? of the day

what % chance do u think we will get to fish in December.. and why.

i'll start by saying NO cause WDFW dont like it when they are called out on certain things so thats how they punish the sport fishers.

11/18/2022

I'm guessing its a "no go for the whole season". If the past 2 years was to protect the "wild steelhead and help increase the run", 2 years just isn't going to do it......maybe 10+ with no one fishing on them, probably many more years"

Stop plants of winter steelhead, that are in the river at same time as Wild/native fish. Begin massive plants of summer steelhead, bet it wouldn't take long for people to adjust.

Big guide boats wouldn't like it but the Cowlitz is there.....both winter and summer.

Shut the coastal rivers, January 1 - late May.....nets and sport fishing, Wild/Native might have a recovery chance, maybe?????

Let's see what the WDFW "brain trust" comes up with????? We'll know SOON !!!!!

It will be open to bank angling with no bait, Barbless.

well if we’re doing “Opinions “. Plant more fish as Research has shown they do Not harm spawning runs. And of course 70 years of Hatchery plants did not ruin anything and all those rivers where hatchery plants were stopped have Not come back, Nisqually Wind pilchuck etc etc. not the number one river that should have roared back the Skagit which will be closed again this year. And then keep the rivers that are doing well open, solduc bogey etc and closed the ones that are in bad shape.
Just 2 cents.
Liberty and Freedom.

I'm all in for the state to discontinue planting winter steelhead. Replace with summer steelhead and spring chinook, especially on Puget Sound rivers.

With the closure of all the northern MA for winter blackmouth, there should be some surplus White R. spring chinook numbers available that could be fished on in river.

Still have BC and AK for however many they take.

Since the springs from White R and Minter Hatcheries aren't ad clipped the only increment to escapement from black mouth closure is from reduction in release mortality. Fat chance there would be a river sport fishery on unclipped spring Chinook in the White/Puyallup/Minter Creek no matter what the surplus amounts to.

Short-term, count on more of the same. Single barbless baitless boatless limited to when there’s a reasonable expectation to harvest hatchery fish

Long term, the answer is predicated on good monitoring thru HONEST 2-way communication between the users and staff… AND finding $5.9 million to fund it

Actually there are sufficient White River Chinook available for a recreational season. Problem is the tribe (Muckleshoots?) objects to having them clipped (still in recovery mode so not clipped) even though the tribe is harvesting them.

11/21/2022

$$$$$$$$$$$ talks, behind closed doors, the emails and phone calls must have been "a internet overload" .

No way the current practice is going to EVER bring the State fish back to historical levels.

"Washington designated steelhead trout ( Salmo gairdnerii) as the official state fish in 1969. Fishing is a major industry in Washington state (and steelhead trout is one of the most popular fish for recreational fishing)."

Can't have "catch and release fishing, plus tribal gillnetting" and expect a recovery of Wild Steelhead to reach historial numbers.

Any steelhead fishing, coastal rivers, December to April/May, is a another "Nail in the coffin" of Washington State winter steelhead.

The planter trout. New state fish. Put that on yer license plate.

Most of the trout fisheries in WA are based on stocked fish, whether high lakes or low lakes; especially any of this fisheries that are "quality" in terms of fish size. We know that is the case with anadromous salmonids too, with the obvious exceptions of Brook trout, Searun Cutthroat, and Pink Salmon.

IF we want wild fish then we have to preserve and restore great swaths of habitat. It is a societal choice. At the same time, we know that wild stocks can't sustain high harvests so we have to find ways to limit the total impact.

Years ago Bob Behnke wrote that a wild Inland CT population could take a kill fishery that was up to 60 hours angling per acre per year. I think this number has since been more fine-tuned by species (ie browns can sustain more) but the concept is sound. If your C&R impact is 5%, then you get 1,200 hours angling to kill the same number of fish. Sounds like a lot.

A stream that is 10' wide, which is not a lot, has an arcre every 4,400 feet (approx 3/4 mile). Over a 100 day summer season that gives 12 hours fishing per day. It doesn't take too many families and holidays to push up to 1200 cumulative hours.

Further, managers in New Zealand are seeing impacts to "sore-mouthed" Browns that survive C&R but end up eating less and are skinny.

If we are to have quality fishing on wild salmonids it, in my mind, requires a significant investment in research as to how we can best manage our fish and significant investment in intensive studies on the food chain and habitat interactions. We are managing from too great of a knowledge deficit. I think, even more significantly, is the deficit in communication (both ways) in what is going on with the fish and ecosystem.

I often wonder if certain fisheries will/should become lottery type opportunities. No doubt guides would hate this, but then again I also feel there should be a cap on the number of guides for certain systems.

The whole “it’s my right to fish for wild fish” is totally incorrect. Same with fishing out of a boat. I understand for some people it’s hard to step in and out of a boat, but this is an OUTDOOR activity. If it truly limits impact (which I believe), it is a good thing on certain populations.

You don’t see people clamoring for wheelchair accessible elk or moose hunts. They’d be rightfully laughed off the internet.

Here's another attempt to "think outside the box." We invest millions of dollars in salmon hatcheries to rear fish that are mostly harvested outside WA state or commercial fisheries in WA. The ROI (return on investment) to WA recreational fishing is very low. Add to this our extremely low hatchery steelhead smolt to returning adult survival rates and we have another example of an extremely low ROI.

We already know that the best hatchery ROI in WA is the trout stocking program for lakes. If I had the current cost information, I would run the numbers to see how viable it would be to raise hatchery steelhead to adult size (6 - 10#) for release into selected waters for steelhead "put & take" fishing. This couldn't be widespread, at least initially, due to concerns about interbreeding. Maybe use triploid steelhead.

If I could, I'd stop raising hatchery salmon for Canada, and switch that rearing space to raising steelhead for WA recreational fishing. Hey, I'm just brainstorming here. I don't know what the "best" solution is, but spending millions of dollars to raise fish that don't accrue to recreational taxpayers and license buyers has got to be the "wrongest" alternative ever.

Does Washington receive anything in return from fisheries taking place in Alaska/BC?

11/22/2022



Ya, probably a request from Alaska/BC to raise even more fish, so the Alaska/BC fishers can rise their standard of living even higher.

I'm not aware of any money flowing into Washington State coffers!!!!!!

Don't forget how many of the people, both commercial and sport, catching our fish off AK and BC are from Washington and points all over the mainland. I do think AK probably owes every state that produces hatchery salmon for their ocean fishery some sort of compensation for the critical tourism dollars it generates, but it's not really accurate to say Alaskans and Canadians are harvesting most of "our" fish; it's mostly people from around here who benefit, especially on the commercial side....

I like Salmo's idea. I believe Rivrguy can chime in on just how inexpensive it is to raise large mykiss as there used be a volunteer program in GH that put a few toad "legals" into lowland lakes. It might take some creative rearing as we know the escaped Atlantcs weren't much as sport fish. At the same time, I think there is, or was, a rec fishery targeting escapees in Columbia reservoirs. Probably some sort of limited entry but could work really well on streams heavily impacted by reservoirs. And triploids should eliminate genetic concerns.

yes we do a major screwing

As noted above, many commercial fishers and guides are WA residents. Hence, the income the generate catching fish in AK supports them here. WA also benefits (somewhat) from the travel costs of flying to AK from SeaTac, gear purchases, and such. But, they do contribute nothing directly to raising those fish.