Get ready for a banner salmon year on the big C!

[huntnphool]

WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/

February 18, 2014
Contact: Ron Warren, (360) 902-2799

Public meeting on salmon forecast
kicks off season-setting process

OLYMPIA - Anglers, commercial fishers and others interested in Washington state salmon fisheries can get a preview of this year's salmon returns and potential fishing seasons during a public meeting here March 3.

Kicking off the annual salmon season-setting process, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will present initial forecasts - compiled by state and tribal biologists - of 2014 salmon returns.

The meeting is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room 172 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington Street S.E., in Olympia.

Those attending the meeting will have an opportunity to talk to fishery managers about the pre-season forecasts and participate in work sessions focusing on possible salmon fisheries and conservation issues.

WDFW has also scheduled additional public meetings focusing on regional salmon issues through early April. This series of meetings - involving representatives from federal, state and tribal governments and recreational and commercial fishing industries - is known as the North of Falcon process.

A meeting schedule and more information about the salmon season-setting process for Puget Sound, the Columbia River and the Washington coast is available on WDFW's website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/northfalcon/ .

The North of Falcon process is held in conjunction with public meetings conducted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), responsible for establishing fishing seasons in ocean water three to 200 miles off the Pacific coast.

Final adoption of the 2014 salmon fisheries is scheduled for April 10 at the PFMC meeting in Vancouver, Wash.

[DeerHarvester]

Maverick or anyone one else, if your willing to drive to Brewster I'm always looking for guys to help with fuel.

I'll be fishing a lot during the week. Monday thru Wednesday.   I moved and my drive doubled so fishing alone will cost me a lot more.


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[backyard bucks]

Maverick or anyone one else, if your willing to drive to Brewster I'm always looking for guys to help with fuel

   LOL  there are no fish up in those parts!!!   
COME ON JULY!!!!!!!! 

[Dhoey07]

I wish that they would even out the catch allocation a little better. I'm pretty sure it's a 70/30 split and the state's reasoning was that more CR endorsement dollars were brought in from the lower river.

[DeerHarvester]

Maverick or anyone one else, if your willing to drive to Brewster I'm always looking for guys to help with fuel

   LOL  there are no fish up in those parts!!!   
COME ON JULY!!!!!!!! 

Your right. No fish in the pool. I just like getting my line wet and running some fuel through the boat. 

Up until a few years ago it was a pretty well kept secret.  Oh wait that's because there was no fish.


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[GEARHEAD]

isnt it just a one king limit down there.........b-10

[PolarBear]

Yep, one king + 1 coho or 2 clipped coho.
I remember the good old days where we could keep 2 kings and 2 coho of any kind.  That was back when we didn't keep a king unless it was over 30 pounds.

[GEARHEAD]

just makes no sense to me, puget sound gets 5 or more times less kings than the columbia, plus heavy tribal netting and we get to keep two kings, Columbia gets over a million and ya get one king...a little creek called the cedar river gets 300,000 Sockey, and its not enough for a season.  management just dont make sense to me.

[Bullkllr]

just makes no sense to me, puget sound gets 5 or more times less kings than the columbia, plus heavy tribal netting and we get to keep two kings, Columbia gets over a million and ya get one king...a little creek called the cedar river gets 300,000 Sockey, and its not enough for a season.  management just dont make sense to me.

It is complicated and confusing. And I don't think it always makes sense to anybody. Short version as I understand: Columbia has a quota, usually based on keeping wild fish escapements above a certain threshold. Harvestable number is shared by tribe/commercial/sport. To make the sport season last longer under the quota, they make it a 1 chinook limit. The same logic has been used in the ocean for years- the charter boat assoc. actually lobbied heavily for the 1 king limit (except for the early season recently). This basically extends the season for chinook and coho, since all fishing stops when the quota for either is reached. Then you have wild chinook release in the Sound- which does not apply in ocean or Columbia (?) I think they figure to keep sportfishermen happy, they better have a 2 fish limit in the sound for hatchery fish anyway as long as they can get away with it. Puget sound fish start to separate more into terminal areas- and hatchery fish are basically considered surplus and wild fish impacts can be controlled more than on the ocean or Columbia (in theory anyway).

[GEARHEAD]

Thank you, i guess that makes sense, but i got a but? i mean we are talking a 1.5 million return prediction, 1 million coho, now it wasnt that long ago, only a few years it seems, that 500G was considered a good run, but man, i mean we are at maybe 1.5 million. ok my whine is over. just cant justify the time and expense for that trip anymore, where the boat can limit in less than an hour. lol, maybe they are also figuring that into the management plan too.

[Dhoey07]

Thank you, i guess that makes sense, but i got a but? i mean we are talking a 1.5 million return prediction, 1 million coho, now it wasnt that long ago, only a few years it seems, that 500G was considered a good run, but man, i mean we are at maybe 1.5 million. ok my whine is over. just cant justify the time and expense for that trip anymore, where the boat can limit in less than an hour. lol, maybe they are also figuring that into the management plan too.

Lower limit = Longer season = More money for everyone but the fisherman.  Also there are 3 states associated with columbia river kings, they aren't ALL Washington's. 

I wish that there was a 2 king limit.  If there was I would probably make the trip over from Spokane 

[Bullkllr]

Thank you, i guess that makes sense, but i got a but? i mean we are talking a 1.5 million return prediction, 1 million coho, now it wasnt that long ago, only a few years it seems, that 500G was considered a good run, but man, i mean we are at maybe 1.5 million. ok my whine is over. just cant justify the time and expense for that trip anymore, where the boat can limit in less than an hour. lol, maybe they are also figuring that into the management plan too.

Lower limit = Longer season = More money for everyone but the fisherman.  Also there are 3 states associated with columbia river kings, they aren't ALL Washington's. 

I wish that there was a 2 king limit.  If there was I would probably make the trip over from Spokane 

Exactly. When they went to a 1 king limit in the ocean I think all the private boat guys were against it- it's just hard to justify the expense for 1 king a piece sometimes. But the charter fleet and local business pushed hard for it because it basically doubles the length of their season- can't blame them. I'd bet the same thing is at work on the Columbia.

I'd add that with formulas they use- if the run size doubles the number of allowable wild fish impacted (which drives the quota) probably does not double- so its not automatic that we get twice as many fish to catch. Like I said, its pretty muddy how the whole thing is put together.

[bhawley76]

Good year or not I cant wait to get the boat in the water and drown some bait. Just hoping to do more catching than fishing in La Push. just not looking forward to the drive. 

[WSU]

I believe the limiting factor is not the runs that are strong, such as the 900K URBs expected to return this year.  There are other stocks, like lower river wild kings and coho, that aren't strong.  The impact on them limits how the fishery is conducted.

[Bullkllr]

I believe the limiting factor is not the runs that are strong, such as the 900K URBs expected to return this year.  There are other stocks, like lower river wild kings and coho, that aren't strong.  The impact on them limits how the fishery is conducted.

That's the point I was probably dancing around right there