The state evidently has land above the property just above the launch and is trying to get the land just upstream from the launch, you know, the one that the ramshackle house had to be removed before it fell in the river a few months ago.

Corrugated steel combined with rip rap was what one former engineer for the state (and avid Chehalis fisherman) told me recently was what was needed. The money the state spent on original costs of the launch and upgrades recently made as well the importance of this site make this a priority and the state needs to get the ball rolling on funding sooner then later. No one is suggesting that they should start digging without a plan but get the funding in place sooner then later.

That’s a separate issue. Just because they may be getting away with murder, it shouldn’t allow us as sport fishermen to over-harvest the resource as well.

I’d LOVE a 2, 3, or 4 fish limit. But I don’t need it, and the wild fish certainly don’t either.

Forgive me, I wasn’t meaning I 100% agree with your post, I meant to quote and reply to another comment saying “everyone wants to kill a fish”

And just whose comment did you mean to quote or answer? I've searched back 5 pages and I don't see anyone posting even remotely that "everyone wants to kill a fish" or that anyone implied that everyone wants to kill a fish. Seems like a pointless post. There are lots of people here that harvest fish, if you are in it just to catch and release fish , as I was told by native folks, "don't play with food". Why chance killing fish if you are all Kent Brockman about it?

Apparently you didn’t look hard enough. It’s in the comment IMMEDIATELY BEFORE YOURS. Try harder next time. My comment was also a response to the last Grays Harbor North of Falcon Meeting. Did you tune in to that or were you not paying attention to that as well?

Thge comment before mine was Carcassman ,I still don't see anyone saying "Everyone wants to kill a fish" maybe you are just paraphrasing someone, if you do that don't quote them. As far as the last meeting my wife and I attended and commented and although I listened to the whole meeting no one made the statement that "everyone wants to kill a fish". Maybe you should proof read your posts instead of quoting the wrong person or using quote marks uselessly.

Jesus Christ, man. Here’s the quote from Rivrguy...”Conservation left the building with Elvis as everyone wants to kill fish. So down the road we go!”

That’s the line I agree with.

The point I’m attempting to make is that a one fish bag I’d preferable for ME. Many of these rivers are struggling to consistently make escapement. Not saying it doesn’t happen, and that there aren’t good years, but why not err on the side of conservation until these rivers can regularly exceed escapement?

You are right, I stand corrected, I missed that comment after the "Elvis has left the building" line. I have also stated that I could live with the one fish limit although the Oct. 1st opening is way out of line

Appreciate it. But yes, I agree with your point on the lower end of of the river and bay. I’m not familiar with those areas as I’m usually fishing the tributaries but your point makes sense to me. Especially to provide opportunity for those that aren’t physically able to row a tributary or bank fish

I am submitting my suggestions for 2022 Rec Seasons and NT Commercial need to wait for the QIN proposal. My suggestions are based up the failure to make Coho escapement many years in the tidewater tributaries. 2022 should be a 3/5 Coho restricted year but the substantial Coho forecast makes 2022 an outlier year allowing harvest but considering the massive failures to make wild Coho escapement in recent years I urge a cautious approach.

The bay and inriver fisheries should reflect the division of harvest outlined in the Grays Harbor Policy.

All tribs below Fuller Hill are failing to make escapement with the Wishkah at around 20% of escapement. Satsop around 50% is best of the bunch. Now they do make numbers but only on up ( large run ) years and then barely.

The recent years seasons on Coho are about allowable impacts. In other word restricted catch to allow as long season as possible. This has been the feed back for years and that is what Mike has done his best to model Coho and seasons.

The 2022 seasons outlined so far are NOT WDFW's choices but rather input from users and they are going to change. Problems like Chum not making escapement in the modeled seasons and the QIN dates are a best guess. In other words the commercial seasons are not set at all. The Rec locations and the bag limits are a disaster in the models. Hoquiam and Wynoochee should not have a retain Coho period. Wishkah should be mark selective as Mayr's releases marked smolts and the Satsop is iffy as to wild.

In my crystal ball it says one adult Coho bag limit with the tribs outlined protected with season open for Coho Jacks August 1. I think you could do retain adult Coho August 15 to Dec 15. Below Porter Dec 15th to Jan 31 should be release unmarked Coho but only on mainstem Chehalis, Satsop. The Upper Basin should have its normal seasons.

We do not have enough Chinook after the massive marine overharvest and Chum are shaky to say the least. My two bits.

isn't that why we only got one coho last yr?? than they closed it in Dec anyways!!!

I believe so. Right, due to Steelhead. I’d be curious to know what percentage of steelhead are wild in December. Only steelhead I’ve seen on Chehalis tribs in December have been hatchery. Not to say the wilds aren’t there, but with hook and line fisheries, I feel the impact is minute, especially from the 1st to 15th of December.

Maybe someone can fill me in, but am I correct in thinking that if we as sport fishers get to fish December, then the tribes would be allowed to net as well?

i think they used the steelhead as an excuse.. they wanted the late /wild coho to make it to the gravel ..

I can get onboard with that, especially if they include that in their reasoning. I just wish the department would be up front about that being part of it.

yes i agree

04/01/2022



Early rains????? Not to get in a pissin match, but as a 50+ year fisher of the Chehalis River, there are not many "brown out" days until late October, November and beyond.

As I get told, quite often, if you don't like the hatchery only regulation....move your fishing down river, to South Montesano to the bay. Nope, trolling, not my thing, so I'll stay above, fish jacks, try to catch 5 then do the cull bit, maybe get a hatchery Coho. Some mud or colored water, helps Mother Nature protect fish on their spawning run.

High brown water.... ruins boat launches and that is a grrrrrrrrrr

I kinda feel the same way, Drifter, For a variety of reasons ranging from boredom to seasickness to a general lack of success I don't boat fish. Walk and wade, shore-based, etc. I grew up learning to fish and fishing small creeks and ponds. Maybe I am going through a forty-third childhood, but that's the fishing I want.

That said, one of the problems of resource management, both when I was there and now, is that there is too much demand and too much fishing power to give everybody what they want. It was rough enough when all we considered was dividing up between the I and NI, or US/Canada, or US/Canada/AK. The Canadians used to set allocations to fisheries. That is, the WCVI troll got 16.34% of the sockeye, the A20 seines got 22.31% and the A29GN got 31.39%. We have, here in GH, the outside sporties, bay sporties, lower river sporties, upper river sporties, and trib sporties that all want their share along with QIN, Chehalis, and the NIGN. And then we add in the SRKWs and pinnipeds who "get" a share. And, as Rivrguy will point out, no manager seems to give a rat's hiney for achieving escapement.

Long way of saying that, so long as demand exceeds supply, that a person must be able to manage against their own preferences to achieve the goals. As I said, I prefer upper river fishing for salmon but of there aren't any left to harvest then I can't argue for that fishery unless I can take them from somebody else who is willing to give them up.

All too often we manage based on the stakeholder's "needs". In my view, we should first meet the needs of the ecosystem. Then identify where surplus fish are and who gets them. This, of course, means that harvest gets planned from the river out instead of the ocean in, which will never fly. Hell, it probably won't even be allowed to stand upright.

Sorry, Bill. That statement about "brown outs" not happening 'till late Oct. may be right (more or less) but the rains have been coming in earlier and earlier in the last 5 years due to "climate effect".

Heavy rains in mid Sept. have been the norm lately and the fish due indeed push upstream before the Oct. 1st openings. Since trolling isn't your thing maybe you haven't noticed the lack of effort in the last two or three years. Less then a dozen rigs in the parking lot at Monte on any given day and most people did not have success even when limited to 1 fish.

Lots of my elderly neighbors have expressed their disgust with the Oct. 1st openings, and they also have fished the Chehalis for the last 40 or 50 years. So you are not alone in history. Either shut the whole fu*king thing down so everyone is treated equally or keep it fair by sticking to "reasonable " seasons.

Since "everyone" seems to think that the ocean seasons are the real issue and that they'll never change it that must mean the fish are doomed eventually and that the tribes will fish it to the end capitalizing on "foregone opportunity".

I plan on advocating for our fair share and fishing until I'm told by the state that I can't. i don't plan on not fishing while other stakeholders do.

The reason the state wants to limit fishing until Oct. 1st is that they know the fish push upstream after the 1st heavy rains and if you think that's not happening in Sept. you are not paying attention. The river doesn't have to have a "brown out" to have most of an early run blow through in the last week of Sept.

It's pretty typical to advocate for a limited fishery when it doesn't effect where or how you fish.

Rains early has two different meanings. In August through first two weeks of Oct it is about a rain event that has enough volume to move the fish inland to stage up. For years the Coho hung out around South Monte but with the Sept rains they have been much farther inland. This is not unusual as we have always had dry or wet summers thus the old saying you do not cut hay before the 4th of July. In the 70's there were years that the woods were locked down to nearly Nov due to the low fuel moisture ( dry conditions ). Dry years the fish hang out low in the watershed and bay and sometimes don't come across the bar to way late. Wet years 100% the opposite and it almost always rains enough to blow out the river in the first week or so of November and that puts and end to bay and tidewater fisheries because of muddy water. The upper basin fisheries do not kick in until the Nov rains which is why the Coho returns differ substantially to the tide water tribs run timing below Fuller Hill. In the 90's dry years it did not rain until late and there was one year that the Normal Timed Coho did not make it past Schafer Park until the third week of Nov. Great fishing tide water and it totally sucked inland. We were broodstocking the Chehalis and the numbers of fish moving was one / two Coho some Chinook maybe a Chum. It started raining and I got the call to get up to the site and it was mayhem. The tribal fishers had pulled the tangle nets, grabbed a pole and 3 to a boat were C&R fish. I mean it was a stampede as we went from a few fish to fish everywhere in about 4 hours on the rise at Porter. The Chehalis is a rain driven watershed and fish, game, birds just everything revolves around when and how much it rains. Oh the kicker, the rain is NEVER the same and always screws some of us and benefits others.

Weather is never static but goes in cycles and can be as long as 15000 years for Sahara rains driven by the planets orbit of the sun and the planets tilt on it's axis to just a few years for Pacific Coast conditions which are driven by the ocean conditions. Just do a search " when did the last ice age end " and you will find it hasn't yet and we are still in a warming cycle.

The difference now than the 50's, 60's or 70's is where and how we fish and the number of fishers. More Recs less Non treaty commercial more tribal.