I mostly agree with Pat's frustration over our rivers with the best habitat being closed (apparently for good), but if he thinks turning over management to the Tribes will result in him and his clients enjoying better fishing in more places, he's slitting his own throat. An honest look at what the QIN does on the coast will reveal that they produce those fish ENTIRELY so they can harvest them. They don't give a rat's a$$ about sport fishing (except for that which non-members pay to do on their reservations), nor do they care about conservation. To them, a fish is a fish, no matter how many fins, so as long as something swims into their gillnets, they're good. (To be fair, they should not have to; before white people came, nobody took more than they needed, and there was never any question the anadromous fish would return in great numbers; why should the conservation burden fall on them?)

Yes, some tribal programs produce better returns, but it's important to understand that the Tribes don't produce those fish for anyone's benefit but their own, and with that, if they are the only ones in charge, Pat needs to realize that's going to take his guiding business from confined to the Quillayute and Hoh to entirely defunct.

Careful what you wish for....

On the other hand, who does WDFW produce all those salmon for? It's not for the folks who pay the freight.

Personally, and I don't care who it is, anadromous fish management should be vested on one single entity that is publicly accountable for the results. When either side doesn't get "their legal share" it has to be publicly explained. What the current management regime lacks is accountability; nobody's job is on the line for perpetual failure.

I'm just quoting C'man's post because it is so good it needs to be repeated.

Yup. Hard to argue with that. Well said.

The weather is about to take a dramatic change and the rivers are going to blow out. https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/ The entire basin is going be at flood stage as well as the North Coast.

The rain will start out slow but a week out it is going to get ugly https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/weather/10_day.cgi so planning ahead sounds like a good idea.

Almost forgot snow will be around to make a mess out of things before the heavy rains hit. It looks to be a butt ugly 10 days or so !

Ugliest flood I worked a trap on was a rain on snow. We had, at sea level, more than a foot of snow. All came off one night. The water pushed so hard on the rack that it actually moved the concrete structure downstream a few inches.

With a rain/flooding forecast like this, you’d think the Dam operators would be getting ready. @ Howard Hanson on the Green, they are running about 300 cfs outta the dam as of noon today. Which if memory serves, is about 700cfs below average for this time of year...

What is the storage behind the dam? What is inflow into the reservoir? 300 cfs may still be drawing down the reservoir. If, by chance, the "overdraw" down and can't refill folks will scream all summer about mis-management. No matter how they operate the dam, folks will complain.

For us on the coast, this storm this morning is going to go right to cold ! Today's temps are 46 / 30 and tomorrow it is 35 / 23 with inch or so snow. With this mix you guys fishing or pulling a trailer watch out for black ice. It will be about elevation, when, where as to how dicey it gets.

12/20/2022

Black Hills will be a bitch.....nothing like the all wheel drives vehicles or 4 Wheel drive, add good tires, add drive within the conditions.

Slow but sure, only way to go BUT if you don't have to go, don't!!!!!

So at the moment Thursday 13k have lost power from Raymond North to Taholah and the storm coming in this afternoon is ice/rain/ snow so take care. It is about when and where for ice but the rain is going cut loose starting Friday this weekend from an 1 1/2 inch to 2 inches a day tapering down for a total of 12 inches over 8 days. Olympic side of the basin will get the heaviest rain and upper Chehalis less. No matter what power can get iffy tonight / tomorrow with a full blown winter storm right on its heels and we will go to flood stage rapidly. Xmas celebrations are going to take a hit I think.

We have to be in Everett around 3PM to pick up our son who is flying in from SoCal. His original flight to SeaTac, getting in at 10AM, was cancelled last night. Weatherguesser suggests melt starts around noon. I hope that, at worst, their forecast is on time.

The ground and roads are solid ice here now. Rain freezing has even turned gravel to solid ice. We do have a temperature of 32 so still busy freezing up. Did get to watch the dog's ass pass his head as he took off across the driveway trying to catch up to chipmunk who did seem to have the same traction issues! Chipmunk was happy, dog not so much after he slid into a tree broadside.

The lack of like and laugh emojis on this forum is a serious flaw. Your dog and chipmunk story still has me laughing as I type this.

Yeah, gravel driveway and paved road are slicker than deer guts on a doorknob here with ice. No newspaper delivery this morning. Not sure why I risked a pratfall to go out and check.

Our house has mostly wood floors. The cats get no traction on that, which can be funny. Watching waterfowl land on ice is a good one, too.

On a more serious note, though, deer and other ungulates that fall on ice can dislocate their hind legs. Might actually happen to large dogs, too.

Not to throw salt on the cuts, but with 50 degrees and rain measured in inches starting tomorrow, how long before the rivers rise ?

Happy Holidays and be careful y’all.

Probably faster than "normal" as I doubt the ground will thaw fast enough to infiltrate all the water.

Forecast is from about 3000 cfs at Porter now to around 10000 in 48 hours same same for Olympics in 48 hours. Going to peak around the 30th at 20000 cfs. at Porter. Similar pattern on Olympics side.

Raining and 35 degrees on the river so temperatures are rising fast but inland not so much yet.

Got the usual how you doing with the flooding from folks. Well fine but I am glad it has let up some, the wind that is. Day before yesterday with the storm I got about 8 inches of water in my shop and had to do the usual clean up washing the silt out. Yesterday with flows about the same it was two feet less and not much to worry about. Two feet is a big difference and it is all about the wind holding the bay backing everything up at high tide. Tidewater flooding is about flows, 10 ft plus tide and wind. Had all so it was a mess but dodged the peak flows matching high tide so as my brother said about the snow we dodged the bullet, again!

The river is just plain nasty otherwise. Trees and junk coming down in a constant stream. DW said the river at high tide in Aberdeen had enough trees to start logging. Huge mats of twigs, limbs, junk just everything have been a real pain but not as bad as the big windstorm a few years back.

Did see some humor though. The young bear was on my dock at high tide as my house was an island at high tide and damned if it did not find a way to fall in the river. It was high tide near slack so the current was not severe and it got a grip on the docks bumper beam and pulled itself back up. There it the sat for about 2 hours until land reappeared grunting and wailing away and then scampered off. Frankly it looked like a celebratory dance rather than running. The nearest land is about a quarter mile away in a high tide flood event as my house is more or less in a giant lake. I don't think the little guy will fall for that again!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and we should all be thankful of the better things as ugly is never far away.