just a quick question, i must be living under a rock now a adyas. last sunday i decided to stroll down south the the new bridge over the nisqually and try a few shrimp. found nobody nowhere eles in sight. fished for a short time when 2 nisqually police stopped by and asked when they reopened the river?
i said like some yahou, it is not closed till the end of the month, like normal.
well they left, but it put a glint of suspision in my pee brain, so i drove up to franks landing and sure enough, there posted on a tree is a signe; NISQUALLY RIVER SYSTEM CLOSED UNTIL JUNE 1, 2000.
whoa besty! what i have been doing and where and when did things change, i nearly got busted by 2 real nice cops and they just hinted and left.
anyone know what is going on, is there an escapement problem or did the last hig water run fish smolts out of the hatchery?

thnaks elmtree.

The Nisqually has been closed to sportsfishing for steelhead for at least the last eight years. What a shame as I have some great memories of some fantastic days in March and April on this river. I'm sure their still netting the river though.

Elmtree,

I'll tell you what I know.

The Nisqually has been in serious decline for over a decade. This was one of the rivers I learned the ropes on back in the early 80's when it was still good. Even then, reports from the old-timers were "it's not as good as it used to be." But, there were fish and in enough abundance to go with confidence that if you put your time in, you were going to have some action. Like many rivers that get hammered, the fish "held their own" so to speak and always returned in fishable numbers. That was up until the mid to late 80's.

Then, numbers suddenly dropped sharply one year(don't remember exact one)and the usual "they're just late" became the norm. It's never been the same since. As I remember it, The drop was drastic enough that not even indian netting was blamed for the decline because the netting was somewhat regulated. There was specualtion that something else was happening. Habitat wasn't the main issue because the nisqually is still a wild river albeit below alder dam. But, that's alot of usable area. I remember reading that WDFW suspected a virus of some kind was either killing eggs during incubation in the gravel or at some point when the fish were young. It was a theory as I recall and WDFW kind of drifted off in the mist as afr as informing the public.

Maybe they are as clueless to the cause of mortality as they were back then. Or, if they know, perhaps they have no cure if it is a virus. You probably shouldn't take this account as absolute fact but that is the way I remember it and I'm am probably off on a few points but I definitely remember news of a potential lethal virus.

Too bad, it was a great river at one time. If any WDFW personnel read this I would really be interested in being brought up to date on the status of the Nisqually. What do you know?

Interesting Eric. I was wondering myslf what happened.Its funny because the king&chum runs are big.They even had salmon in a small creek in Roy last year that hasnt seen fish in a decade.The way they net it I cant believe there is a fish left!

[This message has been edited by LoomisMan (edited 03-14-2000).]

The river was being drift netted during the night real hard!!! There was a sting some years ago and they were caught selling the fish. Thats when the restictions were put in force. It was one of the best March and April rivers. Many fish in the high teens and low 20's. It was a very good river!!!!!

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Tight Lines!!

Thats sad to hear. I was stationed at FT. Lewis WA in the late 70's 2/75 RANGERS. We spent a lot of time around that river on our days off, and did some training there every now and again. That was also the first place I ever saw a gill net. Its been a long time since I heard the town of Roy mentioned. Sort of sends me down memory lane.

B MAC, think you are wrong, i fished on the nisqaullay with loads of other people early this year for steelhead, both up and down the system, from roy down to the new bridge. at that time there were no signs posted anywhere.
what i am asking is just recently the whole system has been shut down, small paper signs nailed to tree's, what an enviromental help, put more metal into our tree's by the state.
now i hope they i am not totally out to lunch, because i would have hated to have been fishing unlawfully all this time.

elmtree

Hey, guys what happend to the nisqually was a number of things. First you can thank fishing and hunting lies for promoting it to death in the early 80's for" best place to limit on Wild Steelhead". Then you can place some blame on indian over harvest, then habitat loss/damage. I live near the river and fish it often when it is open. The salmon are doing well, except this years chum return was low from the floods a few years back. But the Indians stopped netting it and begged the state to close it to all fishing, which they did on Jan 8th. Then about Jan 15 th the chums started rolling in so I am sure they reached ther escapement levels. as far as steelhead there has been talk of a c&r season next year, who knows, but I am friends with some of the indians down there and they do there thing responsibly, they only fish salmon I believe 2 to 3 1/2 days per week during the peak of the run so they are not the problem any more. Now it is up to the State and the sportsman to help out,don't hold your breath waiting for the state. Thanks Superfly

Having grown up on this mighty river during the late 60's and on i can tell you about the good old days,caught my first steelie when I was 9 it was 17 lbs ( according to my dad ) it looked huge to me,I remember that fish almost pulling me in.I personally witnessed the night time drift netting between 2 drift boats on several nights,I heard that if then fish run declines to unfishable numbers then the tribe is combensated by the government(figures).I remember the 40lb days 2 fish over twenty each Hell I even had a 50 lb day ...no B.S.1 fish 28 ,the other 25 plus...incredible,for years this was the best kept secret in the state.Even though the river has been closed for 8 years I have still managed to catch a steelie this year and last,they were early fish and released,I have been tarketing them toward the end of chum season just to see if they're still around..far and few between.I don't know any virus because this river had no steelie hatchery,but I do know about OVER FISHING.....my .02

My very best memories of fishing come off this river. I remember one time that I made three cast and caught one chrome, one stripped and one spawned fish. It was incredable fishing! It was never if you would catch a fish it was always how many and how big. I think what caused the problem was way to many sportsman and Indian fishing. I don't think the Indian's are any more to blame than the sportsman. You could really point a finger at WDFW. When I first started fishing it no one was around, I was a lot of times the only guy on the river and fishing was great with a one fish limit. Stupidly, I complained to WDFW and maybe had something to do with upping the limit to two fish. Than more people started fishing it and pretty soon WDFW was doing news releases about the fabulous wild Steelhead runs and that it was open for two fish a day till the end of April. It soon turned into a Cowlitz River but I don't think the native run could support the pressure. At that point I was complaining to WDFW that they should lower the limit and possible make it more of a catch and release river. I still remember what the Fisheries Department said to me. They said that the river had a very healthy fish run and that they weren't going to let anything happen to it. I think it was only about three years later that the runs really started to go south and than soon after they started reducing the season. There is one very odd thing about the Steelhead run in the Nisqually and that is for some unknown reason the portion of hen's to buck's is like ten to one. I remember seldom catching buck's and we always thought that was great cause it keep us in the bait. I now know much better that a native fish is much better to have in the river than on my dinner table,
I do hope that maybe with the high ratio of hen's to buck's that the Nisqually is making a fast come back. One thing I've learn about the Fisheries Department is that they don't have much of a clue as to what really comes back into a river. I hope someday I will be able to go back to that river and enjoy finding some of those old drifts I use to fish.

I'm suprized to hear that it is only the one river that is closed. I live on Vancouver Island and many of our East coast rivers are closed to fishing because of very, very low returning fish numbers. The island has been c&r for many years but this has not increased the numbers in the majority of rivers. Some rivers on the Westcoast are still in allright shape, but for the mostpart stocks are declining. Most of your posts talk about overfishing, but have you considered the effects of El nino. Poor ocean survival is out of most peoples control. In our case if the fish don't return then there's nothing to fish for. I don't know the year the big problems began down there but if it was 1986 this would have been the first of the years that it had a great effect on fish numbers. Poor ocean survival can also be attributed to overharvest by commercial fishers. Hope your rivers don't head the way ours are headed.I 'm keeping my hopes up that the numbers will start to climb.

Tight lines.

Just a couple of thoughts, first the last year the river was open we did very well. Makes you wonder if the numbers are down as much as thought? Two how the heck do they do the spawning surveys? The river is quite colored up during the spawn. I have heard they do steam surveys on the tribs and calculate it from that. Could be some one just doesn't want us on the River?

One story before I quit. The fish that smoked me worse than any other came from right in front of a big root wad, about yanked my rod out of my hand then peel off about 100ft of line, turned and went whipping back up river with the line ripping through the water leaving me with a ton of slack cranking as fast as possible. I tighted up just in time to have it race back down past me and right back to the root wad and bust me off. (all happened in about 30 seconds)I will never know how big it was but the memory of what it did to me is etched in my mind forever. I believe it would have been a personal best for me. I have caught several over 20lbs and nothing has ever come close to what this bad boy did to me. I sure hope, some day to be back on this river after the bigone that got away.

Caught my very first steelie on the Nisqually. Have very fond memories on that river. It was a great river in the mid 80's. It's a dirty, low-down, rotten shame what's happened to that river. Lots of great steelhead water on that river too bad there aren't any fish left in it.

It's about fishing rights The tribe still gets it's insodental catches ooppss another steelie in our chum nets,this river is the classic example of mismanagement to the extreme ,why hasn't there been any progress in the last 7 or 8 years,WHO IS BENEFITTING FROM THIS CLOSURE,WHO IS BEING COMPENSATED BECAUSE THEY CAN'T SET THEIR NETS FOR NATIVE STEELHEAD ANYMORE....NUF SAID

The Nisqually has good runs of salmon most years. This year it was closed due to low return of chums. The steelhead were mostly wiped out by overharvest. As for netting on the river, the Tribe nets from noon wedsnday to noon sunday, then goes over to McAlister creek. Which BTW is the old Medicine creek.

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Just because I look big, dumb, and ugly, doesn't mean I am. It means I can stomp you for calling me it!

Hey!
I,ve never fished the Nisqually, and look's like I never will. The point that I think should be brought up here is, read the regulation's before you fish any body of water. If you think you can depend on sign's, your going to be sadly mistaken(of your money!) The reason you saw other fisher's is because the salmon were open until Jan 31. Trout and other gamefish closed on Nov.30. Word.

Hey guys! Is there a launch around yelm anywhere?If so could a guy drift from there to the I-5 bridge?and how long is the drift? That would be a fun one for kings .I have never drifted it but fished down by the bridge on the south side of I-5 Off the bank.It can be a zoo down there I would like to drift it if it is possible.
To all that might fish here please C&R..Kevin

[This message has been edited by puresteel (edited 03-19-2000).]

[This message has been edited by puresteel (edited 03-19-2000).]

Yes, it can be floated but not as far upstream as Yelm. Highway 510 leaving Yelm toward the reservation, right on the tank-crossing bridge and just before the bridge (furthest upstream point to legally fish for salmon) is a good put-in spot. Have seen many put in at that location. E-Mail me if you need more info.

I work for the Dept of Fish & Wildlife.FYI they have been stocking the river with steelhead since the late 50's through at least the early 80's;beyond the 80's I am not sure.This raises some questions;are they still stocking?If so,why is it closed ?Protection of the Native run is understandable,but if there are fishable numbers of stocked fish in the river and the WDFW knows something we don't something needs to be done.I have fished this river since I was a kid and its a shame that such a river is so restricted to steelie fishing.

Puresteel,

I have floated the river from the power station by Yelm. It is a nice float The only thing is you will want to watch out for is log jams. don't get to close to them. This river is the most dangerous in Thurston county. I know a sheriff and he told me they do the most rescuse on the Nisqaully. People like to float it on tubes and air mattreses and get into truble when they get to close to the many log piles allong the river. but any body wo floats any river knows that you gotta be careful not to get to close to them. I like floating it in the summer just to get out. it's only a few min. from me. as for fishing it for Kings. I would think it would be good if ya can fish around all the nets. when the nets are in they are in every hole and if you were to hook one it would end up in a net.


dcrzfitter