I have been contacted by the King County Outdoor Sports Council concerning the "liberalization" of steelhead fishing regulations for some of the north coastal streams; ie Hoh, Clearwater, Quillayute etc. These people want me to write to Evan Jacoby, WDFW Rules Co-ordinator, and tell him what a great idea it is to increase harvest of wild fish on these rivers due to the fact that there is a surplus of harvestable fish. I am naive as far as stock assement for these systems, although I have fished some of these rivers on occasion. I am not a real advocate of bonking steelhead but do like to wack a hatchery brat when I can. My question is two-fold: are these systems really that healthy that an increase in harvesting wild fish is warranted? Also if WDFW maintains that there is a supplus of wild fish and the sports fishers don't utilize their right to their 50% will the tribes exercise their right under "forgone opportunity" and harvest the remaining fish? Any thoughts will be welcome. The King County Outdoor Sports Council is trying to get letters to Jacoby by December 6th.

well, if you think that 5,900 wild fish is an adequate escapement goal for the 4 rivers in the quillayute system then it might be a good idea. personally, i don't think that 5,900 is a realistic goal based on the available habitat and what these rivers can produce if given a chance. also, how hard are the escapement numbers the state says are spawning in the rivers? i for one, am not confident in the accuracy of their counts. for the winter of 97/98, the state says 17,000 wild fish spawned in the quillayute system. this was the year all sports harvest of wild steelhead was shut down due to concerns over low run sizes, and the quillayute sees a bump of 5 to 6,000 fish over the average escapement of the previous few years. i would love to hear bob's take on the fishing that season compared to seasons's with average escapements. there is already harvest opportunities allowed in the quillayute under existing rules, and i believe that managing harvest conservatively is wise and prudent especially since this is considered the last, best run left in the state. also, on the quillayute a signifigant segment of the run is virtually non-existent. the early times stock of wild winter steelhead (nov, dec, jan) once made up around 30% of the total run size... now it's way down. i think we need all the parts to consider it truly a healthy run.

as for the hoh, it's pure insanity to increase harvest. the hoh has been closed early 3 of the last 4 years due to low run sizes, and has only beat escapement one time since 1990. seems like a logical place to increase harvest (note sarcasm *g*). the other part of the proposal on the hoh would do away with the selective fishery waters from morgan's crossing down to the 101 bridge. one might note on this that the hoh's bull trout/ dolly varden have just been listed as threatened under the esa... again, does this proposal make sense.

as for the foregone opportunity stuff with the tribes, that's a matter for the courts to decide. we shouldn't be trying to knock the runs down for fear that sometime in the future the tribe may try to catch our "share". i say we wait until that becomes reality until we decide to take drastic actions that don't benefit the fish.

the current regs in place allow harvest opportunities for those who want to harvest wild steelhead (5 per year in the quillayute, 2 per year in the hoh, and 2 per year in the clearwater). that's 9 wild steelhead, plus an additional 21 punches on the punchcard that can be filled with hatchery fish, which are planted in all the systems mentioned above (not sure about the clearwater, but can't imagine it doesn't get a plant of winter fish). the rules provide this harvest opportunity while allowing a buffer to provide for wild stock health, and since the existing rules haven't been in effect for a full life cycle of the wild steelhead so we haven't seen the effects of conservative harvest and higher spawning counts in the rivers.

i suggest sending a letter to wdfw about these proposals. i have written one for each proposal. send wdfw a message that managing for high escapements and healthy wild runs is a good thing, and that we don't need to overharvest every single fish stock in this entire state.

this group you mentioned has been pissed about the existing regs since they were implemented and have been fighting to get them overturned ever since, and i imagine will continue to if we decide not to follow failed management practices of the past and over harvest our precious wild runs.

chris