Hoodsport chums are 100% hatchery, right?

Just want to be sure. I 'd rather not target/bonk it unless it's a man-made fish, born and bred for my sporting pleasure and paid for with my tax and license dollars

Regards.

Finegrain
Woodinville

to split hairs they're originally wild fish.... but to answer your question, if they're outside the hatchery and caught in the hatchery one, they're hatchery fish. No reason for other runs to mill around in that area unless they're headed to the hatchedry.

Wild ones just scoot on by to their natal stream.

There is a summer run of chums that goes up Finch Creek and those are lifted past the hatchery barricade so they can run upstream. About 100% of those should be past the hatchery now.

I always heard that run was produced specifically for the netters.

At the time the hatchery was created it wasn't known that hook n line could catch chum.

The Hatchery Zone is a meat fishery. It gets the bulk of chums that return to the Canal. When the Skoks net in the Zone you would think that hatchery was made just for them.

There is also another hatchery south of Potlatch that gets a good amount of chums a little later in the year.

Then there are the chums that go up the Skokomish.

EZL - you said not to bother around Hoodsport on Wednesday. Is there nowhere to target these fish on that day? How far do the nets run? I was hoping to get myself a few. See you Sunday. BTW- where do you want to meet and when? I will be bringing a friend with me as well.

I've witness that tribal netting and it is ugly

Busy, you can bother going out there on Wednesday. I am just trying to give you a heads up on what you could find when you get there. It can be very ugly!

EZ and/or Capt - can you tell me more?

I am just now opening my eyes to what the tribals call being "friends with nature", especially their disregard for it. The whole netting thing has always bothered me as a scuba diver (we're all mortally scared of nets) but I really dont know much of what goes on.

the fish-in kinda woke me up to what REALLY happens.

You can PM me if that works for you better...

The only wild chum run in Hood Canal is the summer run, these winter fish were imported from Puget Sound (Kennedy Creek I think) and released from Hoodsport to start an expoitable fishery after the summer run crashed from overfishing and habitat damage. Winter chum have adapted and are now spawning in all Hood Canal tribs in numbers much greater than summers, and in my opinion are causing further damage to the summer run by digging up their eggs. So yes, kill them all in good conscience

On another sorry note, the anoxic conditions in Hood Canal that have killed off much of the bottomfish and other benthic biota, including shimp and likely crab, are really going to be exacerbated by the inevitable dumping of egg-stripped carcasses by our beloved native freinds. There is already way too many nutrients in the Canal for the poor circulation conditions to process, and adding any more would be criminal. Betcha they will, though, thats how they are

So you have some documents regarding those nonexistent wild fall chums in the canal Spawnout? Not looking for a fight...just like to know what you based that statement upon?
Also there's so far been zero documentation of any dieoff of fish, crab or shrimp in the canal. The only thing so far has been some hyped up media quotes. Just wondering as I happen to live on the canal?

http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/do/oct02/oct2102a.htm

it must be more than hype if the WDFW has shut down the canal to allow only fishing for salmon.

you could always call morris barker and find out.

The WDFW web page for hatchery escapement documented summer chums coming into the Hoodsport Hatchery and being lifted above the hatchery "dam" to upper Finch Creek.

I've seen them there in years past and always wondered how they got up there. Found out a couple of weeks ago on the WDFW web page.

I'll bonk my share ...
but if it matters to you be aware that salmon runs stray by nature (timing and location), so the odds are in your favor they are hatchery fish but never say 100%.

After all, if salmon didn't stray there wouldn't be ANY in Puget Sound since the last glaciation approximately 10,000 years ago.

Busy, The indians use a giant seine net and take over the fishing areas. The permise that there their fish is something I just can't grasp right now seeing they drive on the roads and don't pay any taxes for upkeep or am I wrong? now if there is a surplus, ounce the egg quota is met then let's produce less just my .02 Is their netting schedule still mon. through Wed.?