How many of you are going to be at Sekiu for the July 5th Opener? I may be,but don't know for sure yet.

It'll be a zoo so I'm waiting for the week days. I'm wondering if there will be any keepers around or if this is going to turn out to be mainly a catch and release fishery. I highly doubt anything over 30 will be clipped. Anyone see any projections as to the numbers of clipped fish?

I've heard from a few different sources that about 20-25% will be marked.

I'll be at Neah Bay July 3-6 for the king fishery there.

So in our states infinite wisdom you will need to release 6 to 8 wild kings in order to keep two clipped. It almost seems better for the wild population to mandate keeping the first two legal size kings you catch and quit fishing.

I couldn't agree with you more stlhead. That statement is definitely NOT universally agreed upon... It's a big debate that should be settled at some point--are Catch and Release and selective fisheries ok for salmon in the salt water?

I've been at Sekui for silver season and could not believe the mark/unmarked rate. I think we released about 5 or so for each marked fish that we kept. That ratio combined with how I saw other fishermen treating the fish kind of bothered me. I went a second time thinking it couldn't be as bad, but it was and I haven't returned to fish silvers there.

In the ocean, charter boats do catch and release and have for many years--but I don't think they can't release a fish without netting it first. There has to be high mortality. Seems that if you look at a salmon wrong it loses scales.

I believe strongly there would be less impact to the fish by allowing people to catch two (or one, in the case of kings) fish and be done with it...

Plus big kings fresh in from the ocean get hooked in the gills an awful lot and the hook seems to cut them like a knife quite often. I can't do without my Sekiu king fishing but it'd be sick to release a bleeding tyee you know isn't going to make it.

When I was at the Sportsman Show this last winter, I stopped by the WDFW booth and talked to one of the state guys about the Sekiu seasons. Pretty much what it boiled down to is opportunity. We could have a season like last year (one fish limit, wild or hatchery) that last less then a week and be done with it, or have the current season on hatchery chinook that will likely last more than a month.

I was up there for the silver season last year too and it was frustrating watching people net fish, bring them in the boat for a while, then heave them back. I remember seeing a lot of floaters. Thank god it's now against the rules to bring a wild fish on board this year. We'll see how well that's enforced. Not sure how that's going to work with boats that have high sides though.

Even so, there will be mortality. I question if it's even worth having a season, especially with the expected small percentage of marked fish.

I'll be out there 7/7-7/9 (Mon-Wed), hopefully to avoid the crowds (doubtful ). For what it's worth, 4 of the 5 Derby fish caught in February were hatchery, the biggest just shy of 25lbs.
When fishing for Coho last fall with ReiterRat and B.Gray, we could tell what Coho were wild and hatchery without looking for a fin. All the wild Coho had Sporties Net marks all over them from being netted and released, while the Hatchery fish were chrome bright with no marks.
Just get a wood dowel, roughly 3ft long, screw a cup hook in the end to create your own hook out. http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/selective/techniques/releasing_salmon.htm


Kev

I'll be out there 7/7-7/9 (Mon-Wed), hopefully to avoid the crowds (doubtful ). For what it's worth, 4 of the 5 Derby fish caught in February were hatchery, the biggest just shy of 25lbs.
When fishing for Coho last fall with ReiterRat and B.Gray, we could tell what Coho were wild and hatchery without looking for a fin. All the wild Coho had Sporties Net marks all over them from being netted and released, while the Hatchery fish were chrome bright with no marks.
Just get a wood dowel, roughly 3ft long, screw a cup hook in the end to create your own hook out. http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/selective/techniques/releasing_salmon.htm


Kev

As a veteran, of sorts, of Sekiu I think the Chinook fishery is well worth it. We released a fish last year after measuring at the boat that calculated out at around 47#. Had another as big or bigger spool me and jump half way out of the water before sending my gear back at me like a rocket..can't get much more adrenaline than that.

Experts predict that you will have to bring 5 Kings to the boat for a keeper. I think this is pretty close to reality. Some will be luckier. The seasons of tha pst couple of years have been ridiculously short making it hard to plan. I just enjoy the place and the people and the fishing whether I keep any or not.

I will be in Neah Bay the first week of July for that fishery ..looks like Jerry G will be there,too. maybe we could actually talk about fishing??? We will be there with a fairly large group. Ithink the ocean bodes well for fishing this season. We will be trying out there first then moving in to Waddah for the last half of the trip.

Yeah. I've been fishing there since I was a kid and if you know what you are doing it's about the funnest fishery around. I just hate the idea that you can keep these fish in Ak, you can keep them in Canada, the nets keep them here but the sportsman are the designated stewards not only of WA bound fish but, since alot of Frazier fish run through Sekiu , also the stewards of Canada bound fish. And we aren't pure stewards since a lot are going to be plain wasted.

I don't know if I agree with the idea that the fish are wasted if you let them go. Politicians use that term for money left in their budgets...it is "wasted" if they don't spend it.
Putting a fish back in the water is not wasting anymore than putting money back in people's pockets instead of spending it. Similar anyway. There are those on this BB that don't understand that concept and disagree I'm sure.

Putting a fish back in the water that isn't going to live is a waste. And there will be nice big native kings killed under this policy. The question is how many? I have a feeling it's going to be much higher than 2% or whatever the latest mortality figures are. It wouldn't suprise me at all to see 10 to 20% of those released. But, my hypocritic self will be out there doing my share. Hope none of mine die.

Sooke!