Attended the Koenings/WDFW Roundtable in Aberdeen last night.The current Humptulips fiasco was discussed by several in attendance. Opening the river for increased harvest opprtunity on early hatchery silvers was the key issue of concern voiced by no less than three speakers. Keep in mind that over 7000 silvers had already been "surplused" at the hatchery by opening day Oct 16th.

WDFW felt that opening salmon season too early would have a negative impact on wild chinook... basically there would not have been enough surplus kings to support a fishery that opened on Oct 1.

It was suggested that if the harvestable surplus of kings was too small for a full season begining Oct 1 (or even earlier), then why not just allocate that small chinook surplus to C&R mortality and have zero retention on kings.

This would also help to diffuse/disperse angling effort so that every one and their dog would not have to swarm opening day of the only Grays Harbor trib open to retention of chinook. The Hump was the only game in town for the powerboatless river angler to bonk a king.

Although not discussed at the meeting, another option that they had was to curtail the chinook season by taking away a couple weeks on the tail end (Nov 30) to "pay for" an earlier opening on October 1. That would have allowed maximal harvest opportunity on the 7000 early hatchery coho, and still allow for a judicious harvest impact on chinook.
What do you guys think?

personally i think it should be closed for kings

I seen that in tonights paper.. sound like to me is they want use to pay more money and get less fishing opp..


what percentage of license fees go back to the fish???

it wouldnt bother me any if they cut last two weeks of Nov off for kings to get a shot at the begining of Oct..

CNR on the kings and open the river to salmon fishing october 1st


or open the river to coho october 1st cnr kings, and then open the river for kings starting october 16th...

either way, but i personally dont need to bonk a king, i would rather fish for the silvers that are in great numbers the first two weeks of october. before the rains come.

fishNphysician,

Thanks for speaking up at the meeting last night.

"Silvers and jacks starting in September " has worked in the past in the Satsop.
I shure would like to have a chance at those fish.

just tell me when its in

the thing that killed me was the indian netting the 14. 15. & 16th until 3pm

then came the rains, and we get nothing


bah!


hmm we might get a few days before it blows out again

anyone up for some chum as thats all thats running in good numbers in the lower end.

Well, I didn't make the meeting (Sox-Yankees).
But I understand many locals were on hand.
I notice the comment from DOW of the decline in fishing license. I think that's a no brainer.
When you shorten the season and than allow netting 19 days during the first month, you should expect a poor response from the sportsmen. People are going to quit fishing if your always competing with net schedules.
And than you have the gillnetters selling fish at $5 a piece. THE BOTTOM LINE ? You have to sale your program and DOW isn't doing it right now. I think the fishery in the Chehalis Rv up stream in the Monte area is the worst it has ever been and than to have a 19 day gillnet season is just a slap in the face. Ok, Thats all I have to say about that!!!

Hmmm where to start, where to start...
Lets look back at the year 2000. Anybody remember how the king run was? I do. I also remember standing waste deep in emerald green water above the boat shoot on October 1st opener along with the rest of the zoo. I was drift fishing eggs with a flame red cheater. I hooked and landed 2 good looking hatchery summer run steelhead and 2 bright hatchery silvers. I took home 4 fish... Can't say I've done that ever before. To say the least it was a great day fishing and there wasn't a king in sight. A river that is usually plumbed with kings, was empty of the species. We spent hours broodstocking Stevens Creek to barely almost reach our quota. This was 2000, remember that... Anyways 4 years later ( the lifespan of the majority of kings) the river is open 14 days later and now it's the complete opposite. The river is plumbed with kings, yet you have to work your butt off for a silver. We C&Red a great number of kings on the opener to finally get one silver. To say that it should be closed to kings is just plain stupid. I worked my tail off to help get the king run back up to par for harvestable numbers, and now that they are there, why souldn't we harvest these fish. Moderation is the key, stick to the rules of 1 king and try to let everyone else know to only keep 1 king. The silvers will come, as they did earlier on but this time they should be a bit larger. I've caught bright silvers in late January while fishing for brats. I've also caught the Turkey run of kings, and they are as bright as any URB you ever seen. The hatchery will reach their quota for kings with out having to stress. Lots of fish will have spawned naturally, and hopefully everyone will get a shot at these fish. Your paying for them. Why shouldn't you? I've got mixed feelings about the whole subject, but all I can say is fish responsible and have a good time. Ohh yeah pick up your garbage, the gravel bar across from Stevens Creek looks like Lemays by November.

Harbor Hog

Too bad I didn't get to meet you personally... or did I? Nobody I talked to identified himself as a PP board member last night.

I sincerely hope that WDFW got the message that hatchery fish are created to maximize harvest opportunity, not just to swim back to the hatchery. I hope they also realized that maximum harvest opportunity is the only way the license-buying public is going to feel like they're getting something back for their license fees. It seems to me that creating such incentives to increase the number of licenses purchased is the best long term strategy to close the budget gap.

I'd like to have a similar "roundtable" discussion with legislators Kessler, Blake, and Doumit to make sure WDFW budgets stay as intact as is fiscally possible. They'll never know how important it is until they hear from sports in some organized fashion

Try to remember that the North Of Falcon process has alot to do with setting king seasons. There is a finite number of kings to be harvested and alot of user groups vieing for a bigger share.

To all of you who say close the river to king retention:

I say why shouldn't we keep kings on all the Grays harbor tribs when we're having great runs.

I've never seen so many kings in our local rivers

I was there: Offered the following: shortened form they were:

1. Allow 2 rods per fisherperson, 2nd rod with "extra rod fee"

2. Have rivers opened in August----for jacks and early hatchery silvers.

3. Set gillnet season, so there is a full 48-72 hours with no nets in bay or river.

4. Email addresses for all WDF personnel on the web site.

5. Window sticker---monies were to go for boat launch improvements---What happened to that plan???

6. Telea conferencing---use cams and the internet for WDF meetings. Keep WDF personnel "working" instead of driving to meetings.


1, 2, and 3........sure would help increase interest and maybe help with more funds BUT THE FEELING THAT I GOT "just ain't going to happen.


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

Hey DrifterWa !

When the big guide boats have their clients park at the boat launch are they paying for the little permit stickers ? If not why not ?

Have checked cars at different boat launches, many have no stickers.......enforcement really does need to "swing thur" areas like Fuller Bridge, Satsop Hiway Ramp, and Black Ck. , write a few tickets. Black Ck. is going to be a mess, with any "extra vehicles" cause the welding area is going to be blocked off. Parking will be at a premium.

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

i'll tell ya where the boat launch money is going to....look around at teh greater seattle boat launches....they are fixing those up first so peeps can launch their summer homes....bastiches......as a young fisherman not yet into the whole conservation thing i find it necesary now to get my 2 cents in as i want my boy to grow up catching fish and learn to respect the chances he gets to do so now and later on in his life with his kids.....after readin alot of your posts i have to say some great ideas i have read have been........taking two weeks off the later end of november opening oct keepin the early coho's cnr Chinooks....and ask maybe that we do what alot of guys are doin in Alaska ...Save the kings......just letting them go....ya i know whats the fun in that.....well if the run is good you can fish all day till your arm falls off........and hell you dont have to clean any fish....I find the fight more satisfying then the meat... thanks for readin and plz send me any info you might have to how i could help for the future .....i still need my 5 year old to hook his first king and hopefully with all your help he'll get a chance at more then one

It seemed to me at the meeting that we were not allowed to fish for those fish so the commercial/tribal take would have enough headroom on the impact levels.
I don't know how WDFW can show such a bias toward gillneting and still expect the anglers (license-buying public) to continue paying the freight.