FYI Last week I e-mailed Curt Kramer, biologist with WDFW, about opening a selective fishery on coho in the Snohomish and Skykomish. Curt e-mailed me back a very interesting explanation which I will share with the board. Curt makes some very valid points about the lack of representation the recreational fishers have in the season setting processes like North of Falcon. The following message was sent on 9/22.

Gary -
I too have recieved reports of good numbers coho in the Snohomish. Unfortunately angler reports are not very reliable in updating run-sizes. This year's coho seasons were based on forecasts that reflected the poor returns in 1999. The survival in 1999 was the lowest that we had ever seen in the Snohomish. As a check I looked at the coho jack returns at both the Wallace Hatchery and at Sunset Falls. In both cases they were virtually identical to those in 1998 - thus no reason to expect that the returns this year would be any better than last year.

In the harvest management plans for this year we built in the the provision that if the run size was 150% of the preseason forecast we would look at additional fisheries including an in-river sport fishery. The update would be based on the Tulalip update fishery for weeks 38, 39 (this week) and week 40.

Based on the pre-season forecasts we expected that about 20% of the in-river fish would be of hatchery origin. This would limit the opportunity for selective fishing which was discussed in the season setting process.
At the North of Falcon seasoning setting process the decision was made to focus on marine fisheries where there were high abundances of hatchery fish to limit the impacts on wild stocks. This resulted in the seasons that you find in the current pamphlet.

After the week 39 update (available today) we are comfortable in updating the run-size to about 200% of the preseason number thus have become the process of opening a river sport season. This would indicate that marine survival was much better than we had expected - great news for both the fish and anglers. The marine fishery has been excellent and the counts at Sunset Falls as seem to indicate that we are see a decent return this year.

I expect an annoucement of the details of a Snohomish coho season soon (perhaps this afternoon). Check the Departement's web-site under fishing rule changes.

While it is easy to cast the Department in general and myself in particular as the bad guy in the lack of an in-river sport fishery I believe that given the information at hand last winter the current season structure was the most responsible action for the protection of the wild coho. The reality of the situation is that river sport fishery have only limitedly representation at the North of Falcon season setting process. Without representation in the discussions the river fisheries are often left with the leavings. If you or others wish to become involved in North of Falcon to lobby for a large "share of the pie" I would be happy to supply you with the agenda and locations of meetings. The agenda is usually available in late January - meetings in March and April. One or more of the meetings take place locally (Olympia -Seattle area).

As always I'm willing to listen to constructive input to better the system and to provide you or others with the best information I have at hand to assist you with your input.

Curt