Worst Chehalis ever

Logged on to post this: worst oct. ever. Fish above the Skook since 1995, never before zero bites, zero rolling/jumping fish. Who ever the h..l is supposed to be the "steward" of this river sucks...
Eye fish for governor - NOW !!!

Is it not a little early up there? I have seen great numbers of Coho on the tributary I fish, best I have ever seen in fact. I always thought that the upper Chehalis was more of the end of October into November fishery anyways. They were a little late down here, if they show up in the upper reaches, it could be in huge numbers.

Unless for some reason the Chehalis got permission to net? I think I heard someone say they put nets in last week.

PERMISSION?

YGTBFKM, right?

They do as they please and effectively have ZERO communications with the state re seasons and/or catch.

WDFW looks the other way

The fish were a little later than usual getting up there, but the last series of rains got things going (as good as they're gonna get going, that is). Last time I was around Oakvilke, we saw fish on the move, but they weren't stopping to bite very well.

If the Chehalis drops back to fishable levels (might be a while), it should be a lot better up there.

Personally, I don't think the runs are a ton better than expected this year, despite the fact that some people have been catching nice coho and assuming that means it's off the hook. Even in the case of the Lake WA coho fiasco, while the run was clearly better than expected, it still fell below the 10-year average. I think we should be glad for two things:

1. The runs are better than expected.
2. The generally cautious (okay, maybe over-cautious) season setting outcomes may have prevented us from overfishing somewhat depressed runs, which is a bad thing that we do far too often, in my opinion.

If the rivers drop back into shape and are full of big, bright coho, that will make three things.

And yes, the Chehalis Tribe fish when they want to, mostly unchecked. I wish they cooperated with the State better, but they get corked off pretty badly (on the river that shares their namesake) by the QIN, just like everbody else in the entire basin. I'm much less pleased with the QIN fishing over an entire drainage, all of which lies outside their reservation, than I am with the Chehalis Tribe fishing on their reservation.

One must remember that the weather skipped October & went right to November, which is a bit of a bummer. Coho looked about like last year after harvest but steadily came through did not stop, poor biters ( lock jaw mostly ) and staged up mostly the flats below the Satsop and above Fuller a ways. It was on time and moved normally but is simply a small run. With the rain the normal Oct staging fish shot up in fact Bingham has fish and they have not watered up yet. As these fish are 3 to 4 weeks from spawning they will be hanging out a bit.

Chinook were nothing like predicted but came right through like the Coho and hard to get unless you were in the right place with the right thing. The last rain as the river browned up everything moved and for two days I was out you had more Chinook than Coho in the river. So we will get to fish on what is going by now and not the front part of the run staging. It makes a huge difference.

One thing. This idea WDF&W can change seasons on simple catch reports from Recs is simply a really big reach. If they do that someone will sue them in a minute. It takes hard data and only hard data as yours, my, or anyone's opinion is just that a opinion. In fact the QIN & state have in most years a clause that says they will not change the preseason forecast. Now WDF&W can shut down our fisheries minus QIN consent but again data or to court and the state will loose. As to expanding that will be a cold day in hell the QIN agree to that and the key is they have to agree to change the preseason forecast. Nothing so far indicates that the Coho return is smaller than the QIN preseason Coho numbers ( QIN had a smaller prediction than the state ) or larger than the states number which was a few thousand larger.

With the bay and tidal fisheries blown apart odds are that the lost opportunity ( and resulting moralities ) will help toward escapement for both Chinook & Coho which we should make judging by what has went through tidal water so far.

Morality aside, it's gonna be a damn GOOD escapement week for Grays Harbor tribs.

By the way just so all know the worse Chehalis had a escapement of I can find came in around 7433 NOR's in 1994 off RR in the preseason model forecast model.

On the trib bit Doc has it. Look at the flows up and down so once this bit is past yup it is above tide water or tribs. The fish will pull up on the drop as they have a lot of time to go before spawning. http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/

I've been trying to get a pulse for this run based on personal experience (n=1).

After it opened up, fishing was easy. We caught lots of fish, but struggled to get keepers.

The most recent brown-up and drop should have produced great fishing in south Elma. Based on the flow and color I took Wed off of work to fish above the Satsop and expected 20 bites before lunch, but could barely find any fish hanging out in the normal locations. We found them in one or two stretches eventually, but it should not have been anywhere near that hard on Oct 12th.

The standard opinion is that they are moving when you aren't seeing them flop around, but I think they just weren't there. Pretty surreal to be in some of these stretches on Oct 12 and never see a single sign of life. Hopefully it was just a blip and things will be normal after the next drop.

True that RR, my trolling boat & crew (below South Monte) had 13 fish to hand & had to release them ALL!!! 10 were kings & over 20 takedowns or bites since the opener!!!

The only time I actually netted a fish was in another boat below the Satsop & we limited while releasing 3 fish by 1 pm. They were everywhere & jumping, no mistake where to be fishing.

Don't get into too big a rush to do an in-season reg change, boys.

1) Hatcheries are still behind on returning broodstock.... yes even with all the glowing reports and recent high water.

2) The escapement goal is based on WILD fish. Hump hasn't made wild e-goal for coho in over 2 decades.

3) Historically Chehalis side is predominantly WILD coho, by a factor of 4-5 to 1. You think it's hard to sort thru all those fish to harvest a ONE FISH bag on hatch coho, how many more WILD fish would you have to sort thru to get a second HATCH.

4) Some would say just put a WILD fish in the bag limit. That would be fine as long as there is hard data to support a WILD run-size significantly greater than the PSF. There ain't, so it's not.

Just for $hit$ and giggles, suppose that data DID exist.

QIN/WDFW would have to come to technical agreement on the new and improved run-size number sufficient to add a WILD coho to the rec bag. Guess what? That number would probably also support 3-5 days a week of QIN netting.

Careful what you wish for.

How about finding actual with out a doubt proof that all of the Chehalis river watershed hatchery smolts are 100% clipped.

They are and are not. I am sure a few out of the million plus get buy unclipped from handling in clipping but not much. They do run groups with CWT's that are not clipped to run a blind math test on harvest / survival comparison to the model. Citizen egg box fry are not clipped also. If your thought was that many thousands of smolt go out unclipped you would be wrong with one exception. Somewhere back I recall clipping a trailer not being available and they ran out of time or something.

Chehalis and Willapa NT and QIN fishery totals are listed in the following web address.


http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/salmon/landings.html

The numbers have NOT been posted since 10/01......why not?????

Its not like its a rocket science type of situation....get numbers from either QIN fish house or WDFW fish buyers, call in the totals to WDFW Region 6, Region 6 calls them in to WDFW Olympia.....Then the numbers are posted on the above web address...

NT Netting Schedule for October 2016

NT Gillnetters.... Area 2C, 10/17, 10/18, 10/30-31

Area 2A/2D--10/24, 25, 26

I like to know the numbers that both gillnet fisheries are having....might answer some of the questions, that people have up river.

My question was due to releasing 13 fish in 2 weeks of fishing since the opener.
We had over 20 hits (bites or came unbuttoned), brought 13 fIsh to hand & had to release them all. Where were the hatchery fish? In 20+ years of fishing the Halis that has never happened before. You have more faith in WDFW doing things right in region 6 than I do.
Thanks for the response Drifter.

Misguided:

This has been MY worse year in the Chehalis, for legal adults. My years of fishing the Chehalis goes back, just about 50 years. Did I catch adults, yes I did, but until last Wednesday, 10/12/16, they were released fish.

I spent too much time fishing jacks, adult fish were "staged" above me. What was different this year, not many adults were caught where a lot of jack fishermen were fishing. Past years, there have always been adults caught while fishing jacks.

I fished the Chehalis, just about EVERYDAY, many know the area that I fish. For some reason, this year was like no year that I can remember, where past years would have "rolling and showing fish", this year just not many.

For me, spinners, plugs, twitching, just didn't seem to work. Eggs worked great for jacks, this year the jacks were good size. The river level affected my fishing, spoon fishing. Once we got some water, hooking fish increased......but still only one legal Coho.

Old ways, old places wasn't where it was happening....I just need to adapt, quicker and learn to fish with "the mass of boats"

Water is WAY UP, soon as it drops to a fishable level....I'll be there!!!!

A good bit of it was that when Coho go right through the bay and up river to stage without pausing they do not bite well until they come to a stop to stage up. Hatchery fish have a tendency to be less aggressive than wild due to hook & line harvest ( ocean / all ) steadily removing the aggressive ones in any year and over time. All that said if the wild component is in the head down and run up mode the hatchery fish will mirror the behavior but on steroids but they will stop and you can get them. The key is finding out where they are staging. Get them there while newly arriving they can be caught.

The perspective of the dudes low-holing both of you.

Very few adult coho encounters compared to a usual year... that's because the bulk of the fish had already flushed upriver before we had our first chance. The bay fishery has been entirely dependent on new tide-fresh fish as all of the buildup in September was LONG gone by opening day Oct 1.

Within that cohort of new tide fish encountered by my vessel, the ratio has been 2.5 wild : 1 hatch. Three coho did NOT make it to the net, so if they were all wild, it could skew that ratio closer to 3:1.

A typical year, the ratio for Chehalis coho is 4-5 wild to 1 hatch.

So yes, that makes for very little keeping in a mark-select coho fishery. It is what it is.

I agree that every year is different and we must adapt to conditions or go crazy trying to do the same things & expecting different results.

I have probably seen you on the river a number of times up river (Keys Rd launche) but I mainly troll in the early seasons down by the mouth of the Nooche to Friends Landing.
Good luck when the water starts to recede.

Misguided:

I know your area WELL, at one time 100% of my Chehalis River fishing was trolling, Lukin's to Central Park....back and forth....over and over. Early 70's we trolled spinners, Flash-Glo, Skagit Specials, etc. then came the plugs, Wiggle Warts, Tadpole's, then the larger plugs Kwikfish, etc., at that time no one trolled any herring...that was even later.

In the day, South Monty boat launch was FULL.....there was no Friends Landing.....you had to get there early, just to get a close parking spot.

The change in access, opened up different methods to ways of fishing...I adjusted very well.

Coho and Chinook jacks with light gear, in fast water, can be a kick in the ass....spinners and plugs around "wood", can be fun, sitting on the hook with a spoon out, can be both boring and then lot's of fun.

2015 a truly bad year......shut the whole Chehalis, then opened the tribs. in areas I thought should have been left closed.....but that's history. Leave the Chehalis River, the Satsop, to the current closing dates....I'll be happy........

I've had my best luck on brined herring while trolling but have had some success with spinners. Have not tried anchoring yet but if I get tired & sleepy I may just give it a try.
I do take to the upper river when the lazy fishin down below subsides but with the new 18' windshield boat I'd hate to wrap it around a submerged stump or ground it on a gravel bar around Porter way... I sure do miss my 16' Willie Predator for this area.
I caught a few jacks from the bank but my bank days are few & far between anymore.
Truth be told my boat did way better in 2015 than this year, in the first 2 weeks of the season we killed 17 fish (mainly hatchery fish). It was like TPTB stretched gill nets across the river on Oct. 1st with no fish for a week then they closed it.

I learned a lot from an old local who was willing to teach me this fishery, I sure miss that ole coot!!!

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, they do whatever the fuk they want when they want to do it. bastids.

Went it drops I will of course give it another go. I take the dog down to fetch sticks all the time & rain or no about mid sept there's a king or 2 rolling in their same old spots, this year nada. We have had enough luck in the past right after October 1 on coho to convince ourselves to to take the poles down but even with the little rain we had before the last deluge, we saw nothing & had no bites for 2 + weeks of effort ... Hopefully the last gully washer forced the nets out & then we can see if there really are any fish.

Tribal net schedule says they have been out since Sept 27?

NT gillnetters are scheduled to net 2C, well just finished 2 days 17 and 18 but go in again, 2C, on 10/30 and 10/31

Chehalis side, 2A and 2D...10/24, 10/25, and 10/26....7 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Take a look.
http://www.quinaultindiannation.com/fishingregs.htm

The QIN catch was very small.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/salmon/landings.html

Yep... they've essentially taken off the entire month of October to lay off the horrible coho forecast. They plan ONE 48 hr opening for the absolute peak of chum and that's it.

Indeed, the QIN had a lousy fall on the Chehalis.

Looking at the reports, I realized they took about 6,000 steelhead last winter, in a year where it was tough for most to find any, and I was reminded that my very favorite QIN fishery, the "Winter Steelhead Fishery" will be in full swing soon... late coho be damned.

Make that TWO good escapement weeks

This keeps up, the peak chum may get a free pass, too.

I see that WDFW has already posted the "netted numbers", from 2C, wow, that is a quick posting......

October 17 and 18th

17 Chinook, 15 Coho and 16 Chum

That's a chum directed fishery???

no its a all you can catch ,,no matter what

Deploy chum-appropriate mesh at a time/location of predictable/peak chum passage = chum directed... regardless of what actually gets caught.

No. A directed fishery is defined by what it takes. They intended to take chum but actually directed the fishery at Chinook and Coho, as they made up 2/3 of the catch.

Perhaps a test fishery was in order, given Coho and Chinook concerns. Chum fishing occurs when the species of concern have cleared.

chum are similar size to coho and a good percentage of GH kings. It's more of the region 6/QIN kool aid that's worked it's way into our thinking after decades of [Bleeeeep!].

The QIN seasons were modeled and conducted to go after Chinook and once we have week 40 posted up on the website ( no I do not know why it has not been put up ) we will know a bit more but it appears the Sept rain moved the summer Chinook resulting in the QIN fishing on the down side the summer's curve. The QIN fishermen in the first 3 weeks did poorly on Chinook but wk 39 really picked up which is the front of the fall Chinook run. They stayed out of prime Coho weeks as the NOR Coho were the restraining stock and chose to use their share of the Coho impacts to take Chum. The state NT Commercial will do the same.

The Springs & Bingham have between 8 & 10k normal timed Coho back which looks to be a bit higher than expected for this place in the run. Early yes but now that everything in the bay and tidal is up it appears to be the Coho return is above forecast but not massively for this point in the run. Now we wait fore the Nov part to see how close things are.