Reminder of chat at 8 PM tonight ... a rumor that I have now heard from several sources might be a good target of the discussion.

The rumor? Closure of all West End streams for ALL steelhead fishing (NO C&R either) with the sole exception of the Sol Duc for spring chinook

Interesting ...

Bob,

If your sources are indeed correct, when do they think it'll happen?? Thanks.

James

I can not help but state the whole irony in the suituation...

The year in which the State turns down state wide wild steelhead release because the OP rivers are just boiling fish and they are spawning on top of each other, they have to close 'em all down because there is no fish!!!!

As early as the 15th ...

Well that would be ****ed as I have a trip planned starting the 19th....
The WDFW must be ran by a bunch of ****ing morons.........

I assume were talking April 15th here, correct??

Willie-
The ramications of this closure will go fay beyond cancelling yours or mine trips over to the OP.

The economic damage it will due to Forks and the guides over there can not be fully realized...it is truly a scary situation and right now my fingers are crossed, not because I havent fished the OP yet this year and am dying to get over there, but because the damage it will due to the businesses and guides over there will be severe.

That would be March 15 ... remember, this is just rumor right now. But I do know for a fact there is serious concern in WDFW over the returns ...

Kill some more, they're spawning on top of one another

Look at the bright side, we still have 4 days to go but the rivers are flooded Kidding, as Ryan said, it does not make sense unless the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!

March 15?? Don't they need a longer notification? The 15th is only 4 days away. I call horsesh*t on that one..

Usually I've made over a half a dozen trips to the OP by now. Since fishing hasn't been up to standards (at least from the people I've talked to), and has been so well everywhere else I've been fishing, I've had no desire to drive 4.5 hrs. However, most of "my" rivers are either closed or will be closing on the 15th. Had trips planned for the end of March and the first part of April.. Damn these people. They're messing up my fishing schedule almost as bad as they're messing up the fish themselves!!!!

James

I'm not one to bash WDFW for personal reasons, and I suppose the herky-jerky nature of their fish management strategy may have a lot to do with the fact that they have no permanent Fish Program manager in Region 6, and cannot hire one, nor personnel to monitor the fishery properly, because of the budget shortfall and hiring freeze, but really, most everyone could see this developing over a month ago, and well before they decided to continue to allow harvest of wild fish. For that I'll bash 'em

Man, they had better knock off the tangle net BS in the Columbia - they are just knocking the hell out of the wild steelhead and catching very few springers - hell, unless the fish has a big kype it won't tangle very well anyway. But the real issue is economics - if they have to shut the Columbia down to sportfishing early because they overharvested commercially it will be an economic travesty, exactly as it will be on the OP if they close the steelhead fishery, even for C&R. Commercial salmon fishing is a #%*$^% waste economically, and should never be allowed when there is a viable sport fishery - numerous economic studies place the per-fish value 5 to 15 times higher for a sport over a commercial fish. Sport fishermen also outnumber commercials thousands to one. With no economic or political reason for it, why is there a commercial salmon/steelhead fishery anyway

I wonder how the business owners, politicos, and guides in Forks that lobbied so heavily to keep statewide C&R regs off the books are feeling now. Well, at least they won't have to worry about people clogging up their stores, restaurants and gas stations if the WDFW decides to close 'er down.

I'm hoping it's just a nasty rumor.

I'm still trying to figure out how come the state can't hire personal to monitor the different fisheries. Especially since most of the money for these monitoring programs comes from the federal goverment and not the state. In last Thursdays Columbian newspaper there was an article that said they may have to shorten some seasons because of this. I may be wrong, but isn't there a tax on sport fishing gear that goes to the feds, who then return the money to the states for projects like monitoring fisheries? Seems to me the state is holding money hostage that isn't even state money.

Well, dizzy me up and slap me silly! The mother river could close!? This could be a first for the mighty Q system. Well if the fish aren't there close it, it's good for the fish and just makes a future case for SWR stronger. However, the Skagit/Sauk will be interesting, are the march browns hatching on the Yakima yet?

Any event let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best it will be interesting to see what really happens. It's going to be a problem for the steelhead if leave the duc open for springers.

How about the chat's summary. What is the probability of closing? 50/50 or higher or lower?Give a % please. Thanks.

I hope you huskies raise some bloody hell over this issue. I am so happy to be a beaver right now. I used to think I should go to the OP to catch steelhead in March. Now, I can only think about all the Steelhead I'd miss here in Oregon. Too bad, I'd have spent money in Forks area, of course. If you guys need to fish, it's not that far to the Oregon coast, which has been excellent lately. Of course, you can't keep them. Think there's any connection?

Yikes. Maybe they'll opt for a couple week shutdown to try and assess the situation and if they start seeing the motherload of latecomers it'll open back up. And maybe monkeys will fly from my butt.

Maybe this is just one of those lousy years. The limited contact I've had with some of our brothers to the North has also been discouraging this winter/spring. Scary. Any Islanders out there want to confirm/deny?

Bruce

Theres no maybes about it Bruce! (About the monkeys)

Bob D

Latest word this morning is that the rumor is just that ... a nasty rumor. WDFW says no closure is pending.

Good news if the numbers are actually high enough to support a continued fishery (with kill), very sad news if it's a smokescreen to save face over recent decision against wild steelhead.

We can only hope that this is a rumor that wont materialize, but given that statistics, and track record of the WDFW, who knows, they do what they want, when they want, and for no reason and speaking of track record I dont know of any fishery that was closed, for any period of time, re-open. look at area 10 Chinook, they promised a three year closure to let the stocks rebuild, that fishery will never re-open for sport fishermen, but they pound it with the purse seiners, and gill nets. blackmouth seasons are almost non-existant, but the seiners targeting Coho and Chums in the fall slaughter them...by-catch? yeah right. and the puget sound rivers, all my life there was a Steelhead fishery in almost every river until march 31st, that will never happen again.
they (the State) are just closing one door after another for sportsfishermen. if this is true, I really feel for you guys that make your living out there in forks.

Fuzzy