anyone hear what went on in the meeting with the Quins and what is going to happen?

Lots of sucking noise and skin slapping.

No decision has been made on the Queets etc. There is another meeting on the 25th. Northwest Sportsman Mag has a piece they posted the other day o you can take a look at the Grays Harbor rivers.

11/23/2024

I listen to most of the "zoom meeting"......Left when WDFW is going to allow a fishery on the upper Quinault River. Just don't understand why this fishery is allowed when there are no hatchery plants into the upper river.

WDFW plan to protect Native steelhead.....at a end after 3 years????? Grrrrrrrr

That is a phony political gesture to make it look like white men work with Tonto.

Is there a reason to be optimistic?

How's are steelhead management doing? Why don't we have a C&R season on O.P. fish that are NOT listed, but Columbia River streams can have a big season, catch and release on wilds, when their streams have LISTED steelhead?

Tug 3.

From what I've gotten out of the meetings is that WDFW wants to get us fishing. There is 1 Big Fng Problem with the Queets, Salmon, Clearwater, Upper Quinault and Grays Harbor.

WDW has "Co-Managers". It seems like the Hoh & Quileute's are working well with WDFW. I thank them for that. It seems like every year there is a hold up with the Quinault's. We haven't fished the Salmon River in 2 years. The Tribe has.

Take a look at the Escapement for Wild Steelhead and Wild Coho over the last 10+ years on the Queets. It's been a struggle. Why? There are a few miles of river that passes through Tribal Land before the Queets hits the National Park and Pristine water. The Queets should be the Crown Jewel of the West Coast. Could it be the approximately 5 days/week netting that has happened over that time?

It can't be the Tribes or the netting. They are the First Conservationist. They plan their fisheries seven generations into the future, not seven minutes. They have a great reverence for the fish. So, it simply can't be them. Right?

C-Man, Wise guru that you are, look into your crystal ball and tell me more! Thank you for your honest comment.

K&P, respectively to your comment, I've been around a long time as a steelhead and salmon advocate. The damage done to the Queets, especially continues to break my heart. I've only been fishing it off and on since 1969, and I hope I can fish it once again with an expectation to catch a steelhead to release. It is holy ground to me. It should have twenty thousand returners, but now it doesn't. The ocean is a mystery, so is the high seas harvest, but the habitat on the Queets is the best there is. Keep educating yourself. No animosity here for your communication. In an earlier career I both arrested the co-managers, and fought to protect them.

I would love to know what the expected impact from a Salmon or Queets sports fishery is. With the netting and the large sports guiding that takes place and with no required or expected wild release, my guess is that it probably is over 50 tribal to 1 sports and could be higher. With an early closure on the Salmon, it likely could be in the 100's to 1. Still, we do not fish while they do.

The upper Quinault numbers are probably just as lopsided. I doubt whether the real numbers exist, but it would be real intesting.

Unfortunately, some groups fall outside the acceptable limits for criticism. “Sovereign” must be French for “can do no wrong.”

I agree, it breaks my heart too. For me, WDFW's greatest failure is their inability to co-manage the fisheries that we share with the Quinault Indian Nation. Failure to even start, first steps (both parties agree on an escapement number for the Queets so we can co-manage it in the first place). It is unacceptable.

I don't think this run can be netted into extinction, I think steelhead are too resilient, but they are sure trying.

Unacceptable,

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My dream has been to be able to fish the Puyallup again in February or March. Same for the Green and Nisqually but I don’t think it’s going to ever happen.
It would be fun to catch another one out of the Puyallup almost 60 years after catching my first one there.
Closing things down certainly hasn’t brought back the fish or provided any future angling opportunities. The Nisqually has been closed now for 31 years…..
SF

In a discussion I have had with some Canadian colleagues about they have with mismanagement on the Skeena, Thompson and actually the rest of the province, is that O. mykiss will probably survive as residents but the anadromous segment will essentially vanish. Mykiss seems to be able, as a species, to recognize what works best for species survival. If migrating to the ocean is a bad decision, they stay home.

The most extreme examples I have heard of came from the central/southern CA coast where century long drought dried up the lower reaches of streams which prevent smolt migration out or adults back. So they stayed in the headwaters until the water returned and then they went back to anadromy.

If you look at estimates of what used to return (non-WDFW sanctioned numbers) there used to be huge runs of steelhead which we now have reduced to crumbs. And we are not trying to get the whole loaf back, just a few more crumbs.

Whoa! Got me beat. 50 yrs, for me. Learned Steelhead on the Puyallup from my Gramps who resided in town since 1906. He told stories of fishing the lower river before diked and straightened, and how it was so brushy would have to bushwack for access. Cane poles with ceramic guides that rattle, and leader pieces and hooks bought from the dime store. No reel, couldn't afford one. Used cat gut for main line that became pliable when wet. Short casts only with a strip basket. Fiasco when you hooked one. Pole in arm pit trying to conrol line in and out. Many fish lost but multiple hookups inceased the odds of landing dinner. I started out "plunking", he used another derogatory term for it. Landed my 1st ever in 74. Grew up drift fishing and focused all efforts there. March was so fun for the nates. C&R came too late. Didn't have to travel anywhere else? Did venture to the Nisqually later in April after the Puy closed. Very seldom bonked those brutes. Green in the spring/early summer. Late 70's early 80's it was hot! Met Harry Lemire up in the gorge once. Sneaky guy up there.
In retirement, had dreams of fishing locally into March and April. I still think March wild numbers exist in the Puyallup, but probably will never get another chance. It would be a crowded zoo anyway. So sad. Thanks for jogging memories.

We are the same age.
Don't feel like typing but in the late 70s we would run the jet boat up and fish the Nisqually just below the dam in March.

Dam..... it was incredible.