WDFW NOT releasing early winter steelhead this spring on any Puget Sound river.

[jackmaster]

It is getting to the point where Canada and Oregon is a better place to go fishing.  Spend a week and fish as much as you can.  I just hope the voting majority (Sport fisher people) will crush the stupidity when voting comes up.

:yeah:thats why it so important for the experienced fisherman that know the ins and outs ofthis ssteelhead issue to educate the rest of us, I am a woodsman through and through, I fish oncein awhile, its a blast but i ain't educated at all when it comes to these kind of things, that is whats so AWESOME about HUNT WA..... like I said I will vote the way the fisherman want me to

[dreamunelk]

Here is a good link to a site with a good intelligent discussion on the issue:http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/890646/Lawsuit_over_PS_Steelhead_hatc.html#Post890646

[Bullkllr]

Here is a good link to a site with a good intelligent discussion on the issue:http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/890646/Lawsuit_over_PS_Steelhead_hatc.html#Post890646

That does seem to be a mostly intelligent discussion

http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/890646/1.html

[jpharcher]

Just 3 years ago the state stopped a very successful broodstock program on the Sol Duc via the Snyder Creek hatchery because the purist said...with little to no scientific backing that brood stock fish were breeding with the natives....broodstock are natives by the way. The Sol Duc is pretty much now a native only river and the pressure has not slowed down so all the "Catch and Release" of Native only fish are being subjected to more pressure and more are being "released" to spawn. I for one am going to start utilizing my 1 fish a year limit if that is the only chance for a fresh fillet for the BBQ.
sorry but I like steelhead so if with the Green being designated as a Wild gene river and hatchery output coming to a screeching halt for all rivers statewide then I guess while it is legal I will retain my 1 native.

[jackmaster]

one thing i do know is the puyallup river was at one time a world reknown (sp) steelhead fishery, what the hell happened there, my dad told me stories of the old days of steelheadn on that river and the stuck was even better but not as many knew about that and its all but wiped out now, sounds like a couple of great rivers to start a massive steelhead rehabilitation program on, i would assume once you get a big established run, you could quit planting it and the ones you realeased before would start spawning up those rivers and presto a new wild run of fish that werent raised in a hatchery

[Bullkllr]

Just 3 years ago the state stopped a very successful broodstock program on the Sol Duc via the Snyder Creek hatchery because the purist said...with little to no scientific backing that brood stock fish were breeding with the natives....broodstock are natives by the way. The Sol Duc is pretty much now a native only river and the pressure has not slowed down so all the "Catch and Release" of Native only fish are being subjected to more pressure and more are being "released" to spawn. I for one am going to start utilizing my 1 fish a year limit if that is the only chance for a fresh fillet for the BBQ.

Oregon seems to have embraced the concept of wild broodstock for supplementing on a number of rivers. I don't know too much about it, but they seem to actually be fishing down there and from what I hear fishing is pretty decent.
I'm sure more people will be taking their 1 native if that is all that's available. Picture the whole Puget Sound area shut down for winter steelhead. The Cowlitz no longer getting planted for the early run. The EF Lewis going "wild gene bank"... this is really bad news for Nooch, Satsop, and coastal rivers...where everyone who wants to fish for steelhead will be.

[snowpack]

I heard the snider creek program is being moved to the Bogachiel.  It will be a couple years to start seeing the fish come back.  WDFW made them move because of the Sol Duc gene bank.  The fish huggers didn't shut them down.  They'd probably try to if they could.  Seems a lot of them hate the program because they don't like certain guides in Forks.
 

[Alchase]

one thing i do know is the puyallup river was at one time a world reknown (sp) steelhead fishery, what the hell happened there, my dad told me stories of the old days of steelheadn on that river and the stuck was even better but not as many knew about that and its all but wiped out now, sounds like a couple of great rivers to start a massive steelhead rehabilitation program on, i would assume once you get a big established run, you could quit planting it and the ones you realeased before would start spawning up those rivers and presto a new wild run of fish that werent raised in a hatchery

I have a Fishing and Hunting news article from 1995 I believe, that lists the Puyallup as the second most productive Steelhead fishery in the state.
Now there are none.

Bring all those plants down and release them in the Puyallup. No wild fish to bother, so no body should get their panties in a wad.

[WSU]

A big problem with all Puget Sound streams, Puyallup included, is that the smolts do not appear to survive in Puget Sound.  You could release hundreds of thousands and only get a few hundred fish back.

[snowpack]

A big problem with all Puget Sound streams, Puyallup included, is that the smolts do not appear to survive in Puget Sound.  You could release hundreds of thousands and only get a few hundred fish back.

I've heard this too.  That the rivers actually have healthy levels of smolts, but within a short time (two weeks?) of leaving the river and being in the sound, something like only 1 in 4 are remaining.  Then they have to leave the sound for the big ocean and survive out there for a few years.

[jackmaster]

A big problem with all Puget Sound streams, Puyallup included, is that the smolts do not appear to survive in Puget Sound.  You could release hundreds of thousands and only get a few hundred fish back.

i take it they have no clue what is causing this is it polution or are the salmon out there snappn them all up, probably polution from the businesses all over the port of tacoma 

[WSU]

I haven't heard why the smolts die and am not sure the answer is known.  A screwed up ecosystem, including pollution, is the obvious guess but I don't think I cause has been confirmed.

[jackmaster]

here is a question, if you raised smolts in a river and then transported them out to the ocean or even out of the puget sound, say out to sequim or port angelas, and then turned them loose so they can make their way to the ocean, when it was time for them to return would they know what river to return to? or is it something the smolt have to travel the whole way before it logs into memory banks?

[Alchase]

That does not explain why the Puyallup was such a good fishery up until they shut the hatcheries down?

[jackmaster]

That does not explain why the Puyallup was such a good fishery up until they shut the hatcheries down?

not to start a tribal bashing thread here but the puyallup gets the crap netted out of it, it is stair stepped with nets during the fall, that might have something to do with it, and all those fish gotta come up the puyallup before they can get to the stuck as well....