On the Puyallup....

2 Adult Fish ONLY! 6 Total if 4 are juveniles. Coho Juvee or Jack is 19" and under. Pink Jacks are 11" and under. King Jacks are 23" and under. Only 2 Adults Total, no matter what species! After that you stop fishing.
Also, you CANNOT keep Wild/Native/Unclipped
Fish.

Guys are just raping that river. People boast of a 6 or 4 or even an 8 fish limit. 2 kings 2 coho and 4 pinks.....Hell that is rediculous. They literaly kick the pinks back in and keep as many Coho as they can. Am I missing something or was there a reg change i didn't see?

Dam, alot of people are so hard up for take home, they're like deer caught in headlights!
Poachin' Selfish Losers. Your ruining what's left of our runs.

I've seen it... One guy releasing his pink by throwing it out into the middle of the river, another guy with a stick through the gills 4 silvers and two pinks... ugh

Curtis

man I just got home from the puyallup and its all people who really don't have a clue on whats going on. It drives me crazy the last 3 times I've fished it I have told myself that I wouldn't come back.

although it does not specify that you cannot keep wild fish on the puyallup, on page 16 of your regs you will find the scoop. i think wdfw is going to have to post it for people to understand. BRING A DAMN CAMERA! to take pics of your little humpies.

Natives:
Page 20 says,

Wild fish can only be kept where specifically authorized in the Special Rules.

Clearly highlighted and circled.

if it's with salmon, i think you can keep unclipped fish(as long as the river is open for salmon) if it doesn't say you have to release them e.g.(release all wild COHO in the regs)

if not, i've been breaking the law for years...

Page 20

Statewide Freshwater Rules

Wild STEELHEAD, DOLLY VARDEN/BULL TROUT, and SALMON may only be kept where specifically authorized in the Special Rules.


And there you have it...............

using that logic, you'd have to release every chum you catch on the skok in the fall. what about the places in the regs where it says "RELEASE WILD COHO, CHUM". what if you caught a king? if you had to release all wild fish unless exactly noted, why would there be any need to put it in the special regs there?

it's pretty convoluted. there are other places in the regulations that say that exact same line you posted, except there is no salmon mentioned in it

i just called wdfw to clarify this topic. they told me that you CAN keep wild salmon unless it is specified under the puyallup river section. most rivers in the regs have it posted, and the puyallup does not. therefore it is ok if thats what you feel is nessesary. the only thing that they are sticklers on is the fact thet once you catch your two ADULTS, you are done!

I'm looking at the PDF version of the 2003/2004 regs right now (http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/regs/2003/2003sportregs.pdf) and I don't see that language on page 20. Am I blind, or do the online and hard copy versions differ?

I can and do keep wild kings on the Puyallup, and i'm with in the law. but i don't understand it because those same fish swim up the carbon, and you cant there.

i haven't kept any wild kings yet this year, mainly due to my own luck, but also that a lot of the fish coming out of the puyallup and carbon are a bit dark for my liking

i was just shocked about this, since if it was true, you'd have to release every single pink or chum that you caught, because they aren't marked

3/0_in_my_eye - Here's some good advice,
Never doubt DanS; It just makes you look (insert expletive here).

The rule is on page 20 of the regs.
Page 20 is on the 18th page of the pdf file.

The rule is really pretty simple but...

Here's a breakdown:
Wild STEELHEAD, (just the wild ones)
DOLLY VARDEN/BULL TROUT, (wild and marked included)
and SALMON (wild and marked included)
...may only be kept where specifically authorized in the Special Rules.

FTinflections :p

those regs are really in need of a reorginization and a re-wording. that line should say "RELEASE ALL SALMON, DOLLY VARDEN/BULL TROUT, AND WILD STEELHEAD UNLESS AUTHORIZED"

Chum Man,

You are correct of course, but you must remember that the rules are...

Written by Lawyers!

Lawyers who probably are a product of our
public school system.

So taking into account what everyone said, it looks as though, like in the case of the Carbon, that it must be stated in the special regs section that you CAN keep Natives, not the other way around.

Makes more sence that way. Otherwise it would make the general freshwater regs useless. Oh well, looks like i aided in the release of lots of native silvers. And it felt great. Look forward to doing it again, after i get an arm and shoulder replacement.

don't think that's too big of a deal, considering you're not supposed to fish for salmon at all unless authorized

Read the regs !!!! pg.40 It's a no brainer.

Plunker

That is really a good one!!



Cowlitzfisherman

Yes, read the darn rules for a river before you try to fish it. Thursday or Friday my buddy Carver was driving past the road the leads into Rayonier Bar on the Hump. There were to rigs with drift boats sitting at the locked gate. He noticed one of the guys was throwing a fit kicking rocks because the gate was locked. The river doesn't open to salmon fishing untill Oct. 16th. They were more than a month from the opening. He figuered they were from the big city.