Is anyone even working down in the Region 6 office or did everyone take the month off? No word on anything.

nope!!! they won't say anything.. they figure it is what it is deal with it.. thanks for buying a license hope we can sucker u in again next year.

there wont be a winter run season at least for another 4to5 yrs.

just saw on facebook.. the chehalis rivers will NOT be open.. they said they talked 4times with the Quins in the last two weeks and no go..


i doubt they didn't even talked !!

You have to go to Facebook to find that out? If the Chehalis rivers are closed then send out an email saying so. Obviously the QIN (I think) are not planning to fish the Chehalis this winter. Lots of surplus hatchery steelies to die in the lakes again next spring. How exciting. Can't wait.

I remember when we used to think that about the Nisqually. Now, here we are 30 years later

I just don't understand the setting the "usual and accustomed to" season when the regs don't come out until summer, then closing the rivers down at the last minute, when WDFW probably knows they're going to close it down anyway from the get go. Seems dishonest at best.

WDFW wouldn't do anything dishonest. C'mon. The QIN doesn't need to fish now because they are getting the Fed "hardship" money with the low fish prices. So if they don't fish the recs don't fish and here we sit. WDFW let the recs fish for coho in November when the tribe wasn't fishing. Why doesn't WDFW let the recs fish for late coho now until the end of the month? If only hatchery coho ok. Selective gear rules ok. Did WDFW get cold feet with the tribe or are they worried about public opinion of them? The public opinion ,confidence level and trust in WDFW by the public is at an all time low now.

Since sportfishing isn’t a limiting factor on wild steelhead, I’d like to see all the rivers open. Make them all selective gear rules, catch and release on wild fish while allowing hatchery fish retention.
Have them open when folks would really like to fish them, in February and March. I know this is a pipe dream and WDFW will never do it, but I’d love to fish my home rivers the Green, Nisqually and in particular the Puyallup again during those times.
As mentioned, we’ve been waiting 30 years for the Nisqually to open again. Closures may sound great for the fish but they certainly haven’t created any future fishing opportunities.
SF

From a very negative, very snide view of the closures, consider this. When I was still working as an officer for WDFW I "met" people frequently fishing closed waters/closed season not by mistake but for a good opportunity. They were just going to go fishing no matter what, and would pay the price of a cheap ticket, in order to keep fishing where and when they wanted. And they were seldom caught. The Nisqually during late winter was a good example of this. So, the rivers are still open to a few that will risk the payment of a cheap ticket - cheap as long as you don't kill a wild fish.

Transparency? From the state? Good luck fellas. Little slice of, you get what you vote for. Until that changes, dont expect anything else to.

I will give them credit for keeping the late coho open until the end of the season. It was the right move to make with what we already knew.

Tug, to your point. I was talking to a couple of guys a few weeks ago when coho fishing was open. They told me that they were going to fish for steelhead this winter even though they figured it would closed. They weren't going to keep any fish and were going to fish with selective gear. They didn't mind paying the fine. They just wanted to go fishing.

16 x 48 Aluminum flower box for sale, could later be used as a fishing boat but I highly doubt it.

Looking at the Quinault Tribal web site, it is unclear as to whether or not they are going to open the chehalis. There regs only say an emergency closure till the end of the fall coho season, Nov. 30. There is no scheduled opening now for Steelhead or late coho, so it is unclear if they are not posting it or actually have it closed. The Copolis and Moclips show the same thing.

The Quinault River is scheduled for a full commercial and sports fishery. The Queets showed commercial through this week, with a sports fishery through March. I will try to remember to see if they issue a continued commercial fishery on the Queets.

I am not sure that they get many Steelhead off any of the Chehalis system, so it may not be economical to fish, so why bother. I met a tribal member a few years back who said that he was the only one with a permit to fish the Copalis and Moclips for Steelhead. So again, the economic impact of closing them is minor. And with the low numbers, most members would probably don't bother spending much time rec fishing them, since the on reservation rivers are so much better.

Krijack, the reason that the QIN has not scheduled a net season beyond November is because they are waiting for the Federal hardship relief money to come in. Or they have already gotten the money.

12/13/2023




Well, must be a person that assumes all the netting is done from gillnet boats!!!

I remember days in the distance past, watching Humptulips gillnet fishers set their nets. The net was set so that one end of the net was right on/next to bank and that the outside buoy was just inside the major current line. Most of the nets were set down river from a point of land "up river", that forced the majority of water outside the buoy line.

I waited until the tribal member "picked the fish"....yea there was some small crap in the cork line but many times the net was "jammed", with fish. The higher the volume of water flow, the closer to the bank the fish travel.

To this day 99.9% of my fishing is where I can't/don't have to, view either a gill net or a set net being used. I dislike netting that much.... Grrrrrrrr to all nets, used in all rivers!!!!!!

12/13/2023

Just so you know.......many tribal salmon netters, have stopped that way of gaining a income........to "crab fishing". I don't know all the particulars, but they get 30-45 days head start and get to sell the crab when there is no competition, so I would assume get higher prices....

Don't. In the regs the Chehalis was open until December 31st for coho so while they didn't cave to the tribe's BS at the end of October, we got screwed out of a whole month.

I would have been out in the Chehalis, anchored close to the bank, 2 rods with spoons. Satsop and Skookumchuck late hatchery Coho might be in the river???? Probably surplused, killed, when they reach the hatchery.....lot of good that does!!!! grrrrrrrrrrrrr

and all of the regs are subject to change. They changed it to Dec 1. That was the season. Might not be open in dec because more steelhats would start to be caught than late coho, and that cant happen anymore.

Yes all of the regs are subject to change, when necessary. I have fished the Chehalis for almost 30 years. Some of you many more. I have fished in December every year when it was open. About 15 years ago I heard of a steelhead being caught. So when closing the river to protect steelhead happens? All that needs to be done is a bait restriction. No Bait, no scent. Hardware only. Otherwise there will be a lot of excess coho upriver.