Just returned from the Monte Boat Launch. I was talking to the fish checker. She checked 24 boats at 3:00 PM. she saw zero, no, nada, exact a mungo, NO FISH ! Saturday Oct 28, 2006, The Chehalis river has been killed.

Lets see how could this happen? Will lets have the nets in the river almost every day during the Salmon season for the last five years. Mission accomplished ! What are they going to say now, gee were sorry !!!!!! What a bunch of BS !!!

I went by yesterday... 18 boats, only 2 stinkin' fish.

We oughta be eyeball deep in coho. It's too late to keep saying "their just 2 weeks late"... we're going into the 5th week of October, folks. Guess the preseason forecast for coho was wrong. Imagine that!?

wrong on all the rivers!how do they make that BIG of a goof?

Heck, they do it every year on springers on the Big C....Why should it surprise any of you any where else?

We caught a butt load today. The boys and I put on a clinic by the Monte boat launch. Got tired of not catching salmon and switched to Squawfish. I stopped the boys after we reached 21.

I fished the Halis today also. Launched at South Monte and ran up to below the mouth of the Satsop. Not a whole lot of water in there right now! We seen quite a few dark fish rolling and the occasional chromer. Watched a couple of idiots on the bank catch king after king after king. The guy was telling everyone how you really have to let them eat it to make sure they are hooked good. Then they get these gut hooked, exhausted, black kings and wanted to bonk them for the smoker. Needless to say they didn't kill any fish while I was there.

I am with the Doc, these fish are beyond late. I don't think they will show and if they do it won't be until December. The pre-season forcast was off, but what the hell it's not like there is alot of science behind it or something. It's a shot in the dark at best.

I hate the nets, but I don't think they as a whole are responsible for this mess. At the end of the year if the system still meets ecscapement than we did well. So even after the nets take what they want we should still have fish for tommorow. I think the whole system has been mismanaged by both the WDFW and the co managers. Just look at how much of a dent the sporties put in the chinook run this year during the retention season. We way overfished our half of our half. No exscuses there! Was it legal? Sure. Was it right? Probably not.

Everyone is so quick to point a finger and blame the other users, but remember we must clean up our own back yard before we go after somebody else. The commercial guys certainly didn't do any damage this year. They wasted their time in my opinion. We need to all work together to preserve what we still have left. Until then we are just spinning our wheels.

Although the fishing sucks, I will be back out there again tommorrow. It beats sitting at home complaining about how crappy the fish runs are. Good luck to anyone that is out there, I am sure you will need it.

Good Fishin
Harbor-Hog

Amen Brother Amen!

Take a look at the escapement reports on the WDFG web site. I have fished the Naselle for many years and have never seen it like this. As of Thursday the total coho count was ONE FISH !!! (and it died in the hatchery). Late? Just how late do these fish have to be before they admit they aren't coming? The Naselle is part of the Columbia drainage (nets anyone?).

Late run- You must be talking about the hatchery reports? Those aren't escapement reports. I agree with you this is bad, really bad. Who has to admit that they aren't coming? Even if they aren't coming a closure will only mean no sport fishing as the commercial guys are all done and we have no control over the tribes. So do we close it down to just the sporties? Is that fair? If there isn't enough fish for us, than how come there is enough fish for the tribes? Doesn't make sence, nor does it seem fair but that's how it is.

Harbor-Hog

I'd be curious to see if the tribes take an "emergency measures" stance to their net schedule and scale back some dates in November. Probably not as long as we're allowed to fish I suppose. Word had it that they did well a week ago.

Chums are around but a big abscence of coho from what I've seen in my travels so far.

Suffice it to say, I've had better years!

Saw this on another board...

I laid to rest today a great old friend of mine of over twenty years. I visited her for the last time this morning. I have gotten to know her very well over the years. She has been unselfish and very giving. She has never failed to come through for me when I needed her most. Today I let her go. She was killed by WDFW mismanagement and over fishing by uncaring tribal gillnetters. I saw the signs and symptoms of impending doom for quite some time. She was evaluated by the "physicians" at WDFW. They said there was nothing that could be done. I feel she died a long agonizing death due to strangulation by cork lines and webbing. Some said that she died of a broken heart. I feel I may also.....Goodbye Chehalis. I will miss you.

"There shall be no in-season management.... except that the QIN shall be granted a make-up day if no fish are caught or high water creates poor or unfishable conditions on a regularly scheduled fishing day."

Chehalis River Salmon Harvest Management Plan

HH, I think it is unreasonable to expect the sporties to not fish when it is legal to do so. Especially considering the bleak opportunities in the other watersheds. We're supposed to have a government agency that figures all of this out and protects the resource. You can only blame the "so called" co-managers for this atrocity.

MSY and co-managment is a complete crock of $h!+.

They're just late.......I expect a shot to come in around October of 2007.

That would be funny if it weren't so pathetically sad.....(and very true)

If they are late, well... they are toast when they are bycatch in the "steelhead" nets.

all this talk about salmon and lack there of is making me sad. can we change the talk to a fish that is plentiful??? CARP!!! yea boy bring them on. lol

on a serious note, this season is sad. for all salmon runs. forcast huge runs every year and they dont show.

next year i think they should forcast a run of 10 salmon. that way if there is anyting over that we will all be so very happy.

that will solve all the problems. YEAH RIGHT IF IT WAS ONLY THAT EASY

deerslayer with a forcast of 10 fish, you won't be fishing no matter if millions of fish come in. The WDFW doesn't beleive in in-season management for the sporties only the tribe. The tribe gets make up days which I consider in-season management.

Slabhunter- Ohhh how true it is! bycatch? What is bycatch? Are those all of the uncounted fish? What a joke! I dred December every year!

Sandberg- I have got to get you in the boat with me, heck I don't care where or if we catch any fish. Superfly has told me that you and I have some stuff in common outside of the fishing world. I think a trip is in store!

Wolly Bully-
If the WDFW shuts down the river, you aint gonna be fishing it legally. A closure means it's closed to all fishing. I don't seem them doing this, but you never know when you are dealing with back door dealers.

Harbor-Hog

Oh yeah.....I forgot about the "no in-season Management" clause. Should've remembered that before I posted. Couldn't they still cease netting "voluntarily" if they chose?(key word being chose) It's not like we're going to sue them for failing to keep their nets in the river per the harvest management plan.

Eric- You being a teacher and all... Maybe you could teach the QIN the phrase "voluntarily cease netting". I don't think they would go for it. Everyone is in it for themselves, the fish are last in line! Although I am sure the QIN biologists and the WDFW biologists are meeting like crazy trying to figure out what is going on, but by then it will be to late. At least we got some chinook to the gravel. I guess we can be thankful for that!

Harbor-Hog