I agree with we "should have done" for many years. The SAD, SAD fact is that we, recreational anglers have a lot of clout if we band together. But we continue to DISAGREE when we should be in agreement. We could have gotten gillnets out of the Columbia three years ago, but disagreed at legislature. On and on it goes. Bait bans are okay, but did you know that the mortality rate for steelhead with bait is negligently higher than artificials? (I use this as an example for illustration for the insistent bait fishing crowd).
"If Indians can kill wild steelhead I should be able to, too." The examples go on and on. All it takes is one hillbilly to show up at a commission meeting or legislature to screw up everything in the minds of stupid legislators and ignorant commissioners.
If fishing organizations could ever get together in agreement, and cough up twenty dollars apiece from members to pay a good lobbyist, We'd have over a million dollars and have our way. But we don't, and we won't. Now we have to fight the idiots that want to keep salmon and steelhead as museum pieces, so that the people living in million dollar condos in Bellevue can see wild salmon when they go to eastern Washington to see a wolf!

Spoon, there are VERY few steelhead present in the Satsop, Nooch and Skook in December. There is no way more steelies than late coho would be caught during December. Like Drifter said, the Satsop and Skook have late timed hatchery coho. When WDFW closed the Chehalis system at Thanksgiving they said it was closed "until further notice". Not closed for the rest of December obviously pending negotiations/discussions with the QIN. Looks like the discussions have not gone well concerning opening the rivers for rec angling.

Drifter, I remember you mentioning fishing spoons in the river a few times. I understand if you’d rather keep it to yourself, but are you talking about salmon trolling spoons many people use in the saltwater? (Kingfishers, Coho Killlers, etc?) Cannonball sliding dropper or jet diver?

This is not okay. If you fish closed waters, you deserve to be prosecuted foe poaching, full stop. Breaking the law may result in cheap tickets, but the cost of repeated, bad behavior to the rest of the sport fishing community can be grave, indeed. Let's just say that fishing closed waters is NOT a winning strategy for the rest of us, so screw anyone who does it. Not exactly a heroic expression of freedom....

12/14/2023



LOL....Maybe on my death bed would my choice/kind of spoons be given to the general public. I probably have 200-300 "spoons". Major problem anyone trying to start "spooning is finding a supply. Luhr Jensen, and many others have gone out of business. I used to get many of mine on EBAY, or at garage sales.

I use to sell many types and kinds of spoons but backed off that because many buyers wanted to know what were "the best ones".

Ronnie, thanks for pointing out the very few steelhead that get caught in the Chehalis system in November and December the past 25-30 years. Now if you went back to the late 60's, 70's, and 80's, that was a different story, hatchery steelhead were put in to return in November - January, WDFW stopped those hatchery releases and tribal netting started. End of a good sport fishery!!!!!

Seabeck, Think thin blade wobblers, Gold Star Feisty, LJ Manestie, Wordens FST style of spoons.

Tear drops like the BS mini extreme work too.

It depends on the flow, what to use where. That knowledge was the key to success when open.

Totally understand keeping your secrets Drifter. Don’t hear about too many guys doing that, so I figured I’d ask. I know you’ve got years of fine tuning your methods.

True words !

“ thanks for pointing out the very few steelhead that get caught in the Chehalis ******* system in November and December the past 25-30 years. Now if you went back to the late 60's, 70's, and 80's, that was a different story, hatchery steelhead were put in to return in November - January, WDFW stopped those hatchery releases and tribal netting started. End of a good sport fishery!!!!! “

********* As it was with -

The Snohomish River
The Skykomish River
The Snoqualamie River
The Lake Washington System ( mainly the Cedar)
The Green River
The Puyallup System
The Nisqually System

And more.
Grrrrrr

Perfect post, as least as regards the spoons that get it done. I'll never understand why, but the most effective spoons are often hard to find. Midwest websites can be a great source....

The method is simple. Run a LIGHT spoon off a cannonball dropper, sit, drink beer, and wait. Put a tempting lure in front of migrating salmon and watch the fun happen... as long as the river's open, of course.

"FISHING" Is it, or would it be legal to fish without a hook? Regs definition say "Angling" (Hook & Line Fishing) Fishing for personal use (not for sale or barter) with a line attached to a pole capable of being held in hand while landing fish, or a hand-operated line without a rod or reel."

I've had some thoughts on doing just that. Swinging some fly's in March on my local riv. for some late nates. Pretty much practicing Spey casting techniques w/ different heads. All I'm looking for is the grab anyway? What would it hurt? Harrassment? But, don't want my set up to get confiscated. At least could get out and cast .Can't find anything else in the regs. Thoughts?

Call the local warden and let him know where you’ll be practice casting without a hook.
Folks do it all the time on the S rivers.
SF

Years ago, but I'm not sure now, just having a line in the water constituted fishing. Don't count on the regs book to tell you everything. Like it or not. Sure seems like practicing fly casting with no hook on your line is pretty harmless. But casting in a lake might be a better choice.

Years ago a guy named George would fish two rods and it was not legal. Enforcement had a long standing relationship with him as it was more of a running game of cat and mouse. I was told one day ole George was fishing with three rods and after substantial effort to sneak up on him they zoomed in to bust his butt! That is where things went South as George had set them up. You see the three rods had plugs out but no hooks on them and George informed them it was a nice day so he was simply out testing different gear not fishing. I was told the conversation was a rather interesting.

Re-R/G
Last Feb I did what you are talking about. I had bought a new Pro-Lite rod in Jan and didn't want to wait until Fall to see how it would cast with the spoons I use.It was a beautiful Feb day so I drove down to lower Satsop with rod and spoons in hand-hooks had been removed from the 4 spoons I had and there was not a hook on me or in my truck. I walked down to the flood control project area to see how that looked and started casting and after a short period of time I looked up river and sure enough here came what looked like a Game Warden-it was -so I made a few more casts and then put my rod down and took some pictures of the erosion that had occurred. He asked me how many fish I had caught and I answered we both knew the river was closed and that I wasn't fishing. He said yes you were because he had watched me with binocs. I showed him my lure and the ones in my jacket with no hooks and that I was casting -not fishing. We had a nice conversation, walked out together and exchanged names and phone numbers in the parking lot.

Three days later I was clam digging and as I was walking back to my truck there was a Game Warden truck-same one! He checked my clams and told me his supervisor said I could have gotten a ticket for fish harrassment. I said how can you harass what you can't see-if fish on redds- I would agree- but no way in Feb.

Bottom line-he was courteous and polite-and He later helped me with a rules question . How would another Warden handle it-not sure-but his position was that he didn't like to go before a judge and look like a fool!

Others here on the Board have more detailed information but a while back a group (organized) staged a fish-in on the Skagit, I believe, using no-hook flies. It was all a very public and publicized protest fishery.

I really like the idea of a fish-in to bring to light the steelhead mess, ESPECIALLY during an election year! I visualize a long chain of boats floating down the Satsop with fishing rods sticking up very visibly from rod holders. It would get a lot of attention, especially if it was publicized prior to the event.

Why are you guys acting like the Chehalis system is the only thing to fish? Instead of harassing fish with no hooks just fish something that's open like the bogie, calawah, sol duc, hoh, cowlitz, kalama, lewis, ect. Quit whining and get out there fishing.

I personally have no moral issue with people casting hookless lures to try and scare up a bite, but there's no question in my mind that it constitutes fishing, albeit extremely ineffective at catching. Even if you don't consider fishing without intentional harvest or hooking "fishing," there should be no question that casting a lure to fish in an attempt to make them bite IS angling, which, like fishing, is prohibited in closed waters.

If WDFW starts making it legal to practice "hookless angling" in closed waters, I'll start tomorrow, but I don't think that's gonna happen, and I can imagine plenty of good reasons why. If people start seeing people casting in closed rivers, some folks are going to assume that means it's open (or recognize how easy it could be to play dumb if caught using hooks), bust out the gear, and hit the river. Enforcement becomes a lot more nuanced and challenging once not everyone carrying a fishing rod on the river can be assumed to be fishing. Even if one person calls ahead and tells the local office they intend to be out casting hookless lures and the office authorizes it, enforcement still needs to respond to reports of illegal fishing (how are they supposed to know it's you someone's reporting?). That could result in a lot of unnecessary waste of the precious few enforcement resources we have, and worse, it could lead to a situation where enforcement stops responding to legitimate poaching reports, assuming everyone with a fishing rod is not using hooks.

Finally, if it's not "fishing," do you still need a fishing license to practice "hookless angling?"

Plenty of slippery slope for WDFW (and citizens) in there, yes?

Fair point. It's a bigger, more expensive deal to go to the Upper OP for a day, but SW WA has several options within similar driving distance to Grays Harbor. I could whine about how the Cowlitz is usually so inaccessible to bank anglers in the winter, how there are practically no fish left in the Kalama, or how the Willapa feels crowded with 10 people fishing it, but those are all fine places to spend a day fishing.

I guess Grays Harbor is kind of my home water, and I know where and when to find fish there. Whether I can catch them is sometimes a different matter, but I like the convenience, confidence, and familiarity I get from fishing there.

Whine off....

12/16/2023

ohhhh to be able to walk a river bank again, balance problem, have to use walker in my house, get hold of a cart in order to shop, use a wading stick just to walk my property. I can fish from my boat but you'll not see me stand, and I use 2 walking poles to get to my boat or back up to tow vehicle when done fishing.

I've walked hundreds of miles on the Wynoochee, the Satsop, the Humptulips, the Wishkah, the Hoh, the Queets, and many others but no more.

WDFW won't come up with a way for people with health or physical problems to use a boat to fish...............it'd be so easy....handicapped sticker, boat numbers, vehicle license numbers......wouldn't be a problem for LE to have a copy of that in their computer or cell phone but ????????? grrrrrrrrr

I'd sure be on the Chehalis, until December 31........Male Silvers only....haven't eaten a winter steelhead since I retired, 1997.