Informative post.

04/3/2022

Early rains and moving fish "up river", what most Bay and fishers from 101 Bridge to Fuller Bridge forget is there is the Chehalis tribe and 30+ miles of river are also entailed to fish.

Rivrguy was a guy who pushed "many things" but one of his main planks was that upriver fishers for many years, had only limited fishing until the "brown outs" happened.

1960's, 70's. 80's, even in the 90's....fishing pressure in GH was spread out, matter of fact the "Bay" fishery was almost nil until WDFW split the Humptulips and Chehalis into 2 river systems. The waters below 101 Bridge was pretty much left to the NT fishers, enter WDFW, the change started....Chinook fishery, John's River to 101 Bridge, became a NT/Sports battle ground, during NOF.

The 2000 - 2021 years a couple of things happened:

1. More small boat fishing from Cosie Launch, yea some trolling but lot's of anchored boats doing the cast spinners and plug bit for Coho. The "Mall" bank fishing got started, a non-boat person had a place to cast from shore AND CATCH A FISH, right off the bank in Aberdeen.

2. Guide boats, not many at 1st then more and more...4-6 clients per boat, most put in at Fuller Hill BUT many did the Johns River or 28th launches.

Hatchery reform, Wild vs. Hatchery, many tribs. NOT making escapement, mmmm, what to do.....scary thoughts, ...... Steelhead past 2 years, all kinds of rules tried to complete closures, I've on Losee ass to get the WDFW "written plans" in the long run, for native steelhead......nothing yet BUT that battle is just starting.

Would be a bitch to have Fuller Bridge to Johns River, reduced or closed, until Hoquiam, Wishkah, Wynoochee, and Satsop start making escapement.......

What then???? Guess I'd learn to fish above Fuller.......then pray the Cowlitz comes back and the guides head that way again.....

This is what I would expect from someone who only fishes above Fuller. Yeah, I should get run off the river by guys with more horsepower then brains in our canoe? Fish crowds on an already overcrowded fishery?Been there, done that.(Not like we got run off the river, just got a bigger boat! lol ) Sell my boat to get a shallow river boat? I don't think so. I'll just advocate for the fish I can fish for. Ocean, tidal, whatever. Just like EVERYONE ELSE on this forum.

Last call and here is the WDFW link to GH NOF and at this moment no information has been posted. So before my screen melts I DO NOT KNOW WHY INFORMATION IS NOT PROVIDED WELL IN ADVANCE !

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/north-falcon/public-meetings

Just a reminder for the next Grays Harbor fishery discussion meeting. If you have not registered for this meeting please do so by clicking on the “Join Zoom webinar” link below:


• WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
Grays Harbor fisheries discussion
Additional discussion of management objectives and preliminary Grays Harbor fishing opportunities for 2022.

Join a public meeting:
6-8 p.m.

Join Zoom webinar

Visit our calendar event listing for additional details.

It's been a while since I witnessed a good, old-fashioned dog and pony show, and I am available tonight, so I registered. For those looking for the link, click the link in Rivrguy's post to the NOF page on WDFW's website, then scroll down to the April 6 meeting in the list of events to find the Zoom link.

Anybody have any thoughts at least most of us can get behind, so we can raise them frequently enough to at least annoy the presenters? I personally like the idea of a one-fish (coho) bag, starting Sept. 16 and going until we get shut down to protect the winter run steelhead that aren't there in December.

I'm basically looking for the longest season possible (harvest is about 4th on my list of reasons to go salmon fishing, so one fish is plenty for me). I think we're done fishing Grays Harbor drainages during December, probably for good, because there's no sane reason to expect either the wild steelhead or the late coho to rebound. Also, given the choice between the last 2 weeks of September and the entire month of December, I'm taking September every time, because those 2 weeks are reliably fishable and represent the best weather we get round here all year. In a typical December, we only get a handful of fishable days, and the weather's generally much less nice....

Obviously, I'll gladly accept more, but.... Anybody else have suggestions we would like to have WDFW staff hear and likely ignore?

Yes, I do. I agree totally with the Sept. opening, but let's not let them off the hook about funding for the Montesano launch repair. They should be lining up all the various ways of providing funding and keeping us informed as to where that is going. I don't expect work to begin tomorrow but i want to know how getting the funding is going 'cause it's going to be expensive and we can't afford to lose both the launch and the money already put into improvements.The person I have talked to is Brian Calkins, that is who the WDFW pointed me to to speak to this issue of transparency about current attempts to line up money. I asked him to attend tonight's meeting, I'll call again today to remind him.

screw the sport fishers over.. and let three gillnet user groups have at it!!!!!!

if they got rid of the cowboys they would make escapement !!!!

The state constitution states that opportunity is to be made for both recs and commies, I don't see how one group of stakeholders can be legally shut out of fishing. I agree that the state has failed miserably when it comes to managing the fisheries we have (short of razor clamming and trout planting in lakes) but shutting out folks that feed their families by fishing is not the answer.

04/06/2022

NOF is about fish!!!!! Well, only SALMON, No steelhead, no sturgeon!!!!!

I tuned in to the Willapa NOF, last night, same members of the public and NT speaking. SOS as most meetings related to this process since I started going in about 2012.

There were 5 or 6 proposals, from the general public or NT. NOF, in Willapa, has been a battle ground every since I can remember. WDFW was asked if they had any comments on the models or IF THEY HAD A PROPOSAL, WDFW pretended to act like they weren't ready with comments one way or the other AND they weren't prepared with any State model. Let's see if GH is any different.

Oh, meeting lasted from 6 - 7:30, when no more hands were raised....WDFW "zoomed right out". Early in the meeting, one of the NT, made a comment about needing to get back to public meetings........wow, that fell on deaf ears !!!!!

Boat launch....while it is a important issue, it is not a NOF item....should be put on back burner, until NOF process is completed.....IMO

Well, I have to disagree with the last bit, if we don't keep their feet to the fire on funding they will let this slide as long as possible and then actual work will not happen anytime soon. NOF will happen regardless. Maybe they CAN walk and chew gum at the same time, let's find out!

The boat launches are not part of harvest management but another division. Also it was a young man who does not work for WDFW ( or did not ) that got the grant for the improvements back a bit not R 6 staff. Also it is rather simple to get the launch functioning short term, long term I doubt it survives.

Just guessing looking at numbers one could go August 1 jacks / release Chinook and adult Coho, August 15 add retain adult Coho release Chinook through Dec 15 and shut down. The Hoquiam, Wishkah, and Wynoochee need to be protected and limited impacts for failing to even get close to escapement for many years.

As to after Dec 15 the combination of fishing pressures have damn near destroyed the wild Late Coho and nobody should be fishing below Fuller Hill after Dec 15. Sure the QIN impacts have been a major reason with the phony Steelhead season in Dec but remember it was the state under old WDG that created this mess and WDFW in its wisdom made it even worse with hatchery changes.

04/06/2022

WDFW is well aware of the Monty launch..... It is usable now, not like it was before that last high water, but it would sure work for the many persons that fish out of Westport and stop on way home to flush the motors out.

In the "old days", people parked to the West side of the bridge and even under the bridge itself, but then people parking all the way to the hi way, when fishing derbies were a yearly thing.

Actually the "young man" who wrote the grant application for the Monte launch WAS an employee of WDFW, he retired last year and I got that fact from his boss.

No idea Bob as I only talked to the guy once but it was in the paper and several folks locally supported the grant app in writing.

I'm not surprised it was publicly supported, it was a win for the community.

Well, I went and got sick last night and forgot all about the meeting. What did I miss?

The state recorded it, I'd suggest looking that up rather then get someone's personal condensation and perspective on what was said.

Condensation? Better check your vocabulary.

But glad you attend the meetings I guess.

Another comment from someone I truly love ignoring. What? No dark side has you bored again? Go back under the rock you crawled out of.

I have no interest in anyone's personal condensation issues. I recommend a good anti-perspirant for that.

I guess I was hoping for discussion; you know, the kind we have on FORUMS..... I see there's another thread on NOF. Maybe there's no grumpy, old troll guarding that thread and people are permitted to have discourse.....