1. Lottery
2. No Motors and No Fishing From Boats
3. Swing Fly Fishing Only w/ No Bobbers.

I have to agree with Stam 100%. The tribe has proven to be far better at raising fish then the state and we as sportsman need to be aligned with them to help improve our fishieries on the Green. But it is not only the Green they also help other river systems in our area like the White river,Clearwater,Greenwater!

Whatever the regs, we NEED to get recreational sportfisherman back on the river. Just our presence deters a good portion of illegal harvest by the locals and illegal netting by the tribes. With the declining amount of enforcement, WE become responsible for upholding rules and regs. Don't believe me, float the Sauk in March or April. I used to say float the Sauk in May, when Tarheel season opens up, but now we've opened it up a few months earlier for them.

As far as regs, given the length of fishable water on the Skagit, it seems like a PRIME candidate to be sectioned and allow every group to get their fix. Something like...

-Sleds and everything from the dalles bridge down
-No fishing under power dalles bridge to Rockport
-No gas motors above Rockport or in the Sauk
-No fishing from a floating device above Darrington or Cascade Bridge

No bait, single barbless everywhere and NO anchoring in the water by anyone any where.

It seems like a good way to reduce conflicts between sportsfisherman and creates something we can all get behind. Plus is spreads everyone out and creates a bigger presence out on the water.

WDFW can only regulate fishing and hunting. So, you can't fish from a boat, you can't fish from an anchored boat, and so on. If you are not fishing, they can't regulate your activity. Same as you can't hunt ducks from a boat under power. You can use it as transportation, use it to rescue other hunters, etc.

So what is with all the bashing on boats with motors or floating devises?
What do they do so much more wrong than a bank fisherman...?

In a large stream boats allow you to effectively cover ALL holding water in the stream. Fish in large streams inherently hold in locations that are difficult to make good presentations from the bank, even if you can cast there. Ever watch a bank fisherman with nearly same gear as you hook fish from the other side that you already cast to?? (I have) Even on smaller to medium sized streams there some less agressive fish that will bite when you get closer and make better presentations. If you can stop your boat (or use a motor) to hold it in place you can litereally stop nearly anywhere (depending on the vessel) and make effective presentations. If there are only bank anglers just by virtue of where you can stand and wade to, MANY fish will never be fished at. The goal here is to reduce hook-ups (LOL) but still let a lotta people fish!

No hooks, you get to fish with a piece or yarn (wool for those across the border), this should cut down on the number of fish landed or harmed.

I tend to bail on a fishery that becomes this restrictive, mainly because it means you shouldn't be pestering them in the first place.

GBL,

It's not what boats do wrong, but what they do so well. Fishing from a boat permits more hookups per angler day fished. The objective in this exercise is to limit the total number of wild steelhead hooked to keep the incidental mortality below 250. You either need fewer anglers in the fishery or else make each angler less efficient, on average. No fishing from boats is one way to decrease overall catch.

Sg

I guess you can look at it that way, Or, I can hook 5 Steelhead, land them in under 5 minutes.....in the water and they go free while the bank fisherman or Fly guy spends 30 minutes trying to land the same 20 lber running up and down the bar or bank and takes the life right out of them.
Watched it many times on the Skagit and Skykomish, I have even run over and picked up bankies with large Steelhead on and take them out and chase down the fish to land it or release it.
The whole motorized boat things is just a way for one user group to feel better standing in the water....alone. Next they will outlaw drift boats because they catch more fish, where does it end, with one guy permitted on each gravel bar for 2 hours at a time and the whole time the Indians run by with their drift nets?
If it is that big an issue, shut it completely down and let the Indian have it until they either manage it correctly or the fish are gone. Of course, if it gets shut down you would hope the Indians would leave it alone and let the river heal, but not much chance of that.
And before someone goes off about Indian bashing, I have been around them for 60 years and watched what "their" nets do to the Skagit, don't care how you spin it, a full net of Native Steelhead is not good for river...and when it is 15 nets, it just makes it that much worse and that is what you find in the Skagit every year.

GBL,

I completely agree with you regarding sleds. You almost always land fish quicker, even if you're using lighter gear. Plus, as long as you release it while floating, its basically the ideal scenario for releasing a fish. No netting needed, no dragging it up on the beach, no reviving it in fast moving water.

I say no anchoring because the Skagit is a prime example where people drag their anchors so they can all fish. This KILLS me when I see it. That being said, dragging an anchor through a redd is no different than dropping an anchor on a redd.

Although these would seem like very complex regs, it gives everyone a chance to fish using their own favoritie method. Everyone should have the opportunity to fish for them if they want. Completely eliminating opportunity for one specific group (jet sleds) based on your own beliefs is not only ignorant, but very hypocritical. No matter what group you fall under, there will always be another group wanting you off the water for their own 'beliefs'.

1.) A PS steelhead permit should be appropriately priced for a season, say $120, from which the revenue must go towards improving the efficacy of escapement estimates. Some (most?) PS rivers are using outdated indexes: some estimates do not account for main stem spawners and some do not realistically account for highly productive tributaries. This results in an artificially low escapement every single year.

2.) Work with the tribes, some of which (i.e., Lummi, Tulalip, Muckleshoot) are more willing than ever to find common ground with anglers, to improve the season for anglers. WDFW won't willingly lead the charge on this one so angler groups will need to tackle this.

3.) Restrict access in known highly productive tributaries, sub-basins, or sub-basin sections to reduce encounters.

So what Steelspanker?
I hook 5 fish in a day and release them all within 10 minutes of hooking them, they all live while one bankie plays a fish for 30 or 40 minutes and it dies after being completely exhausted.
I'll take the 5 hook and quick release any day!
Ever watched a Fly Guy on a 20lb fish from the bank? I have and it is painful to see a fish run in and out in and out for an hour and then released in triumph. Anyone that knows fish and exhaustion knows that fish has little chance of survival.

GBL,

Good thing or bad thing, but the fish management regulations are based on the data, not on what you think you know. As you say, you catch 5 fish in your sled to the bank angler's one. Therefore the incidental mortality rate says you kill 5 times as many fish over the course of the season, and therefore the regulations will be adjusted to decrease the total number of fish caught. What better way to do it than to restrict fishing from boats? Just because you say that the bank angler's fish dies and yours live doesn't make it so.

Sg

And the mortality rate is based on the same data and people they use to predict fish runs, and that is such a good system.
If you are really worried about the fish and not your opportunity to hook one, then you shut the whole thing down and go golfing for 10 years and let the run heal.
Simple as that, but no one wants to do what is right for the fish unless it is easy on their ability to use the resource.

How about pull your head out of your @ss and leaqve well enough alone. That extra so called expendable 250 steelhead sure would be nice throwin some rocks around instead of sittin upside down a half mile downstream from where it was released. C&R can wait steelhead can't. These dumb profiles of people who think a mortality of 250 fish for a c&R season is reasonable is just frickin stupid.

Jump in your sled, run down the river, find a good place to fish, park the boat, jump out and fish.

So simple a caveman could do it.

Flyfishermen advocating for no fishing out of boats on the Skagit should prepare themselves for sharing the handful of good bars with every spoon and drift fisherman on the river...that's gonna be fun.

Don't complain about it when it happens, not if you ask for it.

Fish on...

Todd

If the choices are that or no fishing - I'll take the fishing!

Seems like every group/angler is only looking out for their own interests. Fly fisherman want bank fishing only, Drift boaters want no fishing under power and BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Too many SELFISH fisherman and not enough fish.

Same story, different pile.

Uh, one second here please. It's not fly fishermen wanting bank fishing only. It's the fishery manager having to regulate so that fewer fish are caught. If, using GBL's personal example, the jet boat angler catches 5 fish to the bank angler's 1 fish, how is that not the perfect method to look at restricting when the goal is to have fewer fish caught?

It's perfectly natural for a fishery to evolve to where fishermen develop more effective methods of catching fish. This works great until it reaches the point where there are not enough fish to fulfill the fleet's ability to catch fish. At that point, management has no choice but to reduce harvest (or incidental mortality in this hypothetical example). The ways that is done are:

1. Limit the methods and or gear allowed in the fishery;
2. Limit the time on the water via open periods (like commercial fishing that gets 1 or 2 days per week, etc.;
3. Limit the number of anglers participating in the fishery.

The reason I started this thread asking for feedback is if "having it your way" is not one of the choices on the menu, then what alternative way would you prefer. And for those who suggest keeping it closed another 10 years until the run rebuilds to the point where the good old days are back again may as well get over it. It won't happen in 10 years, it won't happen in 50 years. Maybe something slightly better than what is currently available is what the "good old days" are going to be like in the coming decades. The only choice on the menu is deciding how to manage that. Welcome to the future in Puget Sound and WA state.

Sg