No Springers on the Kalama this year....

[Swatson]

WDFW just announced that you will not be able to keep any Springers on the Kalama this year!  Only expected to get a return of 500 and their goal is 450 to the hatchery.  It amazes me that in this day and age with so much money and resources in place that our fisheries in this state continues to dwindle!  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's just depressing.  Am getting ready to buy a new drift boat but am seriously wondering if its even worth it anymore!

[WSU]

That is how it is going to be until they switch back to Carson stock.  They should just shut the damn program down.  It makes no sense to pay for hatchery fish when there is no season.  At this point, we are raising hatchery fish in order to hope that we get enough fish back to make more hatchery fish.  Giant waste of time and money.  Someone should get canned.

[Bullkllr]

I think on some level the WDFW likes the new "normal" of no springers. Other fish too. Cheaper to produce, manage and enforce. All they have to do is issue a pre season press release saying there is no surplus return expected and they're done.

[_TONY_]

That is how it is going to be until they switch back to Carson stock.  They should just shut the damn program down.  It makes no sense to pay for hatchery fish when there is no season.  At this point, we are raising hatchery fish in order to hope that we get enough fish back to make more hatchery fish.  Giant waste of time and money.  Someone should get canned.

Agreed

[huntnphool]

WDFW just announced that you will not be able to keep any Springers on the Kalama this year!  Only expected to get a return of 500 and their goal is 450 to the hatchery.  It amazes me that in this day and age with so much money and resources in place that our fisheries in this state continues to dwindle!  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's just depressing.  Am getting ready to buy a new drift boat but am seriously wondering if its even worth it anymore!

All part of the pro native, "anti hatchery" fish agenda.

[plunker01]

The lewis river is in the same boat. No retention of springers. Also a portion of the north fork lewis will be closed to all fishing

[BigGoonTuna]

at least they didn't wait until mid march so i can get my hopes up this year.

i'm getting really fed up with this routine emergency closure BS.  it's like false advertising, they print the season up and then shut it down by emergency closure every year now.  not the only river they do it for, either.

they need to either go back to the carson stock or shut down the program, running a hatchery just to perpetuate itself is a huge waste of resources.  i don't know how they can go from 7k fish in 2007 to 400-700 like they do now.

[WSU]

Does anyone know what the current stock being used is and why they switched to it?

[Swatson]

WDFW announced that their expecting a larger return of Springers than normal to the Columbia but yet the Kalama and Lewis are expecting hardly any?  Could someone smarter than me explain this to me?

[chukar58]

There's really a pretty simple answer.... When you do not plant any smolts you will not get any adults!  WDFW just wants your money and to get out of the fish hatchery business because it cost money.

[WSU]

Wrong.  WDFW is planting a lot of smolts (I believe .5 million).  They changed stocks from Carson to some other stock and now returns suck.  Whatever stock they are using does not survive well and returns are at roughly 0.001% of releases.  Even if they released 2 million, they would still only get 2000 back.

[Swatson]

What is this carson stock?  If this is true why wouldn't they go back to this Carson stock?

[WSU]

Hatchery fish derived from a different river, I believe Carson originated from the Wind.  I'm not sure why they don't go back but assume is somehow related to hatchery reform efforts.  Maybe someone else has the answers?

And, regarding releases, the Lewis is a good example.  A release of 1.2 million smolts resulted in 1,100 predicted adults returning and a closed river.  It isn't the numbers being released that are the problem. 

[BigGoonTuna]

i believe it was a hatchery reform issue, supposedly they aren't supposed to use "out of basin" stock for hatchery plants.  well, the kalama and lewis did not have native springer runs, so that's where the carson fish came from.  makes one wonder what stock they use now.

[Bullkllr]

i believe it was a hatchery reform issue, supposedly they aren't supposed to use "out of basin" stock for hatchery plants.  well, the kalama and lewis did not have native springer runs, so that's where the carson fish came from.  makes one wonder what stock they use now.

I have to differ with your conclusion that the Kalama and Lewis had no native springer runs. Pretty much all of the major Columbia tribs had some spring chinook, historically.

Kalama Subbasin Summary DRAFT May 17, 2002

Spring chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Spring and fall chinook are indigenous to the Kalama system. Historically, spring chinook were
predominant in the Lewis River and fall chinook in the Kalama basin. By the early 1900s,
Columbia River salmon populations were declining from overfishing and a combination of land
use practices that proved detrimental to salmon habitat (WDFW, 1998 vol. 1).
Early attempts to save the native population through hatchery production
failed, and by the 1950s spring chinook runs in the Kalama River had been reduced to only
remnant populations. Hatchery programs for spring chinook were established at Kalama Falls
Hatchery after its completion in 1959.
The Kalama River naturally spawning spring chinook population was considered healthy
based on escapement trend (see Table 4) (WDF/WDW 1993). However, this status was
determined on a mixed stock of composite production, and WDFW is not sure of the recent
status of wild Kalama spring chinook populations (see Table 5) (Rawding 1999). Escapement
from 1980-1991 averaged 602 with a low of zero in 1985 and a peak of 2,892 in 1982
(WDF/WDW 1993). Primary production is from hatchery releases.
Spawning occurs between the Lower Kalama Hatchery (RM 4. and the Kalama Falls
Hatchery (RM 10). In surplus years, spawning releases are made upstream of the upper hatchery,
allowing access all the way to the upper falls (RM 36) (Caldwell et al. 1999). "

from http://www.cbfwa.org/FWProgram/ReviewCycle/fy2003lc/workplan/020517Kalama.pdf