Just so you don't think that the Basin is being picked on for a lack of transparency, check out the thread on the recent adoption of sport regs and the open, clear, above board, etc. cabezon regs.

As long as folks stay in their own little worlds (watersheds. fisheries, etc.) this stuff will continue to happen.

Organize

Jim " Tug " Tuggle did an great article for Reel News on the FTC website. Any and all help is greatly appreciated as we continue down the road of letting the public understand how the Chehalis Basin salmon harvest is managed by WDF&W. Link below to the article.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2tWjgmgVy3yNDFjcFZ4NS15MXc/edit

One last heads up to the NOF public input meeting at Montesano City Hall 6 to 8 this Thursday the 14th. It is your chance to let the agency know your thoughts on the 2013 seasons be it good, bad, or ugly!

I will be there. It will be nice to meet you Dave.

Well it was a interesting meeting in Montesano to say the least. Still digesting the process a bit but somethings jumped at me. That said I am just going to do a link to FTC because frankly this is Bob's BB and I do not feel comfortable using it as a platform to express my personal views. Will add this bit though, twice WDF&W's Kirt Hughes put forth the assertion that available Chinook for harvest would likely be used in the gillnets mortality harvesting Coho. Not buyin that Turkey for minute and that had to be the most outrageous thought put forward by WDF&W

http://fishingthechehalis.net/nof-montesano-update

Last year I went to the Willapa Bay NOF and I heard the words fair and equitable mentioned a couple of times. I never expected to hear those words considering the net seasons down there. Did anyone hear that this year? I fish a couple of days early October out by the Hoquiam airport. It looks like the river is going to be barren unless things change dramatically. Did WDFW say the commercials get to keep the kings they catch fishing for coho or are they going to do the sling? If they are going to hit the Chinook harvest in their coho catch does that mean there will be no king season for sports? I wanted to attend the Montesano meeting but I got the flu and thought I shouldn't give it to all of you therefore the questions. Thanks

No Fish 10:

The battle is not done......If you have some recommendations, crank up the email ability of your computer, send to WDFW, what you'd like to have for a fishery in Region 6.

Emails should go to the following people:

Raymond.Scharpf@dfw.wa.gov
Ron.Warren@dfw.wa.gov
Barbara.Mcclellan@dfw.wa.gov
kirt.hughes@dfw.wa.gov


If you are a "in-river" fisherman, NOW, is the time to let your WANTS be heard......In-river fishermen definition...ABOVE 101 bridge, Chehalis, Wishkah, Wynoochee, Satsop!!!! This could be the year, to get our CHANCE, for the fair share, that is taken from us!!!!!!!

No to fair and equitable question.

What Kirt said was the harvestable Chinook would likely be used up in mortality release http://fishingthechehalis.net/chehalis-fling in the NT Nets but it is likely the NT Nets would retain marked Chinook. He did not say that no in river or bay Chinook directly but it would suggest that or into the 5% of escapement that the Non Treaty is allowed and a drastically reduced targeted sport Chinook sport fishery.

We are at round two of a ten round brawl. It is not give up time but rather dig in and fight like hell time.

So what is the prognosis for a chinook fishery in the bay? That's the one I want! Missed it last year cause it was too short and conflicted with archery season. So I haven't been able to fish chinook in the bay for years.

It will be shorter than last year.

As a member of the Grays Harbor Advisory Group and out of respect for the other advisers participating the best I can say is this. There is not a consensus on seasons or days or species for any of the three user groups. The three are Fresh Water Sport, Marine Sport or Non Treaty Commercial and we meet again the 28th. The silence that is deafening comes from the courtesy one offers others participating in a stake holder process where different priorities and views leave the issue unresolved.

As a "sitter on the side", at the Advisory Group meeting, 3/22/2013.

Sitter.....Not allow to speak!!!!!


Observation---- Dog and Pony Show in Region 6 is alive and well


If you don't know what a Dog and Pony show is......the following is a good definition of what I see happening !!!!!


"Dog and pony show" is a colloquial term which has come to mean a highly promoted, often over-staged performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince opinion for political, or less often, commercial ends. Typically, the term is used in a pejorative sense to connote disdain, jocular lack of appreciation, or distrust of the message being presented or the efforts undertaken to present it.

As f4b posted, count on 2012-minus.

If we could just get GN's in the same "2012-minus" frame of mind, we'll be able to move this thing forward.

Left the GH discussion at NOF more dejected than anyone can imagine.

Despite all our objections, the NT gillnetters sailed outta the meeting with 14, yes that's FOURTEEN, days of netting in 2A/2D.

Paper fish created out of thin air. Imagine delaminating a three ply roll of Charmin toilet tissue.... suddenly one square becomes three! How is that possible, you ask?

Tangle nets!

Instantaneously, a 45% paper release mortality was transformed into a paltry 14.7% release mortality.... effectively fueling more than three times the gill netting than previous harvest models!

This year I thought that recreational fishers had won the lottery. A Tier 2 Chehalis Chinook fishery should provide enough fish for a limited direct recreational fishery. The commercials would be left with impacts so long as they did not restrict the recreational fishery. Because any gill net impact mortality would reduce the recreational fishery it looked like Tier 2 would dictate no commercial net days in September or October.

WDFW claimed that Tier 2 only dicates recreational start dates and does not define what a limited direct fishery is. Obviously they think it should be limited enough to fuel a significant commercial fishery in 2A/2D.

WDFW sprung a new plan on the meeting that includes a first time use of tangle nets with a 14.7% release mortality and about three times as much netting opportunity. We did not even talk about 2C net days or impacts on Humptulips fish. When they imposed the tangle net plan at least they did not ask for consensus like in past years. Most of the sport group in attendance seemed shell shocked about the outcome.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors to give the NT nets more days on the water at the expense of the sport fishermen. I don't see how RW can stand there in front of everyone and say some of the things he does. You can roll the same turd in sugar over and over, it will never taste good.

The management objective for Chehalis chinook is to meet the escapement goal, only 3 out of 15 years has this happened, and based on what I've seen the last 3 or 4 years I would guess it was pure luck. How long does it take for the manager to be held accountable? Total failure.

Didn't stick around for the discussions about regulations... we could run 6 barbed hooks in front of lead and not catch fish upriver this fall.

f4b: It'll be 3 for 16 after this season. My sense is that Ron and Kurt are the Agrncy's fall guys, and they don't have anything to say about what seasons are set; it's a foregone conclusion each year, and Phil Anderson makes the calls. The commercial bias is really shining through now, though. Sarcastic remarks like (paraphrasing) "What do you want me to do - jump in the river and put a salmon on a hook for you?" are starting to wear thin. "I AM the Department of fisheries" (a direct quote) was a good one, too.

Wonder how many days the QIN will take after they see that schedule? I'll be surprised if we don't see somebody's nets in the water 6 out of 7 days a week from October on. This may be the year I can take my mind off salmon and spend some serious time fishing late summer runs....

Interesting thoughts so far and I want to think a bit before I jump in with both feet but I will say this. Meet Phil Anderson, the real Phil Anderson! No more he helps with conservation, looks after the sport fisher, just what WDF&W is under his direction. http://fishingthechehalis.net/wdfws-historical-bias

After thinking things over in general I took some time to put my thoughts down on FTC. ( link below ) It is a fast run by of events but I think it captures what happened be good, bad or ugly. I think I will go with bad leaning toward a real ugly!

https://fishingthechehalis.publishpath.com/nof-or-what-just-happened

What I find very interesting is they used a study on the Columbia River, done on Spring Chinook.....

When in fact there is a complete study on tangle nets, done in Willapa Bay.....done in 2006....but written in 2007....

There is no way they would used the Willapa Bay study .......


http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mb/sk/pdf/Report_8.pdf


RW, KH, and Phil Anderson cooked the books.........The bias for the commercial NT fishery, reared its ugly head again.......Region 6, Management team needs to be "replaced with a new team"......Phil Anderson, shame on you...wonder what % of sports money goes to pay your salary?????? You sure don't earn it......