Sockeye or No Sockeye, that is the question

What does everyone think, the numbers are getting pretty close. Will WDFW make the call to open the fishery?

Nope. Numbers are dropping drastically. At this rate, escapement may or may not be met by the end of the month. 100,000 fish are STILL needed. Once the numbers drop down below 5000 per day, you're running out of fish AND days. Thinking there would be any good sized quantities of surplus fish is waste of time.

Also, it's way too late in July and way too close to Seafair. That last thing WDFW wants to do is haul in all their enforcement for a 1 or 2 day, 1-fish fishery for the Lake. It's a real pain in the butt for them. I bet the folks at Mill Creek are just praying the numbers keep on decreasing.

Just my prediction, though. Who know. Last time I said "no way", there was a fishery. Maybe that's why I didn't get in to fisheries management.

so do the natives get to net for the sockeye, no matter what the numbers are? if so, i would keep a sockeye if i caught one, its only equal, no matter what color or race, a fish is a fish..

The numbers have really increased the last week or so . You never no we may just get one this year. I can remeber one year when they raised the limit of two fish a day to six a day. sitting out in the boat and watching the blue angels practice overhead 10 fish in the boat for two people and 80 degrees. That may have been a trip of a lifetime for sockeye but we can only hope. Even WDFW cant estimate correctly they predicted 90,000 for this year????

When the natives get to net, which they are right now, it is called netting for "ceremonial purposes". Who knows what that means? Just another weird a$$ way to justify native netting activities.

If the Tribes are netting prior to the escapement goal being attained, they are fishing for "cerimonial and subsistance" (C&S) purposes. This is a limited fishery for tribal uses, including religous purposes. As far as I know, the fishery is not for commerical purposes. That can't happen until the escapement goal is reached (300K or whatever). So the tribes can't sell C&S fish. I would hope they would significantly restrict their C&S take until it is apparent that the escapement goal is within reach. Even if they don't, they're not taking alot of fish. But that is probably beside the point for most anglers.

Lastly, it is safe to assume the escapement goal for sockeye is determined by evaluating the capacity of the spawning grounds for the adults and the productivity of Lake Washington for the juveniles. It's not a difficult calculation for a salmon biologist but biology is probably not the only factor that goes into the estimate.....

Here's some information on sockeye fishing (dip netting) on the Kenai/Russian. At some point in the distant past, it's possible Lake Washington sockeye stocks were like this. It's an example of what it can be like when these fish are abundant.

http://alaskaoutdoorjournal.com/Reports/Fishreport/anglerreport.html

i've asked this question befor but never got a response, if the escapement goal is 350,000 and the fish checkers at the locks can add and subtract as quick as a fish can swim foward & backwards why is it when you go to issaquah fish hatchery they are loading fish, eggs, intact into 4'x4'x4' wood crates with a truck waiting with a very popular cat food name on the side? apparantly the state makes more from the surplus, but not enough form the sportsmen and is this why there is hardly ever a season, seen it my self fish, eggs 4'x4'x4' and crates waiting

Doug, the fish you see in crates at the Issaquah Creek hatchery are silvers and chinooks, not sockeye...the great majority of the sockeye coming through the locks go up the Cedar R., not up the Sammamish and up to Issaquah. Of the ones that don't spawn in the Cedar, they mainly spawn in Bear Creek, or in Lakes Washington and Sammamish, being the only salmon that can actually spawn in lakes. A few go up pretty much all the streams that go into those lakes, too, including Issaquah Creek and Tibbets Creek, but not many.

Coho Angler, the sockeye run in Lk. Washington is not an indigenous run. It was introduced, I think, in the 50's. It's never been any bigger than it was in the mid- to late-70's, which was pretty big.

Also, if the Muckleshoots are netting for ceremonial purposes, they're only going to take a couple of thousand fish. A drop in the bucket when we're talking 300,000 to 350,000 fish.

Fish on...

Todd.

I want to be part of that religion. Ya know, the one where I can catch fish for religious purposes, the same fish that no one else is allowed to catch. Sign me up!

Geez its only fish and are there no other fishing opportunities available? Yes there is... all around you. Dang dead horse arguments. Love my cell phone... helps to cull the law breakers out of the sportsfishing community....as we got enough problems without their help ! Boat numbers are great.....quick trace to find address of owner and patrol will be waiting at the door .