Hopefully next year the meetings are in person. I’ll try to remember to bring it up next meeting, but any idea how many more years the Nooch hatchery fish will be unclipped? Would be nice to utilize those hatchery fish and spread out some of the pressure on other rivers.

What hatchery fish on the Nooch? That has not come to pass as far as I know and pretty much a bone of contention with WDFW.

https://www.ifiberone.com/south_sound/ne...1c742fffdc.html

Did this never get put it into action? When I first remember reading about it, I was pretty excited about those numbers. Or are these the dam mitigation fish that the WDFW keeps dragging their feet on?

The Coho are Mit for the power generation function at the dam not the Wynoochee Dam itself and yes these are the Coho smolt they have failed to produce for the better part of 30 years. So the article is Sept 4 2019 and it is now March 2022 heading for 3 years and same o same o. One should not hold their breath on this one as you will expire before it moves a lick.

Okay I’m seeing the trend myself now. Definitely will be bringing this up in the future.

03/24/2022



The 2 persons mentioned in the article, Ron Warren and Larry Phillips, are no longer employed with WDFW.

Person in Region 6 that should take the lead on this is James Losee, IMO.

I'm in a email battle with Losee, over 4 items, Wynoochee Mitigation is one of the 4. Yesterday email had NO COMMENT, from Losee, on the Wynoochee Mitigation---the 30+ years of foot dragging continues. Still no steelhead or Coho being raised, anywhere, for Wyn. Mitigation......grrrrrrrrrr

I'll put him on my list and start my own exchange with him although I doubt if I'll have anymore luck then you.

Might have better luck working with Larry in his new job. Working with the insiders just may not be too successful.

Sometimes it is but mostly it's not.

I remember talking with Billy Frank when he was the head of the Northwest Tribal Fisheries Council about the Quinault fishing sturgeon in the Chehalis under the guise of fishing for spring chinook, they were getting a dollar a lb. for salmon and 8 dollars a lb. for juvenile sturgeon. He said, "You know what they tell us? They tell us to go fuc* ourselves".

Wasn't much he could do about it. And that was in the days when co-managers actually worked as co-managers.

The Tribes won't take on the Tribes. The intertribal "wars" were worse that state/tribal.

And, Larry is on the outside and they may be able to organize lawsuits and other political pressure that the State can't/won't.

I know Larry is an avid fisherman, spoke to him many times about locations to fish. Hopefully he can actually advocate for fish and fisherfolk instead of advocating for the state.

Region 6 staff sent out this reminder for the next NOF Grays Harbor Zoom meeting. Staff also sent out the model that has this years proposals. The problem is they do not work. Chum fail to make escapement and Chinook look OK but the QIN have not provided their 2022 proposal as far as I know. Boiled down where we are is Chum are going to limit commercial fisheries or cause them to change dates. NT are going to use tangle nets to reduce Chinook impacts allowing them to fish earlier but frankly it really goes to pieces quick as the QIN are going to be doing the same thing.

On the REC side from my perspective the two fish bag on runs that have been at 50% of escapement is nuts. Conservation left the building with Elvis as everyone wants to kill fish. So down the road we go!


FROM R6:

Just a reminder for the next Grays Harbor fishery discussion meeting. If you have not registered for this meeting please do so by clicking on the “Join Zoom webinar” link below:


• WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
Grays Harbor fisheries discussion
Additional discussion of management objectives and preliminary Grays Harbor fishing opportunities for 2022.
Join a public meeting:
6-8 p.m.
Join Zoom webinar
Visit our calendar event listing for additional details.

The link did not copy so here is the WDFW link to register
https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/management/north-falcon/public-meetings

I could have lived with one fish per, the opening in OCT. rather then mid-Sept. was what my problem was. Made it difficult to catch ONE fish with early rains.

100% agree. Too many people want to kill 2 fish. I’ll be making a comment on the next town hall recommending keeping it at one fish. Can’t decide for myself if it’s better on the fish to keep the first one we catch or potentially release 10-15 wilds to find one hatchery.

If it were up to me, it’d be a 1 fish bag, non-selective from October 1-November 30th. 1 fish bag, hatchery only, December 1-15th

Seabeck,
I agree with most of what you propose. However, I doubt that WDFW will go along with the Dec.1-Dec 15 hatchery only fishery. I don't think the State will allow a Dec fishery since they closed the the rivers last year on Dec 1 to protect wild steelhead. That is something we will have to live with for the foreseeable future. Also, the probability of hooking mortality of wild late run coho might be a limiting factor for a Dec fishery also.
I am guessing we will get the the Oct.1-Nov.30 fishery. Like you, we should be able to keep the first one we catch (one fish limit) regardless if hatchery or wild to again lessen the hooking mortality on wild coho.

why should the sporties only get (1) one fish??? when there is (3) three gillnet user groups who take all they can get no matter what it is!!!

When catches are divided up, the number of dead fish are what is counted. For arguments sake, let's say that there are 1,000 coho for the Tribes and 1,000 for the NI. The NI side is divided 500 to the GN and 500 to the sporties. Each side gets all their allocation.

The 10 Tribal netters average 100, the 10 NI netters average 50, and the thousand sporties average half a fish. It's a numbers game in that WDFW tries to find a way to achieve the numbers and (for recs) allow the most time on the water to do it.

You could raise the limit, move the fishery to more peak times, etc, but the effect will be to offer significantly fewer days.

You don't agree with me 100%, you obviously missed the most important part of what I said. Early rains push the fish up river well before Oct. 1st, Oct. 1st is a no go because up-river fishermen get most of the fish then.

Tidal water fisherfolk have gotten the shaft for 3 years now, that is BULL*HIT! Now I am back to advocating for two fish and Sept. 15th(lol).

On another note I have been in a discussion with the entity who WDFW has taking responsibility for getting the launch repair going, I strongly suggest that all people participating in the upcoming zoom meeting ask what is being done to get funding in line for the repair of the launch in a timely manner. You know, have a plan and keep us in the loop to avoid lack of transparency.

If this isn't done soon the work won't happen until we are well into the summer as lack of funding will be the excuse. We need to hold their feet to the fire on this one. Just explain it reasonably.

Frankly the South Monte boat launch could be made useable by cleaning things up and new barriers up river side of parking lot. That is short term but long term that is something different. The river is most likely to get the road leading to the launch well before the launch itself but eventually it will get to the bridge pilings. DOT's problems are just starting as the changes in the river has caused the South side of the river bank to erode near the pilings.

Bottom line, the South monte launch is headed for its demise it is only a matter of when not if. You would have to rip rap the bank all the way upstream to the mill and that would be expensive and then I am not sure it would last.