It would be a more enjoyable topic, Willie, if WDFW would open up some rivers for CnR (for wild fish) and selective gear. Almost the first of the year and only silence from WDFW. Nothing official yet. Would be nice to know if WDFW and the QIN are still talking and negotiating as far as Grays Harbor is concerned. Hatchery winter steelhead started returning to the Wynooche Dam trap since November. First time they have seen a winter fish return to the Nooch trap in November. At least since they started planting late timed fish.

Well I guess we could all get in line, grind our way down the Bogie, and take turns trying to catch a 4 lb. brat. Opportunity. . .woohoo!
fb

I'll be doin the grind next week. Would rather be grinding local. What else is there to do?

What a dead zone the Puget Sound area has become in the winter time for fishing opportunities. Closed for blackmouth fishing (except Marine Area 13 which stinks at this time of the year) and the rivers closed for steelhead. But good ole WDFW wants you to buy your 2024 fishing licenses when you don't even know what the seasons will be (other than lake fishing) until the tribes tell WDFW what the seasons will be later.

12/30/2023

Many QIN fishermen are crab fishing, making big bucks....why would the tribe be interested in winter run steelhead, until such time as the numbers of Wild/native rebound?????

Just asking......

Drifter,
It costs a lot to have and keep up a crab boat. My guess is that there are quite few members who don't want to have the money or are to old or busy to crew, that like to do some river fishing.

12/30/2023

QIN gets 45 days "head start" on the crab fishing....lot's of the crab in the stores is QIN crab.....I'm sure if a QIN member wants to do some river fishing, Quinault or Salmon river could meet their needs,,,,

Happy New Year !!!!!!! Go Hawks and Dogs.....

a few yrs ago there was a pie chart circulating a round showing just how much the Quins make a yr fishing crabbing casino and so forth.. and if im not mistaken all nation members get a cut. anyone still have that chart??

they are fishing the Quinault cook crk and so fourth,, mt neighbors son been hanging out on cook crk

Yep. Turned down an offer to fish the Quinault with a tribal guide next week. Lots of water and have no reports. They are on the Salmon also.

Looks like the QIN guides don't have a problem fishing for steelhead. Only WDFW does.

Who put the steelhead in the Quinault/Queets?

Initially, God. The hatchery fish in the QIN come from Cook Creek, which is/was a Fed facility. I think they are also stocked in the Hoh.

It is interesting, and fist with previous limited entry comments, that requiring a QIN guide on the Quinault limits access. Effective way to keep effort down. Spendy, but effective.

Also, liberal limits and no gear restrictions. 3 fish/day, barbed hooks, trebles, bait, retention of wild and/or hatchery fish.

It is sad that QIN can provide a better fishery that WDFW. But what is the actual status of Quinault steelhead, including the Upper Quinault. I have heard it is not good up there.

The upper Quinault wild fish numbers aren’t good.
Based on my limited experience, the Cook creek fish seem to be smaller than the Salmon River fish and the fish they raise at the lake hatchery.
Maybe a different stock?
SF

01/01/2024



So you understand, the QIN guides can ONLY guide/fish the lower Quinault River, 101 to Ocean and the "walk in area below the hatchery on the Salmon River"....I'm not sure about the Queets????

QIN guides are only fishing on the rez.

I see that the Skagit and Sauk are opening for C&R. Isn't it strange, that both those rivers have steelhead listed as "Threatened", but WDFW has worked with the tribes to get this fishery, while most Oly. Pen. river steelhead aren't even listed (yet). Stranger yet is that the Cowlitz and Kalama, and other S.W. rivers that have "Listed" steelhead in them are open to harvest three hatchery fish along with C&R on wild fish. Total inconsistency between Region 6 and Region 5. Why aren't we fishing with C&R guidelines on the O.P. rivers? (It's somewhat a rhetorical question, isn't it?)

I have been seeing more posts for guides and from people fishing the quinault and salmon than ever before. I would love to see the numbers reported.

Thanks for mentioning this Tug. I was about to start a thread on the topic in case some fishermen missed it.

It might seem strange that the Skagit has a season while the OP doesn't, considering that we have had mandatory wild steelhead release statewide for quite a while now. As one of the technical advisors to Occupy Skagit (OS), it isn't that surprising how the Skagit season came to be. First, Skagit steelhead are a victim of geography. If the Skagit were in B.C., it would be the healthiest wild steelhead population on the lower mainland. Being in the U.S. and in Puget Sound (PS), it was lumped in and listed under ESA with the rest of PS. Therefore, the Skagit couldn't open to fishing unless there were an ESA approved management plan.

WDFW had no intention to create a plan. There is no incentive for most bureaucrats to think outside the box or color outside the lines. Making a decision can negatively affect a career. Apparently never making a decision never harms a career. OS took its case to the WDFW Commission and explained how a season was possible. The Commission was very receptive, but WDFW took no action. It took 2 years of going back to the Commission, at which point the Commission ordered the Director to have the agency draft the Skagit plan.

The Skagit tribes, particularly the Upper Skagit Tribe, were supportive. The Upper Skagits catch incidental steelhead in their spring Chinook fishery and needed ESA take coverage for that. So the Skagit plan was developed and allows incidental take for treaty fishing and incidental mortality during recreational CNR fishing.

My point is that WDFW had to be prodded into action.

It's interesting that recreational fishing has continued in SW WA (lower Columbia, but not mid-Columbia) and in northern CA with no special ESA plans beyond the usual wild fish release regulations of both states. I've never learned how they pull that off. It might be fruitful to look into that.