Was the 470 estimate for total run, fish over Bonneville or what. I can tell you one heck of a lot of fish were intercepted before Bonneville in the last two weeks.

Fish over Bonneville minus sport and commercial catch but its managed with a 40% buffer like its actually a run of 280000..

My understanding is we were to get 470K upriver fish minus the 8,000 for the netters and 17,200 for the sporties.... So roughly 450K over the dam....

Although fishing is pretty spectacular at this point, I don't see it happening... The reason I say that is if we had 20,000 fish days moving through the mid-river it would be beyond a blood bath.. Again, although it's good fishing, I haven't seen an all out blood bath yet.....

Keith

Good call keith. Just for fun i went back and looked at the counts in 2001. Unless I misread there were 88000 springers over the damn by this time that year.

Some dandy Minus tides this week.... Hopefully that will get the big herd on the move!! Makes a guy wonder!

Keith

6 for 7 on saturday with 5 fish in the box.It took from 7:00am till 3:45pm but we got it done.Same boat on sunday was 4 for 6 with 4 in the box by 8:10am.Hopefully it holds till it closes on the 18th.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

15-20 fish days shouldn't be out of question if we really see the mother load they've predicted...

We had several 20+ fish days last year at Bonneville this week, sorting through the cookie cutters looking for the bigger fish....

Keith

Ya got 6 days to prove it.


Probably do better if you park your ass below the dam

I'm not out to prove anything, just saying it's possible... I've tripped over a few good bites in the past on a lot smaller returns, if we see the real motherload this year I'd think it could happen again....

Keith

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/OSCRP/CRM/FS/10/10_04_14wf12.pdf


She's staying open!

Great rebuttal! Tight lines, there on the move. If expected numbers do start showing I would see no reason why the season shouldn't be opened back up. I'm not sure why they stuffed the season in such a small area. They could open the river some to avoid such congestion. If the quota is caught shut it down. If not at least bring a little less stress to those in the fishery.

They didn't stuff it intentionally, the crowds were nothing more than the Willamette puking pulling everyone up from the lower river. On top of that the mighty power of the internet had everyone congested to the hot Davis bar/I5 bite..

Sadly enough, I've trolled Catepillar island for 12 years now to avoid the crowds but this year, it was discovered.......

On another note, the bite was nothing short of spectacular yesterday at Cathlamet and Kalama. The numbers I heard I'd call BS, but with some reliable reports sounds like it really happened....

Keith

Why would you call the numbers BS? Are they to high or low?

Seams to me with limited manpower it would make sense to focus those that really count at the ramps. Would you prefer fly overs and estimations? Over the last couple of years it's pretty obvious the OFW and WDFW are not very good at this.

I'm not trying to pick a fight here Keith. Just another opinion.

No, I was saying that a friend of mine was down fishing at Cathlamet and witnessed what he said was 100 fish on at once, I've fished all my life and never seen that. He swore he wasn't exaggerating... Point being, if there were 100 fish on at once there has to be a wave of fish coming like that of shad on peak days..........................

Hang on tight KK and Chuck, I think you'll be in for a doooozy!!

Keith

No to what question?

100 fish on at once at Cathlamet? I've fished there many times and it must have been a site.

Hmmm 100 fish on at once at cathlamet, just watch. 10,000 fish for April 11-18th

Well there betting were going to break 280000 or they would have closed it..

SBD -
A catch of 10,000 this week is not much of a reach. Last week there were 9,100 kept. 47% of the so-call 17,200 guideline was caught last week.

If the fishing continues at last weeks pace (and most are thinking it is improving) we are going to blow by that 17,200 guideline by at least a 1/3. Seems to me that folks are betting the run is going to break 375K or once again the up-river folks will be left holding the bag.

Tight lines
Curt

and just 2 weeks ago they closed the terminal fisherys over 4 or 5 extra impacts..

X2

BUT it's got an extra fin.