This is the netting schedule as of 10/5/04

Non-tribe: Chehalis River

October 8, 14, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29

Tribe: Chehalis River

October 10, 11, 12, 13, 17,18,19, 20, 21

Tribe: Humptulips and Area 2C

October 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23,
November 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

WOW---How about this, once they start netting, the ONLY days where there are NO NETS in the river, in October, will be the 9, 24, 25, and 26.

Hope your September and so far October fishing was super.........cause it might be awhile before any amount of fish are available for sports people.

WDF needs to take a close look at the amount of sport fishing pressure in Grays Harbor and the dollars generated locally. 28th Street, Cosie, Friends Landing, Montasano and Fuller Bridge have had many sport fishermen.......Does the Chehalis system really need Tribe and Non-tribal commerical gill netting??????


"worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"

Thats is a pretty grim schedule for sports fishermen. Will they be netting in the johns river mouth area? Has anybody seen any big fish out of the chehalis yet?

Once again it appears that the rain was a week or so early. Lots of fish at John's River and 28th Street but not many in the system. Very few chinook to be seen and fewer coho as of yesterday. I am afraid that if we don't get an inch or so of rain prior to the 10th these staging fish will once again be sitting ducks. What a great disapointment! I am just about fed up with the way these fisheries are managed.

as long as the state stays afraid of the tribes the sportman will get screwed everytime.....

Hate to point this out but there have been consistent surpluses of coho at all Grays Harbor hatcheries for several years now... so tell me how the commercial net schedule equates with poor sport fishing opportunity for coho???

PacificNW,

Hatchery surplus is not the yardstick to use if wild salmon represent society's values. The key question is: are there consistent surpluses of naturally spawning coho in all the Grays Harbor tributaries? If so, then arguably, the commercial net fishery is not adversely affecting recreational fishing opportunity, provided there are always season long openings for recreational fishing. If not, society should examine its priorities and adjust fish management accordingly.

I suppose it's an unfortunate aspect of recreational fisheries on non-feeding migratory fish that a large abundance of fish is necessary in order for sport fishing to be productive. Managing for maximum, or even optimal, net harvests, with minimum escapements, is an indication that recreational fishing is an afterthought, at most.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

That schedule is pretty agressive if ya ask me.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

your right there strike zone! its way to agressive.. look how many days the tribe gets around the mouth of the Hump area... Hope we start getting some major rain to help the fish get up the rivers...

My question is when they do there quotas for returning fish to rivers do they include the gill netters into those returns or do they take away a few thousand fish from those predictions

Salmo - I could not agree more. The Grays Harbor streams are managed for wild fish escapement. The trick has always been to maximize harvest rate on hatchery returns while, often, minimizing the harvest rate on wild returns. In Grays Harbor there is some timing separation between the bulk of the hatchery coho (earlier) and the bulk of the wild coho (later). There are exceptions of course. Everyone knows about the late timed Satsop hatchery coho.

But my point is, despite the period of intensive net fisheries that seem to upset so many people, the surplus of hatchery coho had to swim by a lot of sport fishermen to get to the hatchery. Thus, the opportunity was there, regardless of the harvest conducted by the treaty and non-treaty gillnet fisheries.
I felt this point needed to be made because one user group will typically looks to the other user group as the reason the "catching" part of their fishery did not go so well when, in fact, there is often no relationship at all.

Strike Zone - It may seem aggressive. But I say again... those hatchery coho had to go past all the fisheries to become surplus at Humptulips Hatchery, Lake Aberdeen Hatchery, Satsop Springs and Bingham Creek Hatchery.

Steely Slammer - see above.

Stlhd Dreaming - All terminal area fisheries are part of the annual pre-season fishery management planning effort conducted by the co-managers. There is a series of public meetings that WDFW structures for anglers such as yourself to voice their views as part of that process.

Yah, they had to go by us with out being able to fish them until the 1st or even the 16th of October when it should have been opened the 1st or 15th of September.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Get 'em while you can...Had a great day out today. Multiple take downs and a 24.5 and a 31 in the box. I fish out of a 16 ft tiderunner cuddy w/115 yamaha FS. I think ive been seeing you guys out there. Good luck

Salmo G.:

You have all the answers......then tell me this:

1. How many states still allow "in river" gill net fishing, by non-tribal fishermen????

2. Our neighbors to the north, did away, or almost eliminated gill net fishing.........why then does this state continue this way of fishing?????

Seems to me its way past time for this state to join the rest of the nation.........and stop non-tribal gill netting.


Have a good day!!!!!!!

"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"

Amen Brother Amen!

Lifted from another thread:

The non-tribal (politically correct version for "white boys") nets will fish 12 hr periods from 6am to 6pm seven days in October:

Fri 8th,

Thur 14th,

Fri 22nd,
Sat 23rd,

Wed 27th,
Thu 28th,
Fri 29th.

Combined with the tribal netting above, nets will be deployed a total of 19 days in October. There will only be 12 net free days in the month:
1-7, 9, 15-16, 30-31.

So what I am getting out of all these comments about the net fisheries is that the sport opportunity is somehow diminshed as a result of that fishery, correct? Otherwsie there would be no comments.

So, one way to interpret these comments is to suggest that the sport fishing opportunity needs to be enhanced by eliminating the net fisheries and INCREASING the surplus at the hatcheries???

Not buying it.

Let the non-tribals take fish at the hatcheries!

NO IN-RIVER NETS!

Where can you go to find these netting schedules? Are they posted for all of the rivers on some site that the state maintains or something?

Thanks,

Aaron

As much as the days listed for netting, I am equally interested in WHERE the netting will take place. In looking at the WDFW page regarding tribal/ non-tribal net schedules they mention things like "area 2A, 2B...etc" then, they only give geographic descriptions for some of the areas but not all.......unless I missed something. A few years ago, they used to have a map of the harbor showing the different zones but I don't see it anymore.......too useful for us I guess!

It's frustrating because if we know what areas the nets are in, we can avoid them and fish other spots as opposed to going out on a whim and "being surprised"

Aaron Hartwell,

Here is the link to a release from WDFW Region 6.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/tribal/

If you really feel that you are getting the short end of the fishing opportunity stick you need to get involved with the North of Falcon salmon season setting process. At least supply your wants via an email or attending one of the public meetings.

While river salmon fishermen have often gotten only the left overs it doesn't really look that way for you Gray Harbor fishermen. Need to remember that the sport share includes fish caught in the salt as well. A quick review of the sport fishing opportunities in the Harbor area found that the ocean was open 5 days a week for nearly 3 months (June 27 to Sept. 19), Grays harbor open for 2 1/2 months (Sept. 16 to Nov. 30), and many of the rivers tribuatry to Grays Harbor are open for 4 months (Oct 1 to Jan 31).

If you feel that isn't ample opportunity or that those seasons don't provide meaningful fishing then for goodness sake get involved. But realize that you will be competing with a wide and diverse set of users that all feel that they are getting the short end of the allocation stick.

If you feel that gill net seasons are not appropriate then work to change state law.

It seems to be you can either accept what you get or work within the system to change the allocation in your favor. Either way sitting on the river bank and crying about things being unfair will change nothing.

Tight lines
S malma

Great last post Smalma. Too many sportsfishermen sit at their keyboard and complain. The only way to achieve additional opportunity is to become part of the negotiation process. Well written e-mails to people in a position that have influence, face to face at hearings, and meetings, etc is what is required. Elected and appointed officials count "heads" at these meetings. Get involved with the process!!!!!

Can someone "in-the-know" tell the rest of us what area of the bay they are talking about in the bold italic clause above? Does that area extend out west all the way to Westport?

i would say from 28th st. up stream to the bridge to westport.