My bad. It is not over fishing but rather if first the Chinook failure to show is enough to blow escapement and if the Coho run is on track which will determine the quality of the Nov & Dec Coho fisheries. Then you have the simple fact that this supposed to be a transparent process which it is not as it stands now. The gentleman's name for the QIN is Ed Johnstone & Annette Hoffman has WDF&W Region 6 since Steve left due to a illness. Mike Scharpf has Grays Harbor ( Chehalis Basin ) for WDF&W District 17.

Thanks. I know the names, and I know who represents each stakeholder, but I still don't know who is accountable for "Co-management decisions" gone wrong. My sense (right or wrong) is that's by design. This way, when mistakes are made (or when rules are "bent"), they can say, "We screwed up." None of those individuals answers to the name "We," so none is held accountable, and all are free to proceed to the next season's dog and pony prediction show, without so much as a slap on the wrist.

The problem is that there is not a public forum where the Co-Managers (WDFW and QIN) need to sit in front of the public and openly explain what happened and why.

What would really help the whole process, I believe, is if prior to the commencement of the next year's NOF the actual leaders had to sit in front of the Public and answer questions. State and Tribal. Open meeting. Moderator keeps asking the question until they answer. If they know they have to publicly defend and explain maybe they have a more open process.

Or not.

I think you got it. You know government agencies staff meet constantly to discus " things " and then form the group consensus on what to do. Now the meetings accomplish little but this, the meetings provide cover to the individual who has the responsibility for the decision. Just find a issue in Grays Harbor that went sideways and ask who and the hell made that decision. Every now and then the folks in mid level ( outside Oly ) will answer as long as your not talking to enforcement but not often. Olympia runs 24 / 7 with the WE bit and frankly I doubt any of them have the stones to be forthright as that is a requirement to be in Oly, keeping your trap shut that is. You walk the company line and keep your trap shut or no advancement. It is never good for someone outside the concrete palace in Oly to tell them something they do not want to hear.

Whos nets did I see in aberdeen today? QIN or Cowboy?

Cowboys.

Chum-directed for THREE 12 hr openers on the Chehalis, then it's GAME OVER

Retain any chum, coho, or hatch kings

....

Tribe comes in behind them for a few days chum-directed.... they keep everything.

....

You and I MUST sort thru all the wilds to take a hatch only.... unless you wanna eat chum

Oh, Ok. Thanks. Was Confused.

I watched the NT guys yesterday and I could count 6 boats but more could have been there. It was first four hours and they did not appear to be getting many Chum. Saw one dark Chinook and Coho with a few that could have been Chum. So we wait and this is why posting up harvest is important as many think because the rains shotgunned the fish to the hatchery that we have a huge run. It does not appear to be the case at all but we will see. Oh almost forgot by the following morning of a day fished the fisher has his numbers reported and staff know them. QIN report by week also so why not 10 minutes to advise and let folks know what is going on? When you figure it out let me know but it is a piss poor way to run things.

Was out fishing a bit yesterday afternoon. Still lots of water, and from what I've seen, still some fresh fish coming, but not a ton. Some chums in the mix, but not as many as I expected. Considering that there have been no nets in the water since it started raining, I'm thinking the runs were, after all, pretty close to the forecast, and that big push of fish we saw move through was the bulk of it.

I've had an absolute crap year. Only salmon I caught went back. With all the rain in the forecast, I'm thinking it's time to send my waders in for patching/replacement and ride out the rest of this season doing other stuff.

The final Grays Harbor model predicted the non tribal net harvest for week 44 (this week) would be 588 coho and 2,540 chum in the boat. It looked a lot slower than that to me. When week 44 is posted, I would not be surprised if the total will be less than 10% of the model.

6 a.m., Thursday, 10/27/2016......No post of NT catch numbers for 2A and 2D.....at this time.

Let's see how long it takes to actually get the "catch totals" posted to the following web site??????

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/salmon/landings.html

Shouldn't take very long.............but sometimes there seems to be a lot of foot dragging....

Depends on WDFW's priority. They had the Makah troll data (back when there was the huge overage) but there were other data entry priorities.

These are the preseason Chehalis forecast numbers. Little jumbled but Bingham and the Springs have 10K on paper so far which is around half of the RS expectation so far. Keep in mind that the 600k smolt of the lates production are yet to come. RS appears to be in the paramiters of the forecast as the natural % survival mirror the hatchery so that is good.

Chinook Coho
Natural Hatchery Total Natural Hatchery Total
19,500 4,410 23,910 31,028 12,319 43,347
9,753 578 10,331 28,506 1,500 30,006
9,747 3,832 13,579 2,522 10,819 13,341
4,874 1,916 6,790 1,261 5,410 6,671

Now the bad. The Chinook forecast was way off judging by tribal harvest but a bunch jetted on the high water so hopefully enough showed. With AK harvesting on prediction it gets dicey in a collapse this large. The Chum are scarce and that is not good. They are the bulk of the nutrients in the bottom half the watershed and that will impact the Coho fry survival which will effect the Steelhead.

Few of anything are moving through tidewater today. Hell I had six seals trailing me around and I never seen a fish taken by anybody fur or no fur. Going to be a long three weeks until the Nov guys show.

Kinda knew that someone would stick up for WDFW not doing the job in a "timely manner".

Monday and Tuesday, not many NT fishermen.......come on now, number reporting could be done by any WDFW secretary.....cc's to all people that have need to know, posting done by "whoever" in Olympia....all done, in a very few minutes.

I'd like to see a breakdown in hatchery and wild, that could be even more meaningful than total numbers. The breakdown might be getting done but sure not shared with the general public.

Funny how sportsmen have to record, H and W, on the punch card and that information is not useable for "at least a year, but sometimes longer".

I doubt that commercial catch is reported HW. If there was intensive sampling it could be estimated. But, again, budget priorities.

And I am not defending WDFW. Just explaining the choices they make.

Ignorance is bliss until you are caught (conveniently) looking the other way.

And we got payback for that gross over harvest when?? Nah, never happened!

But WDFW publically said that the NI would not bear the cost of the Makah overage. That is, until NOF the next year.

Makah over fishing was a long time ago, see article below:


http://old.seattletimes.com/html/sports/2002190756_makah26.html


What should have been used, as an example, was the Willapa "2012 over catch" by the NT netters on Chum.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/salmon/files/2012_landings_archive.pdf

Anyone that reads PP would have to know that the Week of 10-8-2012 catch far exceeded what they were allow to catch......I remember Ron Warren saying that "we made a mistake".......sure didn't help the Chum run in Willapa.

This was an example of why WDFW should post the commercial catch numbers "faster" so overages might be stopped......

I agree that Makah was a while ago. But the mindset and commitment to the resource are the same now as then.

To WDFW's credit, the new Region 6 fish manager CLOSED the 2016 WB commercial fishery y'day to avoid a significant overage in its chum impact. Thank you, Annette, for swift and decisive action to uphold the WB Policy and advance the cause of conservation in this basin!