Free: Contests & Raffles.
I have to be honest, this doesn't bother me. It seems that to get people to do the right thing, they need to get their pants sued off. Will this have an immediate and significant impact? No, but improving wild salmon runs is a long game, and having more habitat available to use is important. In the same breath. I don't give the tribes a big pat on the back, especially most of our Western WA tribes. I was on the Skagit system fishing this weekend and had to consider a few things. Back in the day (10 years ago), I could go to the Skagit on a June day and without any effort, catch dozens of Dolly Varden and Bull Trout. They were thick. They were feasting on out migrating Chum and Silver fry, which you would catch a lot of as well on small spinners/spoons. You could hardly use bait on a diver because it was constantly being picked apart by fry and inhaled by dollies. In the winter you would see thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of chums spawning. When the spawn was done, the river banks would be lined for miles with rotting carcasses, filling the river with nutrients. I would often fish in December high in the system and catch about as many dollies and wild rainbows as I wanted. A bead or flesh fly was irresistible. This last December I had an afternoon to fish and wanted to make the most of it, so I went to my most productive upriver spot. There wasn't a chum to be found. Not one. There were also no dollies or rainbows. My journal indicated that on that day 8 years prior I had landed 60 fish in that run that had no less than 500 chums spawning in it. It was right about that time frame that CHum and Pink roe became a commodity, and the Indians and white commercials began seining and gill netting these fish. They have literally fished the Skagit, Skykomish, and Stilliguamish OUT of chums, and pinks are next. These massive salmon runs are the key to a healthy river system's carrying capacity. Without the carcasses and spawn, there are no nutrients to feed the Dollies and Rainbows that used to dwell there. There is nothing for the bugs to eat that feed the steelhead smolt that live in the river for a year before heading to sea (why are our wild steelhead numbers dwindling despite no wild harvest in Puget Sound for decades?). I won't blame it all on the Indians, whites net these fish too, but when you hear the Indians pissing and moaning this winter that they were catching more Atlantics in their nets than the chums they were trying to catch for their CHUM HATCHERY, it really speaks volumes. There should never be a need for a chum hatchery, just don't kill all the damn things and let them spawn, they'll take care of themselves. I thank the Indians for pressing the state to do the right thing and improve habitat, now they need to step up to the plate and improve their fishery management practices and start letting fish hit the gravel again. All the gravel in the world won't matter if you net them all before they get there.
Quote from: 7mmfan on June 11, 2018, 11:31:52 AMI have to be honest, this doesn't bother me. It seems that to get people to do the right thing, they need to get their pants sued off. Will this have an immediate and significant impact? No, but improving wild salmon runs is a long game, and having more habitat available to use is important. In the same breath. I don't give the tribes a big pat on the back, especially most of our Western WA tribes. I was on the Skagit system fishing this weekend and had to consider a few things. Back in the day (10 years ago), I could go to the Skagit on a June day and without any effort, catch dozens of Dolly Varden and Bull Trout. They were thick. They were feasting on out migrating Chum and Silver fry, which you would catch a lot of as well on small spinners/spoons. You could hardly use bait on a diver because it was constantly being picked apart by fry and inhaled by dollies. In the winter you would see thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of chums spawning. When the spawn was done, the river banks would be lined for miles with rotting carcasses, filling the river with nutrients. I would often fish in December high in the system and catch about as many dollies and wild rainbows as I wanted. A bead or flesh fly was irresistible. This last December I had an afternoon to fish and wanted to make the most of it, so I went to my most productive upriver spot. There wasn't a chum to be found. Not one. There were also no dollies or rainbows. My journal indicated that on that day 8 years prior I had landed 60 fish in that run that had no less than 500 chums spawning in it. It was right about that time frame that CHum and Pink roe became a commodity, and the Indians and white commercials began seining and gill netting these fish. They have literally fished the Skagit, Skykomish, and Stilliguamish OUT of chums, and pinks are next. These massive salmon runs are the key to a healthy river system's carrying capacity. Without the carcasses and spawn, there are no nutrients to feed the Dollies and Rainbows that used to dwell there. There is nothing for the bugs to eat that feed the steelhead smolt that live in the river for a year before heading to sea (why are our wild steelhead numbers dwindling despite no wild harvest in Puget Sound for decades?). I won't blame it all on the Indians, whites net these fish too, but when you hear the Indians pissing and moaning this winter that they were catching more Atlantics in their nets than the chums they were trying to catch for their CHUM HATCHERY, it really speaks volumes. There should never be a need for a chum hatchery, just don't kill all the damn things and let them spawn, they'll take care of themselves. I thank the Indians for pressing the state to do the right thing and improve habitat, now they need to step up to the plate and improve their fishery management practices and start letting fish hit the gravel again. All the gravel in the world won't matter if you net them all before they get there.
Article was written in May 2017. Is there some new developement?
