#1060726 - 10/21/22 12:00 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: seabeckraised]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 10/28/09
Posts: 3339
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Am I remembering correctly that last year there were four steelhead virtual town halls? I noticed there’s three this year and for some reason I feel like that’s less? Actually prefer it to be three if that’s a change. I think I heard 3 last night. I think we learned all we need to know last night, though, as regards where there will be sport fisheries: Quillayute System and Hoh. Closing Feb. 28. Have at 'em, folks! But don't bring the boat... Unless you're doing the Bogey hatchery float, of course.
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#1060728 - 10/21/22 12:09 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: FleaFlickr02]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 4502
Loc: Somewhere on the planet,I hope
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Hey... just trying to generate a little mojo here... Aren't you a sweetheart!
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in
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#1060734 - 10/21/22 06:36 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: eyeFISH]
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Returning Adult
Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 311
Loc: Elma, WA
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So I should feel guilty for not doing their job? Calling them on their crap when they aren’t willing or able to do it? Yes, I have picked up my fair share of garbage on the river. I don’t leave any (that I can recall, we’ve all probably dropped things). I have volunteered at hatcheries, at least with moving some fish around on more than a couple occasions.
The state doesn’t even have an answer on habitat. Remember when they used to remove log jams? Now they keep putting them in? Which is it? Now if you cut out a sweeper it’s a fine.
They hired a few extra fish checkers for the chehalis (according to the guy I checking the fish my last time coming back to fuller) and why not have them on the tributaries in the winter?
The WDFW has over 1500 employees…how many are just pencil pushers and redundant? Maybe get rid of a few and hire more enforcement, stream walkers and fish checkers? According another guy on here, there are only 5 people out checking redds and spawners….that’s not my fault and I won’t feel any pity on the WDFW for their choices in where to put their staffing budget. It another cesspool of government waste. Far to big but has limited reach.
It’s pretty much useless. Standing by them is just Stockholm syndrome. I don’t care who works there, they are public servants, doing a horrible job serving the public, unless your a lobbyist for the WFC and the humane society and all the other bleeding heart POS organizations that claim to love fish and have never held a fish in their hands.
If you don’t fish or hunt, you shouldn’t be allowed at the table. Period.
Fishing and hunting should not be managed or influenced by hikers and bird watchers.
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#1060736 - 10/21/22 07:12 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: FleaFlickr02]
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Juvenile at Sea
Registered: 05/12/21
Posts: 243
Loc: Mason County
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We do need some voices in management that aren't about killing stuff; that's necessary for balanced decision-making, because let's face it, how many sportsfolk could be unilaterally trusted to manage hunting or fisheries? We'd all be tempted to load the dice in favor of our favorite fishery/hunt, right?
After fish runs being in the tank, I think the campaign money working against us is our greatest barrier as a stakeholder group. Most folks at WDFW are great, hard-working people; it's not their fault leadership is rotten. I've had good experiences talking with regional bios and wardens over the years. I think those folks have their hearts in the right place. Management and the Commission are the lairs of our foes.... 100%
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#1060738 - 10/21/22 07:17 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: jgreen]
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Juvenile at Sea
Registered: 05/12/21
Posts: 243
Loc: Mason County
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So I should feel guilty for not doing their job? Calling them on their crap when they aren’t willing or able to do it? Yes, I have picked up my fair share of garbage on the river. I don’t leave any (that I can recall, we’ve all probably dropped things). I have volunteered at hatcheries, at least with moving some fish around on more than a couple occasions.
The state doesn’t even have an answer on habitat. Remember when they used to remove log jams? Now they keep putting them in? Which is it? Now if you cut out a sweeper it’s a fine.
They hired a few extra fish checkers for the chehalis (according to the guy I checking the fish my last time coming back to fuller) and why not have them on the tributaries in the winter?
The WDFW has over 1500 employees…how many are just pencil pushers and redundant? Maybe get rid of a few and hire more enforcement, stream walkers and fish checkers? According another guy on here, there are only 5 people out checking redds and spawners….that’s not my fault and I won’t feel any pity on the WDFW for their choices in where to put their staffing budget. It another cesspool of government waste. Far to big but has limited reach.
It’s pretty much useless. Standing by them is just Stockholm syndrome. I don’t care who works there, they are public servants, doing a horrible job serving the public, unless your a lobbyist for the WFC and the humane society and all the other bleeding heart POS organizations that claim to love fish and have never held a fish in their hands.
If you don’t fish or hunt, you shouldn’t be allowed at the table. Period.
Fishing and hunting should not be managed or influenced by hikers and bird watchers. Many of those things are their jobs, yes. But as fisherman, exploiting a rapidly dwindling natural resource, we should ABSOLUTELY be stewards of that same resource. If not, we’re just along for the inevitable decline. If you fail to see that, I’m sorry, but you are lost.
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#1060739 - 10/21/22 07:53 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: eyeFISH]
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Returning Adult
Registered: 04/18/12
Posts: 311
Loc: Elma, WA
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I see it. But I also know that we don’t even crack the surface when it comes to losing these fish. The WDFW has it wrong. The one thing they can control, that cost them nothing but emails and angry fisherman is closing us down.
Don’t think for one second I don’t care about the resource, or the fish in general. I have a passion for the fish, in grays harbor specifically. I want the best for them, but I’m not willing to give up my passion, culture and Heritage when we aren’t the ones who put us here or will be even a contributing factor to the demise of the fish. I’m not an advocate for over harvest or large bag limits, I just don’t buy the junk science the state pedals about mortality. It’s max 3% in almost every case. It’s 100% darn near in a mono gillnet. Birds don’t differentiate. Neither do seals, chemicals or a myriad of other factors that kill far more salmon and steelhead in the chehalis basin, but yeah…let’s get the one user group that kills a few in the grand scheme of things, the one group that wants their to more fish, let’s get them off the water.
WDFW sucks. They suck at everything. The people in the field may be decent people, I’ve encountered many…but they still espouse the same nonsensical bull that the upper level staff do. I imagine if they had opposing views and made that known they wouldn’t be employed much longer or at least not be considered for management at some point.
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#1060740 - 10/21/22 08:06 PM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: eyeFISH]
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Parr
Registered: 04/25/02
Posts: 45
Loc: U. PLACE, WA
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Went to Satsop today for sole purpose of picking up garbage left on river by 100+ "fisherman" opening day. Pleasanly surprised-very little litter on river. Parking lot not so good , but better now except for deer carcass parts left behind-seems to be a favorite place for numbnuts to leave remains! Only fish I saw were boots. 21 trailers at Fuller and over 40 cars. Gate is open on lower Chehalis-no secret as there were at least 10 vehicles at first access point!
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#1060742 - 10/22/22 06:48 AM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: FISH'N BRASS]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 4502
Loc: Somewhere on the planet,I hope
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Well day one rain was a bust for sure with 24 hr totals all around .02 and .01 with the upper basin and Olympic sides similar. The Satsop went up a few CFS but nothing to write home about. Next few days it looks like flows will drop back to about where they have been. The rains continue but it is 24th or 25th that the Satsop will begin a gradual increase and achieve average flows around November 1st. https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/Looking at the QIN and NT Commercial numbers it is clear that the large movement of fish was the vast majority of the October fish. Good inland but sure leaves a void in tidewater. The commercial catch numbers have tailed down day by day which validates that line of thinking. The question is where are the Chum? Modeled last week commercial harvest is normally equal Chum and Coho with this next week being two to one Chum over Coho. Chinook numbers are very low as normally they have cleared tidewater. Lacking a hard bump up in flows it is anyone's guess as to what the fish movement will look like. The NT commercials fish three days starting Monday so that should give us some answers. Sooner or later as flows increase something will happen to be sure as the Chum always move by the first week of November. They bring with them Coho (normally) but it has been a strange year so who knows.
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in
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#1060743 - 10/22/22 08:00 AM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: eyeFISH]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 04/25/00
Posts: 5005
Loc: East of Aberdeen, West of Mont...
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10/22/2022
NT schedule is as Rivrguy says but they only fish 7:00 a.m. -- 7:00 p.m and only gill nets, so fish have a chance if they make it to "just above the log house"....
Wynoochee trap report shows only 59 Coho and 12 coho jacks have made it that far, not looking good for that river.......maybe just late or waiting for more flows to move.....OR sport, NT, QIN, caught Wynoochee Coho in their fishery????
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"Worse day sport fishing, still better than the best day working"
"I thought growing older, would take longer"
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#1060744 - 10/22/22 08:02 AM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: Rivrguy]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 4502
Loc: Somewhere on the planet,I hope
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A friend emailed me with a question around the posting about counting Chinook redds and if they should be done spawning. No idea here but I have seen different behavior than normal. In the early 90s it was dry and broodstocking we got males but not many females and frankly we were a bit concerned to say the least. Then the Chum came in around the first of November and right with them the Chinook females all at once. Scales set but not colored and mostly a a week or more from spawning. We had to be very careful spawning because when you checked a female it would appear that the eggs had broken loose from the skeins but it would end up with only the back third of the skein or so. They were attached solidly enough that you could not get them free by shaking the skein gently and if you force the issue you get what we called blanks or eggs that would not fertilize.
Scales set indicated that they had been in fresh water for sometime but no color said not a month for sure. Thing is no self respecting Chinook will stay in holding water with Chum males brawling all over it so Chum will move Chinook upriver rapidly. That is why I always watch Chum behavior in dry years as they trigger Coho and Chinook to behave differently than normal.
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in
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#1060748 - 10/22/22 10:10 AM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: eyeFISH]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 11/21/07
Posts: 7605
Loc: Olema,California,Planet Earth
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One of the fun things about being out there on traps and such is that you see stuff invisible to most observers. In a dry but cold year we had coho sit in a hole for two months and then spawn and die in a week. We had a coho female come upstream and spawn in February. Soos Creek had a couple hundred coho blow by Jan 20 of 1993 when Clinton was inaugurated. We had 400 coho go up the Dungeness in July, ahead of Chinook and pink. And so on.
As Rivrguy says, you need many years of actually handling fish to begin to get an idea of what's going on. And we are in in for a whole new world with drier summers (lower flows) and then bang-on freshets/floods.
As Sam Wright once wrote, the real value and skill of fish (any resource, actually) manager is to evaluate the incoming in-season data and make defensible decisions on the fly. That skill only come by having a long Institutional Memory and up to date data.
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#1060763 - 10/24/22 08:36 AM
Re: FISHINGTHECHEHALIS.NET
[Re: seabeckraised]
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River Nutrients
Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 4502
Loc: Somewhere on the planet,I hope
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In the 10 day rain forecast the first three days are not much. Olympics an inch tomorrow then Wen not much and upper Chehalis not much rain to speak of. The next six days really pick up with the Olympics over an inch a day and upper Chehalis 3/4 of the Olympics. https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/Satsop will go from around the present 165 cfs to over 3000 cfs the 2nd of Nov. Porter is looking at going from the present 300 cfs to 4000 cfs Nov 2nd. Simple way to say it is somewhere 4, 5 to 6 days out the rivers are going to go mud and likely blow out.
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Dazed and confused.............the fog is closing in
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