Had a question on what is the river doing. Well water is perfect tides are ok and Chum are on the move. Watched Sealions get four this morning in open water and they are all moving up with the incoming tides. According to averages over the years about half or more are Coho mixed with the Chum. It has to be a good sized school of fish to have the furry buddies staying right with the fish so upstream from Central Park has a bunch of fish coming. Now that is not going to last as the QIN netters are going in and that will thin the herd out a lot.

Ran the sled down from Porter quite a ways on Saturday.

Original plan was Fuller but a totally full parking lot made me think I'd rather fish in peace.

Not many fish around that we could find. We did get a number of jacks on eggs and two adults, one semi bright and one firetruck buck. Jigs and spinners were not making it happen.

Talked to a guide with two clients that hooked one Chinook on the oakville float.

Bite was best 12-4 or so.

Did some looking around and here is what I came away with. The QIN had a catch of Coho and Chum mix last week. This set is mostly Chum in fact Coho are scarce. Sealions are coming well up the river past Higgins Island following the fish coming with the tides and the splashing and seagulls say they are doing well. So it looks like the Chum are coming in numbers but Coho not so much at the moment. I have asked for the NT and QIN numbers but have not gotten a response but if I do get them will post them right away.

Did some looking at numbers and not good. The hatchery escapement after harvest was modeled at 26,089 hatchery origin. So far it has 9703 Coho adults and folks that is not a good number. Using the average over years we are supposed to have 65% give or take of the normal timed Coho past the tribal nets. Sooooo considering the Coho have trailed off in the tribal net fishery it looks those of us who had the sinking feeling that the 111K Coho forecast was a bit of a reach is looking to be true. Have to wait some for the state post more hatchery escapements to do a comparison on what the wild escapement is doing.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/hatcheries/escapement

Little Edit: I have asked for the NT and QIN harvest numbers but I was only provided the first NT set and they are posted on WDFWs website. I hope the numbers are provided but ........................

Took a look at both the Satsop hatcheries Coho returns. At about 17K and 2500 jacks which looking back is about what it was the last couple years. Thing is the QIN & NT commercials missed most of the Coho run those years so not having any harvest numbers makes it almost impossible to say how the Coho runs are doing. Guys I have asked twice for both commercials landings and all that is available the days of 10-2 & 3.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-10/weekly-escapement-10-31-2024.pdf

Guys I do not know why the agency is doing what it is doing or why but as said I will ask again.