late coho while targeting steelhead on the Nooch in Dec.-Feb. I'm pretty sure it survived the 10 seconds it was hooked before breaking my steelhead leader like it was a noodle. I think the "you fish when we fish" thing is playing a part in this, but as I said, as long as the QIN isn't fishing to protect salmon, I'll accept not fishing to protect salmon. [/quote]

Interesting because I have never caught one, maybe because I fish "Run-n-Gun". I would guess things will change soon after this blowout.

Nooch may be the exception among the Chehalis tribs since it has summer steel available...

BUT...

For the most part, there are exceedingly few winter steel to be had until the last week of December. In the meantime, the system will be full of wild late coho... a species of conservation concern in 2015. The conservation concern for wild coho has been severe enough to warrant closing the entire system to not just salmon fishing but ALL fishing. Yes a handful of reaches in hatchery-producing tribs has bee re-opened for hatchery coho, but the rest of the basin remains closed at this time. The million dollar question is when to re-open for steel?

Looking at tribe gillnet data, when they start their so-called steelhead season, the encounter rate on steelhead is an order of magnitude less than late coho..... 10:1 with coho predominating.

It's not until the last week of December that it swings the other way 10:1 with steelhead predominating.

So if we want the QIN to suspend their fishery to lay low on wild late coho, the state has no choice but to do likewise.

The best indicator the state has for late coho is the late return to the Satsop hatchery at Bingham Creek. We don't really get a good feel for how well that late run is doing until the after the 3rd week in December. At that point WDFW can determine if the late coho run is of sufficient size to warrant additional H&R impacts from a rec fishery for steelhead.

If we're going to re-open, my advice would be to wait until at least Christmas to target steelhead in the Chehalis Basin. It's the intellectually honest thing to do.

Don't really disagree with any of that rationale Doc…..and I'd be fine with waiting until, say, Jan 1 for a steelhead opener.

The dome scratcher is what Matt shared……a complete steelhead closure until egg take is met. Several good arguments above why this is bogus.

Word on the street was the QIN were preparing to net in week 48, the last week of Nov. How do we reconcile a closure then?

Co-managers will soon be having some "uncomfortable" discussions to address just that.

Doc of those late Coho, how many are returning to the Nooch, I start fishing it about the 7th of Dec for Steelhead and have only encountered one coho after that date, but have had some success on Steel, with the bag being 95% nice hatchery fish, split about 50/50 summer to winter. So I do understand that the Basin is concerned about Wild Coho, But I am only asking about the Nooch.
With the river having little to know access above Deb's this year, alot of early fish, Hatchery, will be out of reach if they wait to open it.
Sure would be nice if Green Diamond gave us access to the gravel bar below Bob's Bridge, it already has access to it.... But I am not holding my breath.

I am okay starting new years day if this a true conservation closure.

I'm a below Black Creek drifter or bankie depending on the flow.

Seems pretty easy to "protect stocks", in late October and November....shut down the fisheries.

Challenge is, in this basin, always affect the up river fishermen.....I just don't see ANY MOVEMENT to restrict fisheries below Cosie to allow even more fish than 4/3 provides for.

Late Coho, yep has been a fishery of mine for a loooooooooooong time. At one time, I could count on 1 hand the amount of people fishing on these fish, most people, on the Wynoochee, the Satsop, and even the Humptulips were in fact fishing steelhead.

Something changed....now seems to be more in search of these fish....more guides, more out of area jet boaters, and more drift boats....parking lots have been full.

Was really shocked when the Humptulips was re-opened......A river that has NOT made native/wild Coho escapement numbers in 20+ years......whats with this??????/

If we have to sit on the side lines, I hope all parties are sitting. But if they to are sitting, I hope they don't pull the missed opertunity card, and want to net 7 days a week to make up for missed days on Steel to protect Coho

What it really would be is missed opportunity to get at the late coho which used to be a run of BIG coho back a few years. I am sure that they will not put nets in before January 1, because according to their press release they are "conservationists and stewards of the resource".