A little info I was told about today my favorite fishery. I will start from the beginning...

In 1994 recreational fishers agreed to increase the cost of sport fishing license from $8 to $18 to start a program to enhance Puget Sound hatchery Chinook production. The Skykomish was included in this in 1996 by enhancing the Summer chinook production. Since that time the stocks have done well, very well! And beginning in 2002, a selective fishery was introduced into the Sky, with very good success! The season was set for two months with one hatchery Chinook per day limit.

In a recent article in the Herald(Everett) Chad Jackson was quoted by Wayne Kruse saying that funding would not allow expansion of this fishery (enforcement and monitoring).

It blows my mind that we paid for these fish for the last 8 years and now they are trying to take away this fishery we just got back and has been very productive! Not to mention that last yrs projection was 5200 and this yrs is 15300 marked Chinook! Dont they have to monitor Summer Steelhead? So they would be out there patrolling anyhow... Just makes me mad!

We ALL need to attend the meeting in Mill Creek at the region 4 WDFW building! And voice our opinions! 6PM. See you all tomorrow.

Count me in Brian!

I'll will see you there. I had heard about the projected return for this year & was very pumped!

What a lame-O excuse. Why can't they just keep the promises they make to us?

The more of us who show up & voice our opinions the more likely they are to re-think their plan of action.

Jim

Brian, The NOF meeting will be about allocation issues , not about funding. So be prepared to talk about allocation, they probable won't give you much time to talk about the money.

Bryan- Do you think his comment about expansion may have been in reference to opening up the Wallace for a limited fishery? Just the word expansion makes me think that maybe the fishery is going to remain as it has been the last few years...but not expand? Just a thought, I will try to call Mr. Jackson today and get more info.
CM

I think the expansion means being able to fish below Lewis Street to the confluence. WDFW is reluctent to expand this because they feel they would have to monitor at least three more take outs and state they do not have funding for that. There are some of us (recs) that are willing to volunteer to take the time to take whatever training is required to statisfy WDFW and monitor those additional take outs. Hopefully that will be explored tonight.

Beezer

Jerry, we agrred to tax ourselves 10 years ago to pay for these fish.They dont want to extend or expend this fishery because wdfw says they dont want to have to monitor or enforce it.If they dont want to give this to us then they need to refund the $10 increase that we took 10 years ago.(psre)That increase was to pay for our blackmouth wich they rape in pillage in the chum fishery,(commercial) but thats a different topic for a different time.

Scott Weedman

I completely understand that Scott, but NOF meetings are not about funding issues--- only allocation. You'll have to go to put the word in for your fish----- if they expand the river area to fish you will lose days to fish.

Jerry, I do not agree with that .I am working right now with NSIA, state rep kirk pearson of monroe,tony floor of NMTA to get mill creek to open up the sky from the wallace to 1000 ft up stream 1 of the mouth, from june 1st-july 31st.

Chad Jackson, Region 4 Biologist
Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capital Way North
Olympia, WA 98501


Dear Mr. Jackson,


The Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association is a regional organization encompassing the States of Washington, Oregon and Idaho boasting more than 300 business members. These members include Three Rivers Marine of Woodinville, The Duffle Bag of Everett, GI Joes, Fred Meyer, Pure Fishing and other large and small businesses, groups and individuals.

As you know, the run of summer Chinook to the Skykomish River is expected to be 15,700, approximately tripling last years return. This is an exciting proposition for an extremely popular fishery that generates thousands of angler trips and economic activity for a state with the 4th highest unemployment rate. Given the high numbers forecasted for this run, there is every reason to expand this fishery from the parameters of last year.

In order to protect and grow the tourism/sportfishing related jobs for our region, we suggest that the Summer Chinook sport fishery be open from June 1st until August 1st with a bag limit of two Chinook per day. To facilitate fully capturing the opportunity this strong run represents, it is our opinion that the fishery should be expanded to include the area below the Lewis Street Bridge to 1,000 feet above the mouth of the River that is currently closed to fishing and has not been included in the proposed fishery for this year.

To assist the Department, NSIA members are willing to provide the signage and placement thereof to indicate the boundaries, season, and bag limit changes for this fishery. Many sportfishing groups have also offered volunteers to help with the creel census in order to reduce the costs of expanding and increasing this fishery.

These hatchery fish are all marked, thus alleviating the concerns of accidental retention of wild stocks during a selective fishery. With the lower boundary being 1,000 feet above the mouth of the river, there will be limited risk of intercepting the Snoqualmie wild run. With the hatchery escapement needs of 750 fish, there is no reason not to increase the time, area, and bag limit for a popular fishery.

The Skykomish hatchery summer Chinook are funded through the Puget Sound Recreational Enhancement Program—a tax if you will—that anglers fought to pay in order in increase the quality of Puget Sound fisheries. The healthy returns in the Skykomish are the fruits of those labors. Please insure the sportfishing community derives the benefits of those investments. We stand ready to assist in the expansion of this fishery.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call Scott Weedman, Board Member, at (425) 415-1575 or Corey Freeman, WA Government Affairs Director at (360) 480-6646. Thank you for your time and effort working on this issue.


Sincerely,


Liz Hamilton Scott Weedman
Executive Director Board Member


Encl: NSIA Membership List

Cc: Pat Patillo
Kurt Kramer
Bob Everett
WDF&W Commission
Director Koenings
Rep. Pearson
Rep. Dunshee
Sen. Stevens
Rep. Dan Kristiansen

I thought the meeting was at 7?


WDFW has set three additional public meetings in March to discuss regional fisheries issues. Input from these discussions will be considered as the pre-season process moves into the North of Falcon and PFMC meetings to determine final 2004 salmon seasons. The meetings are set for:

March 9 starting at 7 p.m. at the Willapa Harbor Chamber of Commerce in South Bend for Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay fisheries issues;
March 11 starting at 7 p.m. at WDFW's Mill Creek office to discuss Puget Sound fisheries issues;
March 16 starting at 9 a.m. at the Columbia River Double Tree Inn at Jantzen Beach in Portland to discuss Columbia River fisheries issues.

Nelson - i think you summed it wisely -
the enforcement element mentioned by Jackson is rediculous- they're going to be out there anyhow patrolling for summer run steelhead harvest etc...
how did you do last year on the Sky kings? techniques worth sharing ?
Thanks,
Lofty aka Loften -

Lofty- Got about one every other trip, and I was out 2-3 days a week.... No secret we tried kwikfish, bouncin eggs, floats etc etc.. And we always did best while fishin steelhead just free driftin... By chance is that you Craig? If it is, nice to hear from you hope all is well!

Bryan

Bryan - yeah it's me Craig.
Hope all is well in n. sound waters !
sending ya an email as i speak -

Hi All

I went to the Mill Creek meeting last year and the same question was asked and Curt Kramer gave the same answer as Chad has. If my memory serves me correctly he explained that $$ was an issue (cost per each enforcement/checker) and that they needed to be able to show the Tribes and Feds that we were not impacting the Wild Fish. I guess it boils down to, they only have the funds to monitor so much river. I can't make it tonight. It will be interesting to hear what they say.
Thanks

Sounds like an uphill battle for a better Chinook fishery on the SKY this year. First the NSIA letter focused on the large return of Chinook but missed the fact that the 15,000 returning fish expected are wild and could not be considered for harvest. Returns of hatchery fish are about the same as last year. Now I know that a tripling of wild fish means there is something promising going on but this is not always a sensible and fair process. It is a shell game of moving fish around in an attempt to satisfy everyone but mainly making sure the tribes are happy. Secondly, the enforcement money excuse is going to be used over and over again this year as the battles in Olympia rage on over funding for WDFW. Last but not least the tribes need to give their permission for an increase in fishing by sport people. If they were to do that there would have to be a give back somewhere else. Oh and I almost forgot ...the Canadians are upset with Alaska so they are hammering the Chinook off the West cost of Vancouver Island so we must cut back to compensate.....
Oh shoot I forgot the commercials....they need a season in the ocean....Oh dam...the ocean season setting process is still under discussion...if the sports seasons in the ocean gets cut back there would be more fish....hmmmm

Bottom line is that this process is a cluster and you need to get your behind the scenes homework done a year in advance to be part of the process in an effective way. Pat and Corey will meet and we will see what happens to the Sky at the next two meetings.

Lots of great points steve your right we could be in some real trouble this year. The behind the scenes talk I heard this am is that if we do not get our **** together now we may not have a ocean season at all.

Scott

Last year in the ocean when Canada supposedly overfished and hammered the Chinook...We saw the best Chinook fishing off the coast in recent memory. At the end we had over 5,000 fish left on our quota so WDFW gave those fish to the commercials. Now we are told we need to cut way back because Canada caught so many fish. I wonder if WDFW had not given 5,000 more Chinook to the commercials if we would still be getting threatened with closures.

And the tribes are stopping more catch and release fisheries because , of course, they cannot accurately count the sports take. I think it about time to propose wide open gambling by this state. The tribes have virtual veto power over our fisheries policies and we sit back letting them get more and more powerful all the time until someday we won't even be fishing at all. Think it is a joke? Go to a NOF meeting and listen to how many times the tribes are mentioned. See how many times we are told we need a permission slip from those great stewards of our fisheries.

Isn't it something that we sports fishers have honed their skills on catch and release, endured closure after closure and have kicked in the lion's share of the money to build runs like the Chinook run on the Sky/Wallace only to get shut down again even though there are "too many" fish returning to the hatchery. So many extra hatcheery fish that they have to turn them away and dicard them. We get shut out because the tribes don't approve, because WDFW doesn't have the money for enforcement, and because Canada is ticked off with Alaska and chooses to overfish off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Not only that but as we conserve our hearts out and volunteer and donate money to restore critical habitat on the Snohomish system so fish can recover the emphasis swings to allowing tribal gill netting and other commercial netting opportunities in the ocean and Canada.

Grandpa -
Just for clarification - the $$ that WDFW was talking about for the fisheries was funds to monitor the catches (fish checkers if you will) not for enforcement. It is a fact of life that in this era of fishing for ESA listed species that it is necessary to document what the impacts of various fisheries are on those listed stocks. In this time of tigh dollars how to best use that limited resource is source of debate. Do they use monitoring $$ to expand a fishery like the Skykomish or to create new opportunties in other areas (example from last night - the Nooksack). A tough call that is likely influenced by were one lives - generally the preference is for a "fishery in my back yard".

Tight lines
S malma

I think wildfishlover is on the money- money being the key word here... Let's have statewide gambling, and then let the tribes try to compete.. They're gonna end up with some ritzy fireworks stands if they choose to continue on the course that they insist on following. Hit'em where it hurts- in their wallets. If they cannot or will not relent on their policy of raping the resource, then the state(being all-powerful) can apply some policies that may make the tribes think twice about their stubborn attitudes. Maybe a drop in casino revenues will make them reconsider, and maybe relent on their common practice of "US FIRST"...I must add, however, that it is not only tribal netters, but the commercial netters, that are pillaging the stocks of fish.Commercial and tribal, or a combination of the two, will ultimately destroy what is left of the fishery that once was Washington State's hertitage. What can we as sports fishers really hope to do to stop the downward spiral?

Smalma...When I said enforcement I meant it in terms of supervision and monitoring. Funny how much emphasis is on sports fishing monitoring while the commercial seasons do not require such monitoring...Of course we are always told that commercials have fish tickets to "prove" what they catch. Without an observer on each and every boat the commercial fisheries are not being monitored adequately in my opinion. Especially when it comes to those goofy revival tanks....Some of which sit empty during fisheries.