WILLAPA BAY CLOSURE

Dismal coho numbers prompting the closure of rec and comm fishing in WB effective Monday.

mmmmmmmm, not liking that news....

There’s not a lot of good news coming from anywhere lately.

Looks like nothing posted so it will likely be press released Tuesday for ? Wednesday?

"After consideration of all the data and advisor’s input, the Department will be issuing emergency regulations to close both the commercial and recreational fisheries in Willapa Bay. Commercial salmon fisheries scheduled to begin on Monday, November 11th will be closed until further notice. Because we were delayed in getting these rules through the authorization process today, the emergency regulation closing recreational fisheries in Willapa Bay will be forthcoming early next week. "

Yup that was my understanding Doc. That said unless it is posted it does not exist and it is a three day weekend. Must have hit a bump.

It should have been expected. The commercial catch Sept 29 to Oct 12 was about 16% of the modeled harvest. And I thought GH was bad at 30%!

That’s not been my personal experience getting up close and personal in the area. Last weekend fish were kegged up in tide water 4 fish in 1/2 hour sea lice shedding scales. Today worked the canyon water 12 fish for 2 rods. Buddy had 8 solo yesterday. Fish were a mix of new and old most probably from from the big freshet from a few weeks back. Last weekend tidewater on the W had fresh fish as well. General consensus from the locals much better than last year. Need some friggin rain!

Willapa Bay AND tributaries, or just Willapa Bay?

Clerk at Dennis Co Raymond said Tuesday, bay and tribs. Forks creek struggling to get fish back. Best to error in favor of the fish. Need rain.

As of Nov 7th Forks Cr has 2,301,000 Chinook eggs taken for a 350k release. It is about back filling the two Southern hatcheries. Gonna love next year when the only return to Forks Cr is off the 350k releases.

Coho it is 7710 return, 5553 surplused , and 1,421,210 eggtake as of the 7th. Also in 2018 51 wild into eggtake and 2019 it is 90 and the Escapement Reports show none passed upstream in the same years. Forks Cr is not the problem.

I checked the WDFW website for an update.

As of this morning (11/12/19), there is no indication of a closure on WB or tribs.

I won't be surprised if they close it, but for now they haven't.

I was going to hit the Naselle Rv for late run coho sometime this week, but given the low returns just about everywhere, it's probably not worth the two-hour drive from Vancouver to Naselle.

They have to jump through legal hoops. It is coming not to far down the road. Late today or tomorrow is my guess.

Took a peek at returns. Last year same date Coho were H5087 W110 and 2019 it is h7596 and w224. Actually and improvement over last year on paper.

Yes I’m still dazed and confused. Bay fished very well until the early rains in late September when they vanished. The gillnet fleet can attest to that. Oct 1 opener for the lower tribs fished well even now. Sounds like a closure because the gillnet fleet didn’t get the fish the rivers did?

A quick look at Forks Cr and Naselle hatcheries show numbers up in both wild and hatchery with the early rain. The Commercial harvest tanked due to the early rain. That is the easy part, now the difficult part. That the runs are coming in below forecast I think everyone can agree on but with the loss of Commercial catch due to the rain did the fish getting upriver not harvested make spawners likely get to escapement when the full run is in?

Next difficult thing, how many fish would be saved if Rec opportunity is shut down. Ten, one hundred, one thousand? As to wild escapement is this a make or break thing ? Keeping in mind that the Naselle has had huge hatchery straying is this even relevant? I am sure these questions will be raised by folks.

Here is the press release just out.

WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
https://wdfw.wa.gov/
November 12, 2019
Salmon fishing to close in Willapa Bay and its tributaries
Action: Closes salmon fishing.
Effective date: Nov. 13, 2019 until further notice.
Species affected: Salmon
Locations:
Marine Area 2-1 (Willapa Bay)
Bear River
Forks Creek
Naselle River
Nemah River Middle, North, and South
North River
Smith Creek
Willapa River
Willapa River South Fork
Reason for action: Coho returns to tributaries in the Willapa Bay watershed have been significantly lower than preseason predictions. These conservation measures are being taken to ensure escapement goals are met. Managers will continue to assess coho returns and re-open if warranted.
Additional information: For more information on other Willapa Bay fisheries, see https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations.
Information contact: Region 6 Montesano office, 360-249-4628.

This is puzzling but also consistent with other watersheds.

It’s puzzling since the preseason forecast was quite good. The ocean indicators were positive, the blob of warm water in the North Pacific was dissipating, the copepod counts were good, and the juvenile coho indices were high. All indications were that the coho returns would be reasonably good.

As such, bag limits were increased in many tribs. For example, the limit is four adults per day on the North Fork Lewis and three adults on the Kalama. The limit on the Naselle is (was) two adult coho per day, but that can include both hatchery and wild coho.

But the Kalama and the NFL are both a complete bust, and WB is now closed. Many other tribs are also showing very low adult coho. I expect more closures in the near future although it’s probably a moot point. Nobody is catching any coho anyway since they aren’t there. Closing the fishery likely won’t help meet escapement much, if at all.

And, to make matters worse, ultimately we might never know why the forecast was so good but the run was so poor.

Couldn't the giant, warm "blob" that formed off our coast at the end of the summer have something (a lot) to say about the poor returns vs. the forecast? Don't coho put on the majority of their weight in the summer prior to their spawning run? If so, it makes sense that a late season crash in forage could really hurt numbers and average size....

Whatever the case, I agree that it's discouraging to see the run underperform in a year where the best science suggested it should be very good. Suggests the best science might not be that great, and worse, it points to salmon being in even worse trouble than we understood.

I wonder where that mass of Coho ended up that were present quite a bit north of Westport in July? Fabulous fishing (I was there) and they were big for early summer fish. Lots of people were guessing that they were of the big Columbia predicted run and were stalled up north due to good feed.

Yeah...that. Swiftsure in the summer was positively JAMMED with coho, and retaining limits of clipped fish from 5 to 9 pounds was rather easy...they were already pretty good sized, and really abundant...they all went somewhere.

Fish on...

Todd

Does the bottom of the ocean count as "somewhere"?

I enjoyed EXCELLENT coho fishing west of the Columbia N Jetty with a buddy... hooking fish almost as fast as you could put the gear out. Lotsa fish fell off and there were lotsa wilds. Those never made it to the river either.

The 25-30 mile radius adjacent to Westport on the other hand was a virtual dead zone by comparison.

It would sure be nice for WDFW to see the light someday and just change the rules up to allow you to keep your first two coho, whether clipped or not in certain marine areas.
Hard to believe they think feeding the crabs is more important.....
SF