Proposed Puget Sound Chinook Seasons

Looks like a very cut back MA7 season. Will also be curious on MA9 and 10 quotas, especially with the later MA9 start.

I'll bite. Where did this come from ?

11 closed in June kind of stings, but will certainly save a bunch of quota.

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And further keep recreational fishers away from any possibility of a White River springer.

Fishbadger, But the chinook quota for Area 11 will be about half of last year so the season will be very short. Lucky to get all of July and August in Area 11.

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And further keep recreational fishers away from any possibility of a White River springer.[/quote]

Umm...White River springers haven't been adipose clipped since the late 1990's. They get coded wire tagged but not clipped so they won't be taken in mark selective fisheries and hence increase escapement for stock recovery.

Thanks for rubbing it in Larry!!

Those springers were clipped for one or two years, returning a couple years back, and then they went to a no-clip program which is one of those incredible concessions the DFW has made on our behalf. I base this on conversations I had with the hatchery staff who were doing the clipping for that short duration, as well as on-water experience (the former possibly more reliable than the latter).

I didn't see how this year's quota compared to last year's. If it is that low, we seriously need to stop raiding the elementary school in the winter.

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So what are the proposed chinook quotas for 9,10 and 11, if anyone knows.

Also, anyone have a graph photo they can post of the proposed coho seasons?

Thanks,
SF

attached clumsy to read file has White R spring Chinook releases back to 1996 brood

Thanks Darth; that seems to reinforce my recollection about some White River stock releases having been clipped. I also recall that WDFW had been on the cusp of having a season but the tribes resisted at NOF and WDFW blinked. I also recall that part of the recovery goal had been to achieve a fishable return and when it became apparent that the tribes were going to continue to resist our having a season WDFW had to do an accounting shuffle to repay what I believe was the PSRFE fund - hard to justify using that fund to produce fish for which there will be no recreational fishery.

That leads to the question of what is the goal of WDFW's Clarks Creek (Puyallup) hatchery regarding Chinook? The WDFW spiel at the hatchery renovation ground breaking included statements that it's production would improve fisheries for all user groups in P.S. as well as the Coast. In reality it seems that Chinook will be White River stock so will they remain unclipped as part of the recovery program? And steelhead will be unclipped as also being part of a recovery effort. That leaves 300K coho; nice, but not close to fulfilling (in my opinion) the hype.

So, now that we have gone full circle I will ask why the June closure? Many ways to have a summer Chinook fishery and stay within quota - I just hope it isn't to protect an occasional stray Hood Canal fish or an acknowledgement (capitulation) that we will likely never see a recreational fishery on Puyallup River springers.

Stonefish, The quota for Area 11 is 2800 chinook. Half of last year. I don't know the quota for Areas 9 and 10.

Larry, I heard (from reliable sources)the reason for the June closure and the short seaon in Area 11 is, like you said, a few Hood Canal stray chinook are/were caught in Area 11. With the proposed seasons, I guess no one thinks those Hood Canal strays swim past the Narrows Bridge into Area 13. Interesting.

Larry, I need to correct myself. The Hood canal stray chinook thing was one of the reasons for the lesser season in Area 11. There are other reasons also.

Lifter,

Thanks for the info.
SF

To pursue the Hood Canal strays as a factor.....what is the likelihood that any such strays into south Puget Sound will actually find their way back to the Canal to successfully spawn? Versus becoming a part of the percentage of strays into any given river every year?

Edit: I should have posed the "what if" question: If those strays were to be considered irrelevant to spawning potential in their Canal river(s) and deleted from the modeling what would have been the result in terms of MA 11 (and any others impacted) season(s)?

Thanks for providing the info Lifter99.

The Hood Canal stray issue is painful. But of course they wouldn't pass the narrows bridge. I mean, have you seen how tall that thing is?

Darth, any data for Minter?

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I talked to a WDFW about the Mid Hood Canal strays at the Mill Creek meeting last month.
I was a bit surprised when I read the material they distributed and presented that those fish were present in MA 11.
I always figured they'd head north out into the straits or ocean if they strayed out of the canal.
My memory isn't quite what it used to be, but If I recall correctly, he said some mid canal chinook are caught as far south as the Oregon / California border.

He also mention something like 21 of 250 PIT tags from MA 11 being mid hood canal fish.

I have his business card if anyone would like to pick his brain a bit more on this and verify if I recall things correctly.
Drop me a PM and I'll get you his contact info.
SF

https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-04/2019-Puget-Sound-Season-Summary.pdf

Wait a minute, area 11 isn't being restricted due to concerns for straying of Hood Canal HATCHERY fish are we? I mean, that would be ridiculous.

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Thanks Doc. That doesn't mention Area 10 outside of Elliott. Area 9 opens 2 weeks later with a reduced quota. Sad.

Looks like I'll have some extra weekends for scouting the hills and yard work.

It's amazing what happens when you actually mark, and the recover, fish. There was a big tagging study done on chum, a while ago, when fish were tagged in area 10E. This is the East Kitsap inlets and it is considered the terminal area for chum that spawn in the local creeks. A bunch of the tagged fish (tagged as adults) were recovered at the Hoodsport Hatchery. They had come into 9, gone to 10, got tagged in 10E, went back to 10, then 9, down 12 and on to the hatchery.

As we put out more tags, especially the acoustic types that don't need a dead fish to check, we find that the fish are doing a whole lot of stuff that (according to the books the fish don't read but we do) that really messes up preconceived notions.

As to the White Rivers, you will remember that the Makah troll fishery took a lot of them in that "big" year.

It’s great news for ocean fishing and CR guys!! Increased coho quota! Sucks for everyone else downstream. Looks like reduced seasons, reduced bag limits on coho, chinook, pinks and, since it was over Chum that the tribes walked out of North of Falcon over, I bet Chum fishing is reduced as well.

Picked the wrong time to start fishing in MA7. Hard to swallow with commercial harvest staying the same or with a modest reduction and massive reductions in terminal areas.

Yeah, MA 7 is taking a huge hit. Not only lost Aug but also January blackmouth. All after losing Sept kings and December blackmouth in the recent past.

So what Are the details for MA 10? Is it going to be concurrent with Elliott Bay and that’s it?

MA 10 has a chinook quota of 3,057 fish this year.
MA 9 is 3,500 chinook.
Those quotas won't last long.

Very vague on the coho seasons so far, at least from what I have found.
SF

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/north-falcon/summaries#puget-sound

With those quotas, 2 weeks tops for MA 9 & 10. Sad, but 2 weeks is better than zero weeks like a couple of summers ago.

Super sucky.

Fish on...

Todd

Maybe I just suck at fishing MA7 but it doesn't seem like the salmon fishing season was ever hot/good until mid-late august thru september anyways. i know some people get the odd fish in July but its kind of a joke to even have it open at this point when my experience is lots of gas usage and good weather but no fish. Aren't most of the chinook passing thru the islands headed up towards the Fraser anyways? Are the Canadians managing for our rivers? Coho arent there in numbers until September (hope this is still open).

I guess my next best thing is to learn how to pull sockeye out of the saltwater reliably.

Blackmouth is a bummer but they are being consistent on all seasons so I cant be too mad. I've been doing the New Years day blackmouth for the past couple of years and that's just not gonna happen I guess.

Does anyone have numbers for the Puyallup and Nisqually? With all the reductions else where, there should be a ton of fish coming back. Last year in the South Sound there were a ton of kings. I had talked to a guy that said he through back 10 one day in October, trying to find some silvers.

I find it odd, and probably telling, most of the other rivers have the seasons included, including a new open season on Minter Creek, but these two rivers are left out. My guess is that the Seasons are very one sided and they do not want anyone to know about it until later in the year.

Not sure what the seasons will be on the Puyallup or Nisqually, but the chinook forecast numbers are 14,731 for the Puyallup and 21,047 on the Nisqually.

I noticed nothing about the Skagit seasons either other then spring chinook.
SF