Snohomish/Skykomish get screwed

[JACKspASS]

The general system doesn't support the traditional fisheries that many of us grew up with. Our general society(in WA St) doesn't value what alot of us here do. River and stream fishing, steelhead and salmon fishing have been replaced. When you cross the border into Idaho and Montana, recreational fishing is king, and the overall system supports that. Bass fishing in the south, yeah, it's big. We have nobody to fight for opportunity, most are dead, we shouldn't have to fight our own system for this shit.

Idaho, Montana...? Really, I live in Idaho now and laugh at what Wa has become. It wasn't long ago, you could catch summer run steelhead innthe morning and CNR some nice trout in the evening. Saw so few Chinook that now it's a limiting factor to enjoy summer run and trout fishing is laughable

Since I'm on a roll with gifs, this one sums it up



What special interest group do I join so we can catch summer runs and nice bows n cutts?

 

[speedbird]

I'm conflicted on the idea of sacrificing summer Puget Sound Chinook fishing. It's the fishery that got me fishing and the one I get most excited for every year. Saltwater Chinook fishing is a very important part of our local culture and history, and there is big money in selling boats for the chance to hook into a 20lb King. But if that fishery is destroying all the other opportunities I also enjoy, particularly opportunities with lower cost to entry, maybe that opportunity isn't compatible with the times. Is there a reason we cannot introduce Hatchery Spring Chinook into rivers, and simply move Puget Sounds Chinook fishery earlier into the year? Spring Chinook have a completely different spawn timing than the native Fall Chinook, and are far less likely spawn with them as a result. We have surviving stocks in the Nooksack, Skagit, and White rivers that can all be used to select a best fit stock for each river.

 

[skyrise]

Closing a stream to protect a Man made salmon or steelhead run ! Yup it’s being run by Idiots.
And what a Giant success this has shown to be on the Stilly. Grand recovery for that river. Just like stopping hatchery steelhead and salmon plants. Brilliant !

 

[charles sullivan]

Closing a stream to protect a Man made salmon or steelhead run ! Yup it’s being run by Idiots.
And what a Giant success this has shown to be on the Stilly. Grand recovery for that river. Just like stopping hatchery steelhead and salmon plants. Brilliant !

Who is running it?

 

[WonderBrad]

I just realized how angry and sad this situation makes me feel. Is it possible to be equally angry and sad at the same time, yep!

I sent a nasty gram to the Mill Creek WDFW office. Yeah I know that will do diddly squat, but I had to vent somehow. What practical steps can we take to get competent fisheries management? A cascade of lame, ill-informed actions taken too late to make any difference...to appease too many interests who take too many fish....the tragedy of the commons!

end rant....

 

[Salmo_g]

What practical steps can we take to get competent fisheries management?

It's not a matter of competent fisheries management in my opinion. The issue is the deliberate choice by WDFW management to throw a significant number of their constituents under the bus and hand over the regulation of non-treaty recreational fishing to treaty tribes who want freshwater anadromous streams closed to non-treaty fishing. WDFW does this largely to obtain consent from the tribes to have non-treaty recreational fishing for Chinook salmon in certain Puget Sound management/catch areas. WDFW could advocate for recreational fishing by using regulations that reduce and limit the likelihood of Chinook encounters in rivers (fly fishing only, floating lines only, barbless hooks, maximum hook size 6, unweighted flies), but when the tribes say, "Frog," WDFW says, "How high?"

 

[GOTY]

I place 90% of the blame on WDFW and 10% on this kid...if Free Willy was never a thing, nobody would care about those oversized dolphins and we would be elbow to elbow in a river chasing steelhead instead of finger to finger on our keyboards complaining.

Jason James Richter you have failed us all.

 

[Dave M]

Full of dental floss tycoons...

And pygmy ponies.

 

[charles sullivan]

It's not a matter of competent fisheries management in my opinion. The issue is the deliberate choice by WDFW management to throw a significant number of their constituents under the bus and hand over the regulation of non-treaty recreational fishing to treaty tribes who want freshwater anadromous streams closed to non-treaty fishing. WDFW does this largely to obtain consent from the tribes to have non-treaty recreational fishing for Chinook salmon in certain Puget Sound management/catch areas. WDFW could advocate for recreational fishing by using regulations that reduce and limit the likelihood of Chinook encounters in rivers (fly fishing only, floating lines only, barbless hooks, maximum hook size 6, unweighted flies), but when the tribes say, "Frog," WDFW says, "How high?"

I think that there may be other motivations as well but as one paragraph answers go, this one provided by Salmo_g is about as good as it gets.

I often find myself sticking up for WDFW when it comes to blaming them for depressed anadromous fish runs and a few other issues where they are not the final decision makers but are the face of the decision that are made. WDFW should take some heat for the way they deal with the regulations in this case.

 

[the_chemist]

 

[Shad]

Just for the record (and with no offense intended to any well-meaning, highly-respectable posters), the next time I read a claim that the reason we keep losing fisheries is that we don't attend NOF/Commission/etc. meetings, I'm going to scream so loud the whole Internet hears it. Anyone who HAS put in the effort to attend these meetings (as I have, particularly in Region 6) understands very clearly why few are attending anymore:

IT'S A DOG AND PONY SHOW, intended to create a perception that public input factors into season-setting, when the reality could not be further from the truth. The closest thing to meaningful discourse we are allowed to engage in during these wastes of time is an opportunity to comment on one or more of the pathetic options presented for our fisheries. Indeed, even that has gone by the wayside, as now, options 1, 2, and 3 amount to CLOSED to recreational angling. What the hell is the point in arguing for one of those options?

I honestly don't know who's the mastermind (whether it's NT commercial interests, WDFW, the Tribes, Tree-hugging Commies, Orcas, Hollywood, Sasquatch, Vladimir Putin...), but the only honest way to look at this situation is that our opportunity does not matter to the agency we pay to provide it, and it certainly doesn't matter to the non-angling, fish-buying, casino-supporting public, whose interests lie more with commercial harvesters than with us. It's a painful but very real fact that the miniscule percentage of the population that fishes rivers doesn't amount to a critical mass from a politician's point of view. THAT is why it is a complete waste of our time to get involved in season planning.

@Salmo_g mentioned the surprisingly low cost of buying a politician's influence. One would think that might be an avenue for us to find real success, since there are plenty of anglers (on this board alone) who have plenty of cash to throw at lawmakers. The rub lies in the other thing Salmo mentioned: the Tribes have been playing that game for decades, and it has earned them perhaps the most prominent seat at the local NOF table. Add to that the negative press that would follow any attempt to overturn something a tribe wants/needs, or that burdens the "Trusty, Gorton's Fisherman," and you've got a fairly untenable situation, which is where we find ourselves today.

Try it if you like; your mileage won't vary.

 

[Stonedfish]

Hey, don’t forget!
Maybe you can dust off your salmon and steelhead gear and use it for bass.
#wabassweek
SF

 

[Shad]

Hey, don’t forget!
Maybe you can dust off your salmon and steelhead gear and use it for bass.
#wabassweek
SF

View attachment 73862

Man... we've been joking about bass being the new salmon, but to see them actually promoting fisheries for invasive species is pretty depressing.

To your point, we've all got expensive bass gear in spades, so there is that....

 

[_WW_]

Man... we've been joking about bass being the new salmon, but to see them actually promoting fisheries for invasive species is pretty depressing.

To your point, we've all got expensive bass gear in spades, so there is that....

Drift rods make poor bass rods...

 

[Dr. Magill]

Drift rods make poor bass rods...

Too long and soft??
Sounds like an issue

 

[Shad]

Drift rods make poor bass rods...

Spey rods, too, I suppose. Well, shit....

 

[GOTY]

Hey, don’t forget!
Maybe you can dust off your salmon and steelhead gear and use it for bass.
#wabassweek
SF

View attachment 73862

Absolutely not. I'm saving my gear dusting off for pink week.

 

[Shad]

Absolutely not. I'm saving my gear dusting off for pink week.

Ah... A man of distinction!

 

[JayB]

I've concluded that the only way for sportfishermen to get a seat at the table would be to buy one by giving the tribes a substantial cut of the revenue from selling fishing licenses necessary to fish for anadromous fish, and possibly special permits to fish in specified zones/regions.

Probably sounds like a winning plan to 2-3 people in the entire state, but setting things up so that the natives get a nice passive income stream from sport-fishermen seemed to work well to align the incentives of the sport-fishermen/natives in the special license zone for/around Lake Taupo in NZ when I was there ~15 years ago. Better fishing = more fishermen = more money.

 

[Paige]

I've concluded that the only way for sportfishermen to get a seat at the table would be to buy one by giving the tribes a substantial cut of the revenue from selling fishing licenses necessary to fish for anadromous fish, and possibly special permits to fish in specified zones/regions.

Probably sounds like a winning plan to 2-3 people in the entire state, but setting things up so that the natives get a nice passive income stream from sport-fishermen seemed to work well to align the incentives of the sport-fishermen/natives in the special license zone for/around Lake Taupo in NZ when I was there ~15 years ago. Better fishing = more fishermen = more money.

The tribes could care less about money, they dont want US playing with THEIR food.