... as in most of the fish you see (and catch) are dead. It's like a scene from a Hitchcock movie -- dead fish scattered along the bottom, dead fish floating by. Yeachhh and

I brought two fish to the boat (not counting pieces of fish), and they were both dead -- not sliced open for eggs or gaffed, just dead. There were a few live ones caught from other boats, and we hooked into a couple of live ones that got off, but overall it seemed, well, dead.

The funniest part was when a couple guys from the bank decided it would be a good idea to wade out into the very middle of where the remaining live fish were jumping and tail-walking. Did they not notice the 20-odd boaters and bankies casting right into that spot?!? I thought that would be a good time to leave, before the fireworks started.

We stopped off at Kennedy Creek on the way home, and the guys I talked to said it was dead as well.

Regards.

Finegrain
Woodinville

Try going up to the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail. It is accessed by going on the little loop road on the upstream side of HWY 101. Took the boys there, and we had some fun. You will see why there are few fish in the salt. Lots of spawners and dead upstream. Stop by next time you are in the area. There are volunteers there to talk to the kids and answer question. Leave the dogs and the fishing poles in the vehicle.



Andy

Hoodsport maybe dead. Try the beach south of Potlatch SP. That area will only getting better in the next few weeks.

Hmmm ...

The way the nets were today, there won't be a single new chum getting to Potlatch or anywhere else south of Hoodsport. Nets were strung from the shore out to about 50' of water, one after the other, from Hoodsport down to the power plant launch ramp.

You'd have to be a Houdini fish to get through that gauntlet.

Regards.

Finegrain
Woodinville

I think you might be surprised Finegrain. Last year, on November 28th , we had a mid-week outing at the beach south of Potlatch. There was six inches of snow on the ground (couldn't launch the boat) so we parked and bank fished on that beach south of Potlatch and had an awesome day of fishing. Between the three of us we caught at least 30 chums.

The ungutted dead fish are probably gaffed males. The nets are cleaned by gaffing the fish. The females go from the nets to the egg stripping boats, then back into the water. The males simply go back into the water (with a hole in their head).

LOTS of fish at Potlatch today. Hammered them for hours. (Agreed that Hoodsport is a fish graveyard - one Indian was walking through the dead fish, picking them up and looking for hens that had not been gutted for eggs. I think a lot of the fish died in the nets and were discarded without being 'used' for the eggs.) Watch the boundary at Potlatch. I was told the boundary is 300 feet from the mouth the creek, if you are in a boat. Also, there is a red stake on the South side of the bank access and the North side has a sign for bank anglers there, respectively, as boundaries. Game warden came by today and had an earful for a boat that was inside the boundary, and cited a few guys yesterday while they fished illegally.

Nutn, I was there today too. Did you see me? I was wearing a gray fleece pullover with a black baseball cap.

nutn...show me in the regs that states boats have any restrictions.

Jim

Carl, were you in a boat? We were in the small boat. I was fishing with my dad.

JimB, I could be wrong, but my ears are still ringing from the game warden screaming at the boat fishing just inside the boundary after being dragged there by a fish. Like I said, I was told that, heard the game warden enforce that, and I know people were ticketed, yesterday (this is is reference to Potlatch, btw.)

i was there today(hatchery and potlatch beach) and all is true, hatchery is a DEAD ZONE(thousands of dead fish, ended up with three or four dead fish on my hook just plunked) and the fish checker at potlatch confirmed that the warden was there yesterday handing out tickets for fishing beyond the boundary, even though the anglers were lined up on the correct side of the sign. the people there today were doing the same thing, lined up on the boundary, casting into prohibited water, but that's where the fish were rolling, and they were thick in there, if the boats would back off a hair( maybe back to the boundary)the fish wouldn't all be pushed into non-fishable water...i didn't even try to mess with it and just went down the road to a lot less crowded than last month piece of water, hooked a ton of bright chums, brought home three hens, and had a nice day...oh yeah, by the way, netters had the hatchery zone completely surrounded, i didn't know they could be inside the buoys?!??

Hoodsport is like a surreal scene from hell. I had post-traumatic sensations of dead fish wrapping around my legs while I was sitting at home later after my trip down there.

Apparently there is a good market for eggs because it appear that the intent is to kill every single fiah out there. A crew was even working the creek above the trap with a landing net.

Nutn, I was standing on shore.

Dead fish carcasses piling up around your feet and grabbing at you. Kind of reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Dead Chum.