LOL.

Yeah. Get there early (or really late).

I'll ask my friend Chuggy, he always has some good tips, no matter what.

I have a feeling that I will be seeing Chuggy up there! Haven't seen him in a while, either.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd -
The best advice I can give you if want to catch a fish is too head to the coast!!

Curt

Lol...noted

Fish on...

Todd

Nice try, Curt, but everyone knows the Skagit's the place to be!

Hope this gets done this time, next Thursday will be fun

Yep, Gonna be a great time. I don't care how many people are on the river.

When can we expect an official announcement? Through the grapevine is great but the grapevine also said this fishery was going to open weeks ago.

Just got off the phone. The advice, "don't believe everything you read on the internet."

WDFW can get more than one update per day from NMFS and sometimes does. There are folks at NMFS that would like to see this as a done deal. And there are folks who couldn't care less about the effect this is having on anglers and business and have no understanding that there is NO biological link between these necessary administrative and legal documents and the status and health of Skagit steelhead. I had no idea whatever that this would be playing out like it has. At this point I'm only confident that we will more likely than not get something of what's left of this season. Not how I would have done it.

While I am all for C&R fishing, I am beginning to wonder if we are getting to the point of no return?

Salmo g. can you expand on the spawn timing in the Skagit system? My understanding is that peak spawn happens in the last two weeks of april. Am i correct?

If that is the case how many of these ripe hens are going to blow their eggs all over our waders and on top of the gravel when we catch them? How many guys are going to walk on redds? How many fish have exerted their stored fats/energy to get to the point of spawning only to use that last ounce of energy fighting a 12' spey rod/float rod?

I would have been more comfortable with a mid march-mid april season.

Can you please expand on the impact of fishing in this time frame? I am not sure if it is the right time to send 100's of anglers to go after these fish.

I am still forming my opinion, but I am considering hanging up my steelhead rod for this opener if the net effect is a greater than 10% catch mortality.

Could these reasons be whey NMFS is dragging their feet?

your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Some good points there. I too thought it strange that the season would be open in that later time frame when historically it hasn’t been open then.


As more and more rumors are spread of an imminent opener it seems more and more likely that it’s not going to open this year. For the sake of my friends that enjoy this fishery I hope that’s not the case.

Backtrollin -
Not speaking for Salmo g. it is my understanding that the Skagit/Sauk CnR seasons beginning in the early 1980s ran through April. The north Sound rivers (Skagit and Nooksack) have some of the latest spawning winter steelhead in the State. When the season was first established only about 15% of the winter steelhead spawning had occurred by the end of April. There was nearly as many wild winters spawning after the first of June as spawning before the first of May. Peak spawning typically was in the middle part of May.

Of the nearly 300 miles of steelhead spawning habitat in the Skagit basin less than 20% (45 miles) would be open during the spring CnR season. In other words the season structure on the Skagit/Sauk is much more conservative in terms of interacting with wild spawning steelhead than say on the coast and certainly on SW Washington where on some rivers have year-round seasons with anglers fishing over ESA listed steelhead.

While it is possible that an angler might encounter a "running ripe" female that odds are pretty low. I have fished the spring CnR fishery from its first year and to the best of my recollection I have caught a single wild kelt (a spawned out wild summer steelhead) and a single "running ripe" female out of fairly large sample of wild winters caught.

Finally with the intense in-season monitoring WDFW should be more than able to hold any "impacts" below the allowed levels with the ability to close the fishery via emergency regulations quickly.

Curt

Update from yesterday:

http://nwsportsmanmag.com/still-waiting-on-federal-go-ahead-for-spring-skagit-sauk-steelhead/

Smalma, thanks for the info, the spawn timing was a major concern for me. If your eyes tell you these fish can handle the pressure then I may have to lace up my boots.

As for walking through redds...There is no place that I'm aware of in the portion of the river that will be open that a person can wade across. Perhaps a couple side channels on the Sauk will reveal themselves, but for the most part you'll have to risk your life to walk on an active redd in the proposed season and open areas.

I'm sure everyone will have a story of seeing an accessible redd, but these opportunities will be rare.

Backtrollin,

Just to reiterate, Smalma addressed the points you asked me about. And I agree with him, especially about the traditional season running through April, since he had a strong hand in setting the seasons and regulations those 37 years ago. I'll just say that under the proposed regulations, which are very conservative, the biological risks are very low, but the quantity and quality of the hand-wringing on the part of the agencies and a few anglers are very high.

I have never caught a wild kelt in March or April nor a gravid female (one with loose eggs). I did catch some kelts as well as fresh unspawned fish in late May back when the river used to re-open on Memorial Day weekend.

I cannot know how many guys will walk on redds, but since the percentage of total redds before the end of April is low, I'll speculate that not many will be walked on.

These are not the reasons why NMFS is dragging its feet. NMFS is slow because it's a bureaucracy and therefor incapable of doing anything quickly. They also want to make sure all the paperwork is airtight enough to withstand potential litigation. It looks like some of our angling compatriots want to conserve Skagit steelhead by never allowing fishing for them ever again. However, opinions not supported by facts should not carry the day IMO.

Sg

Thank you

March quickly fading in the rear view mirror tonight.......... Bureaucracy? Oh well just biding my time watching the Maury Povich Show and Top Chef re-runs these day..... Fish On!

So. Thursday is hear, a day the opener was maybe going to happen. Any new news?