Anyone hear anything recent on the possible sports fishing closure of the Chehalis & tribs? ...Something about the tribe going over their projected steelhead harvest by more than 200%. Any guesses on whether it will remain open through this weekend?

Say it isn't so!

Your post is the first I've heard. Do you have a reliable source?

I don't know why some one would think the tribe over harvested steehead on the Chehalis.
They haven't pulled their nets out since November. Don't forget to buy your new license for next year !!

They may have pulled the nets on occasion but I hadn't noticed.

The normal response is to cut the spotsmans out of his allotment no surprise here..

Did WDFW do the update to the run forecast???

Sounds like bad rumor to me ... trying to liken the situation to that at Neah Bay.

There was some local testimony at the recent WDFW Aberdeen meeting about the numbers of wild steelhead being netted by the tribes. I think that part of the show was when Phil Anderson said something about the dept. stepping in and doing something about it if they found the tribes overharvesting....then after much prodding he was forced to admit that the dept had no such power over the tribes. I would call Region 6 WDFW and ask them if they are aware of the situation.

I heard of this last night from a fishin buddy.If it's true I will not be buying a washington state fishing license this year and will fish in Oregon and North of the borders.This has got to stop.I hope it's just a nasty rumor and not truth.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is going to happen. I have it from a very reliable source that the tribe did indeed go over their quota by 200%. This is going to cause an immediate system closure most likely later on today! When is this type of thing going to stop. When are we going to finally stand up against this type of repeated injustice?
BTW- This will also pretty much guarentee that the system will not meet their stated wild escapement goals this year.

I wish I was reporting better news. Sorry guys!
CM

This was copy from the Washington Fish and Wildlife page at a 11:00 But I guess it could change we will see.

There are no emergency fishing rules currently in effect for Chehalis River (includes all forks) (Grays Harbor, Lewis and Thurston County). Please refer to the current Fishing in Washington Sport Fishing Rules Pamphlet.

i know for a fact that at least 1 net (i also know the first name of whose net it is) installed at the corner of the river there in independence which was easily glassed from the road, had over 50 uncut steelhead in it when pulled after being in the water just 8 hrs, the 50+ nates in 8hrs was about 2 weeks ago,

also if its still the same as last week, any one can go there & see the nets completely across the river impossible to get by... i saw the nets completely across was last thursday & friday,had to prove to my wife & kids the truth rather than the bs they are taught about the caretakers of nature, haven't been back since...

i looked at the fish wildlife page(s) & didn't see anything at all on the chehalis, hmnnn...

this just showed up in my email, hope its not true

February 23, 2005

Chehalis river system closed to all fishing

Action: Wynoochee and Satsop rivers and mainstem Chehalis River will close to all fishing February 28, 2005
Effective dates: February 28th until further notice
Species affected: Steelhead.

Location:

Wynoochee River: from its mouth upstream to 7400 Line Bridge above mouth of Schafer Creek.

Satsop River and East Fork: from its mouth upstream to bridge at Schafer State Park.

Chehalis River: from its mouth upstream to High Bridge on Weyerhauser 1000 line approximately 400 yards downstream of Roger Creek.

Reason for action: The 2004/2005 Chehalis river system wild winter steelhead run size is forecast to return at well below escapement needs.The closure is necessary to minimize impacts to wild steelhead due to potential incidental hooking mortality and disturbance of spawning fish.


Information contacts: Bill Campbell or Kirt Hughes, fish biologists, (360) 249-4628

SCREWED OVER AGAIN!

That is fricken ridiculous! Post this insane netting schedule, fail to monitor the results and close it for us. Unbelivable! Sportsmen should band together and sue the Indians ourselves since our Wildlife dept doesn't have the kahunas.

I don't fly off the handle very often, but this hits a little too close to home for me.

Will the nets come out of the river?

I hate to here that what I heard was correct, but I guess it was . Also, don't believe all the crap about the run size either. The run size is not going to meet escapement goals because the indians had already netted approx. 3700 steelhead through the 13th and that is just the Quinalts REPORTED catch. This doesn't include the last 10 days and the upriver tribes catch. As I understand it they were to only have a quota of 3900 fish for the entire season, both tribes conbined!!! I don't fish the Chehalis system much, but for those of you that do I really feel for you. This just plain sucks! Where does the 50% thing come in? Who's monitoring this? When are we going to band together and stop taking it in the shorts? You know I'm no law expert but I know court decisions have been overturned in the past. I think we are getting close to the time that a challenge is necessary!
CM

W.D.F.W. Can kiss my sporty A$$.Boycott w.d.f.w. and grow some nades and not purchase a 2005 license,hold out until they can be a little more on the fair side of thing's.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Another kick in the junk from the tribes with an assist from WDFW.

We need to hold our CO-MANAGERS, the WDFW & Tribes, responsible for these actions and lack of actions. Is there a legal recourse that we sports fishermen can take to make them change there managing style and force them to become accountable.

Come on isn’t the WDFW a public works job, can we not force them to share all of the information about what is actually going on?

Like hidden agenda’s
Seams like some of their decisions favor the commercials
Columbia wild steelhead retention
Crab allocation
Shrimp Allocation
Possible netting of waters closed to sports fishermen

Actual catch records from the tribes in a timely manner.


Someone, Todd, RFA, PSA, ANYONE please let me know how we start to make our resource managers become accountable. ???????