+100

You all missed my point. I don't disagree that the dumping of trash, pooping all over the place, and leaving fish remains everywhere is bothersome.... I was merely stating the fact that I do not think it is a coincidence that the upper river all got closed just last year, and NOW (after this fishery has been the same garbage piling, poop smelling mud hole for YEARS and YEARS) they have decided to charge to stop a problem that has been going on forever. They saw an oppotunity to corner the market on the Samish fish and capitalized on it for MONEY. Honestly, the pay policy wont even stop the poop and trash, you know why? Because the poopers and trash throwers will just buy the permits then poop everywhere and throw their trash all over the place and do it all with a permit for land use. IF they get caught there permit will get yanked and that's IF they get caught.

My point is more that it has to do with MONEY and NOT the land use issues. Period. If you don't agree with me, that's fine, this is just my opinion based upon my observations. I don't ask you to agree or follow me, all I am saying is I think they are greedy and that stinky ditch ain't worth anyone's C-note to fish in. AND you're all right, its their land, if they want the moolah then they can do what they please I am not even attempting to argue that one bit.

I was up there last year and the amount of people wasn't "worse" than it had been for years past, and the trash and poop problem seemed to be right about the same as always.

So to fall back on my original post: Sounds like they have taken all the FUN OUT OF FISHING! And therefore, I will not be going. Because to me, fishing should be and IS always FUN!

how "fun" can fishing a ditch be? Is it the beautiful scenery? Or perhaps the picturesque tailouts in the ditch? For God sakes, it's a freakin' slough/canal/ditch etc...

never been there, don't plan on going either.

For what it's worth, I probably won't be participating in the lower river king thing either. Haven't done since the early 90's, when I used to fish the chum thing in Whatcom creek also....Just hate combat fishing anywhere/uglyness anywhere, even in a salmon choked stream in AK. However, I've never witnessed 100's of kings flood into a "ditch" on a flood tide anywhere south of the border, except the Samish. The drainage has some of the best juvenile habitat around(fish bio's feel free to chime in), and is some of the most diverse water in our neck of the woods. I'd personally be fine if WDFW closed the whole lower river(to I-5) during the migrations, and make the upper catch and release for 4 years and see what happens. Every dead fish in the river feeds the whole system, and since it's just a "ditch"....would be a good candidate for this. There are still native fish in that river, and I'd love to see them survive/flourish..The number of redds on my "family's" property has diminished exponentially in the last few years, and I feel that this is one of the few gem's left in our area to focus on for the future.....I'm fully aware that most of the fish are hatchery, but in area 7, fin is ok, and if I caught a fin toting king in the bay(samish), then I'd have a quandry about keeping it, as it's probably one of the few that's headed home. Why WDFW allow's keeping native's is beyond me....Maybe a fish bio could inform me why this is allowed..

It's the mind set of a land owner. I used to fish land of an old farmer, deceased now, who encouraged fishermen because fishermen kept the drug users, partiers and dumpers out. The Samish, however, is a joke and that's the type of "fishermen" you get there.

Hmm, that's pretty funny... seems like we agree on this. Maybe you should learn to read.

Public access to navigable waterways is a federally guaranteed right, granted to each state upon admittance to the Union.
State Legislatures lack the authority to over turn these federally granted rights.

Freespool:

Tell that to the Navy in Everett or to the various other "public" property owners that close off their shorelines or otherwise limit access. After you win your discussion with them then talk to the large private property owners such as the railroads (tresspassing to cross the tracks to access the sound). Yup, sure sounds good on paper; let us know how you are doing on that in another 80 years or so......

I'd pay the owner $1,000 if he'd require the $100'ers to pick up my poop. They could toss it into the free zone if they wished.

On the Skok $75 gives you a key and the right to drive into the fields, no one is excluded from walking in and fishing...........a little different for sure and we have kings on 1 August when it opens and therefore a crowd, oh yeah it is a river, not just a ditch......It does sound as though there are many of the same problem in both.

All those fish are of hatchery origin and are put there by the tribes for the tribes. Fish that make it past the nets offer great flossing opportunities for the sport fisherman that congregate near the mouth. In recent years the recreational harvest has been in the low thousands leaving the tribes dumfounded at the number of chinook they are missing out in the bay.

Meanwhile the Samish hatchery has been so overwhelmed with the amount of fish returning upriver that they have been passing them upstream of the rack to spawn at the landowners discretion. These non-native fish are competing with cutthroat, rainbow, steelhead, pink, sockeye, chum, and silver salmon, all of which are native to the samish river.

I don't know exactly how many kings are actually naturalizing in the samish but if you would prefer out of basin kings to wild fish than flame away. Otherwise quit bitching about access to a floss fishery and let the tribes feel the pain!

wria won is right.

A number of years ago the guy running the hatchery program and I had a nice phone chat (I was getting info on some rumors about closure of the hatchery). He told me that the main reason the fish were there was for the tribe and we were secondary.

Then 2 years ago there was a fish checker at the lower end all season. 1 day I had 2 fish, 1 clipped and 1 not. I told him that I had 1 hatchery and 1 native. He told me they were all hatchery. The unclipped one had a tag in its head when he scanned it.

I think if you check you will find that the majority (all?) of the money supporting the Samish hatchery comes from the State. Let's remember that hatchery has been in operation for more than a century (pre-dating the Boldt decision by many decades).

Further while it may be true that the tribal fishery catches the majority of the fish (though I don't know the %) in Samish/Bellingham Bay those returning Samish adult enter a number of non-tribal fisheries in significant numbers. Besides the recreational fishery they are caught in good numbers in the non-treaty commercial fishery (just heard the other day as of last week non-treaty gill net fishery had taken over 4,000 fish), the recreational fishery in the marine waters (especially eastern San Juan) inlcuding a number of mix stocked areas (both summer and winter.

wria -
Is right in that those Chinook are not native to the Samish (Green River fall Chinook were the source). Those hatchery fish do have impacts on other fish stocks; during their hatchery rearing, out migration, and natural spawninng.

I'm not sure what all the above has to do with the main topic of this discussion.

Tight lines
Curt

i have fish the samish on and off since the mid 70's. Things have always been the same. the garbage left by fisherman is minimal but someone has to pick it up, it seems to be an over issue and away to get rid of the fisherman which I am sure are a pain to the adjoining property owners who began shutting off portions of the river to access two years ago. The first to get shut off were the Sunset rd area and Church road due to someone picking up a dog. Those people then moved to other areas of the river and made them even more crowded. Last year we saw areas around Thomas bridge closed, again crowding other areas more. This year we see the east side of the river access at Edison closed and a pay fishery implemented. Make no mistake money is what it is about. Those people that once fished there are now making other areas even more crowded and exacerbating problems there. I talked to WDFW and they indicating that the property was owned to the mean LOW TIDE only !!! but........laws prevail, there is always a public easement along roads and bridges and one can use that easement to access the bridge area, they must stick to the easement and stay below the mean low tide. Lee said if your feet are wet you are ok. People are told they must pay so they do. People complain about the crowds and the snagging and they do happen but is blown out of proportion and is being used as an excuse to close access and alleviate the eyesore of a hundred guys fishing, traffic and parking congestion and all that that entails. This is a popular fishery and for the most part is self policeing. Many people do not know the regs or ignore them and lack some basic fishing etiquette. Some bring the laws and methods from their home countries here and should not. We as sportsman should be our own best friends not our own worst enemies. Access to these resources is a privilege not a right and should be treated as such. Pick up garbage , educate others to laws and regs and show the property owners that we are the solution not the problem.

Hey if it is a problem..go launch ur boat out at Larrabee and fish the bay prior to their (the kings) arrival into the samish river. There is pleny of access and room to anyone that has a small but seaworthy boat. Multiple kings are caught on a given day in the bay....if you own a boat. Pay up or Quir ur bitchin..all of you guys that claim a spot on the mighty samish. LOL

ive found a pistol and some tattoo's usually work pretty well