Commercial Gill Nets Target BASS in Lake WA

[full choke]

“We just have to do something.”

Worst excuse ever. Doesn’t work for guns, not gonna work for Lake Washington sockeye. But good luck. Take one more opportunity away from sportsman.

[pianoman9701]

“We just have to do something.”

Worst excuse ever. Doesn’t work for guns, not gonna work for Lake Washington sockeye. But good luck. Take one more opportunity away from sportsman.

Sometimes these actions help sportsmen AND wildlife.

[AKBowman]

The mail was put in the Sockeye coffin long ago for Lake WA when man completely altered the lake. There’s nothing native about how salmon enter and exit the lake now anyhow. Combined with literally every home on the lake shore having a large dock, light and other pollution all along the smolt migration route, etc.


I think a lot of the beef with this from most people is more about a single special interest group being allowed to mess with a public sport fishery without prior public approval to do so. Not so much about Bass VS Salmon.

That being said the bass we’re doing amazingly well in the lake. Lake WA was a top 100 bass lake in the US and top 16 bass lake in the West. But let’s wipe out the bass for no scientific reasoning just so this special interest group can have access to more fish they claim to have rights to. Mind you these “native” fish are being produced through state funded and state run hatcheries.

Like myself and others have said the chances of any sport fishery having access to any successful sockeye or Chinook run recovery is laughable. What will happen if there is excess is they will be netted under “subsistence” regulations then commercially sold that same day for a PROFIT.

The whole process is a PATHETIC

You have a tremendous misunderstanding of life.  In addition to the misunderstanding you show a lack of willingness to educate yourself or even learn.

Really Tbar, I’m sure the exact thing could be said of you and this post. I’ve shown I’ve done a good amount of research on the subject. What’s available for public knowledge anyhow.

One only stated the facts. If you are upset with the fact that special interest tribal groups are allowed to net salmon on Subsistence Permits then sell their Subsistence catch for commercial profits you should be upset. Not at me though. Maybe direct your anger towards your boy Inslee.

Talk to your boy Inslee

[KFhunter]

FYI, this is what 2400 yards of net looks like on Lake Washington.

Here is what it looks like to me

he broke out the crayons lol 😆

[pianoman9701]

The mail was put in the Sockeye coffin long ago for Lake WA when man completely altered the lake. There’s nothing native about how salmon enter and exit the lake now anyhow. Combined with literally every home on the lake shore having a large dock, light and other pollution all along the smolt migration route, etc.


I think a lot of the beef with this from most people is more about a single special interest group being allowed to mess with a public sport fishery without prior public approval to do so. Not so much about Bass VS Salmon.

That being said the bass we’re doing amazingly well in the lake. Lake WA was a top 100 bass lake in the US and top 16 bass lake in the West. But let’s wipe out the bass for no scientific reasoning just so this special interest group can have access to more fish they claim to have rights to. Mind you these “native” fish are being produced through state funded and state run hatcheries.

Like myself and others have said the chances of any sport fishery having access to any successful sockeye or Chinook run recovery is laughable. What will happen if there is excess is they will be netted under “subsistence” regulations then commercially sold that same day for a PROFIT.

The whole process is a PATHETIC

You have a tremendous misunderstanding of life.  In addition to the misunderstanding you show a lack of willingness to educate yourself or even learn.

Really Tbar, I’m sure the exact thing could be said of you and this post. I’ve shown I’ve done a good amount of research on the subject. What’s available for public knowledge anyhow.

One only stated the facts. If you are upset with the fact that special interest tribal groups are allowed to net salmon on Subsistence Permits then sell their Subsistence catch for commercial profits you should be upset. Not at me though. Maybe direct your anger towards your boy Inslee.

Talk to your boy Inslee

The state government has nothing to do with tribal harvest rights, only in working with them locally to manage and track harvests, breeding programs, etc. Tribal rights are defined through treaties passed by Congress and signed by the President. I wish we could blame Inslee for those but we can't.

[Stein]

Certainly not your typical salmon run, in or out.

No, not the easiest, but arguably far easier than making it all the way up the Columbia to the Snake in Idaho.  It's like 800-900 river miles plus four dams on the Columbia and four on the snake.  They can do some amazing stuff provided they aren't eaten on the way out or the way back.

[buckcanyonlodge]

FYI, this is what 2400 yards of net looks like on Lake Washington.

Yes but no. Check out the article in my original post. It has an outline of exactly where the nets were placed. They are being extremely strategic about where the nets are placed and when they are placed there.

Plus think about that line being moved around the lake 5 days per week for 2 months. That’s like moving your line around the lake to 40 different strategic locations. There is nothing random about where these are placed.

It will make a big hit on the population but not wipe it out. Regardless the science isn’t there. Heck what if the Perch are actually killing more salmon smolt then the bass. The bass eat the Perch so if they are going to go straight off of theory then this netting could actually make things worse for the smolt survival.

https://depts.washington.edu/oldenlab/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ReviewsFisheriesScience_2011.pdf

Look at the charts here. Some are showing salmon are up to 50% of the bass' diet in certain places. The study concludes that bass can have a dramatic effect on salmon and steelhead runs.

I believe that the OP is likely a dedicated bass fisherman, while he may indeed fish for other species including salmonids. I spent decades pursuing only bass for catch and release fishing. I get it. Being a bass fisherman, he's upset this species is being singled out for removal (fair?). But they're not being singled out. The WDFW and tribes have been aggressively targeting several invasive species which affect the salmonids - pike minnow, walleye, smallmouth and largemouth bass, musky.

I think it's a good thing and they're not going far enough. Why not also single out the sea lions? They should be killing them wherever they see them upstream from Astoria. I believe that combining all of these efforts could have a dramatic positive effect on salmonid populations.

Squawfish are not invasive species. They are just as native as any of the salmon species. Why pick one native specie over another?  Can't sell squawfish??

[AKBowman]

The mail was put in the Sockeye coffin long ago for Lake WA when man completely altered the lake. There’s nothing native about how salmon enter and exit the lake now anyhow. Combined with literally every home on the lake shore having a large dock, light and other pollution all along the smolt migration route, etc.


I think a lot of the beef with this from most people is more about a single special interest group being allowed to mess with a public sport fishery without prior public approval to do so. Not so much about Bass VS Salmon.

That being said the bass we’re doing amazingly well in the lake. Lake WA was a top 100 bass lake in the US and top 16 bass lake in the West. But let’s wipe out the bass for no scientific reasoning just so this special interest group can have access to more fish they claim to have rights to. Mind you these “native” fish are being produced through state funded and state run hatcheries.

Like myself and others have said the chances of any sport fishery having access to any successful sockeye or Chinook run recovery is laughable. What will happen if there is excess is they will be netted under “subsistence” regulations then commercially sold that same day for a PROFIT.

The whole process is a PATHETIC

You have a tremendous misunderstanding of life.  In addition to the misunderstanding you show a lack of willingness to educate yourself or even learn.

Really Tbar, I’m sure the exact thing could be said of you and this post. I’ve shown I’ve done a good amount of research on the subject. What’s available for public knowledge anyhow.

One only stated the facts. If you are upset with the fact that special interest tribal groups are allowed to net salmon on Subsistence Permits then sell their Subsistence catch for commercial profits you should be upset. Not at me though. Maybe direct your anger towards your boy Inslee.

Talk to your boy Inslee

The state government has nothing to do with tribal harvest rights, only in working with them locally to manage and track harvests, breeding programs, etc. Tribal rights are defined through treaties passed by Congress and signed by the President. I wish we could blame Inslee for those but we can't.

Yes all true but the state pays for the production of the hatchery fish. They are not native. The WDFW should be protecting the rights sports fisherman have paid/signed up for. Particularly sport fish, in this case Bass. They can start to do that by overseeing this project and demanding to see/make public the results from the Sammamish warm water Tribal catch from 2019. If the results show a high content of Salmonids in bass stomach contents than I would be all for the netting combined with other predatory management.

It would be amazing if we could get a sockeye and chinook return to lake WA. But if we do there simply will be very little “native” about it. Based off of the way this state management rolls over to special interest groups we the sports people would not gain access to this new, non-native resource.

[grundy53]

So instead of one ruined fishery we'll have 2 ruined fisheries. Neat.

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[Stein]

Squaws are native to our area, but not in all portions of all the rivers and lakes.  Damming the rivers slowed the water which led to it warming and they could then expand their range and numbers dramatically.

WDFW's pikeminnow program isn't trying to eradicate them, just to knock the numbers back a bit, I think the goal is a 10-20% reduction - fairly traditional predator control to remove some pressure on the salmon.  Nobody seems to be suing on that one so it continues much unlike similar aspirations for pig seals, sea lions and birds.

For the stuff like northern pike, they would like to get them all out of the lake for sure if they could.

I think much of it comes down to what they can do without being sued to stop.

[Angry Perch]

Certainly not your typical salmon run, in or out.

No, not the easiest, but arguably far easier than making it all the way up the Columbia to the Snake in Idaho.  It's like 800-900 river miles plus four dams on the Columbia and four on the snake.  They can do some amazing stuff provided they aren't eaten on the way out or the way back.

I'm looking more at water temp and quality vs distance. They certainly are amazing. Catching sockeye in Lake Wenatchee, and seeing the whitewater they traverse in the Tumwater Canyon is flat out crazy.

[Stein]

For sure the water temp is not helpful at all.  Those fish pretty much have all the odds stacked against them.


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[pianoman9701]

The mail was put in the Sockeye coffin long ago for Lake WA when man completely altered the lake. There’s nothing native about how salmon enter and exit the lake now anyhow. Combined with literally every home on the lake shore having a large dock, light and other pollution all along the smolt migration route, etc.


I think a lot of the beef with this from most people is more about a single special interest group being allowed to mess with a public sport fishery without prior public approval to do so. Not so much about Bass VS Salmon.

That being said the bass we’re doing amazingly well in the lake. Lake WA was a top 100 bass lake in the US and top 16 bass lake in the West. But let’s wipe out the bass for no scientific reasoning just so this special interest group can have access to more fish they claim to have rights to. Mind you these “native” fish are being produced through state funded and state run hatcheries.

Like myself and others have said the chances of any sport fishery having access to any successful sockeye or Chinook run recovery is laughable. What will happen if there is excess is they will be netted under “subsistence” regulations then commercially sold that same day for a PROFIT.

The whole process is a PATHETIC

You have a tremendous misunderstanding of life.  In addition to the misunderstanding you show a lack of willingness to educate yourself or even learn.

Really Tbar, I’m sure the exact thing could be said of you and this post. I’ve shown I’ve done a good amount of research on the subject. What’s available for public knowledge anyhow.

One only stated the facts. If you are upset with the fact that special interest tribal groups are allowed to net salmon on Subsistence Permits then sell their Subsistence catch for commercial profits you should be upset. Not at me though. Maybe direct your anger towards your boy Inslee.

Talk to your boy Inslee

The state government has nothing to do with tribal harvest rights, only in working with them locally to manage and track harvests, breeding programs, etc. Tribal rights are defined through treaties passed by Congress and signed by the President. I wish we could blame Inslee for those but we can't.

Yes all true but the state pays for the production of the hatchery fish. They are not native. The WDFW should be protecting the rights sports fisherman have paid/signed up for. Particularly sport fish, in this case Bass. They can start to do that by overseeing this project and demanding to see/make public the results from the Sammamish warm water Tribal catch from 2019. If the results show a high content of Salmonids in bass stomach contents than I would be all for the netting combined with other predatory management.

It would be amazing if we could get a sockeye and chinook return to lake WA. But if we do there simply will be very little “native” about it. Based off of the way this state management rolls over to special interest groups we the sports people would not gain access to this new, non-native resource.

Not all of them. The tribes also run and fund hatcheries.

[buckcanyonlodge]

Squaws are native to our area, but not in all portions of all the rivers and lakes.  Damming the rivers slowed the water which led to it warming and they could then expand their range and numbers dramatically.

WDFW's pikeminnow program isn't trying to eradicate them, just to knock the numbers back a bit, I think the goal is a 10-20% reduction - fairly traditional predator control to remove some pressure on the salmon.  Nobody seems to be suing on that one so it continues much unlike similar aspirations for pig seals, sea lions and birds.

For the stuff like northern pike, they would like to get them all out of the lake for sure if they could.

I think much of it comes down to what they can do without being sued to stop.

They are native to the Columbia River where the bounty program has been in effect for about 31 THIRTY ONE years. Five months a year ....unlimited number of anglers...any bait or  legal fishing method...24 hours a day... there are NO controls to make sure they are not eradicated .   5.1 million squawfish paid for in the 31 years. That leaves about 459000000 in the Columbia. ---figuring 5.1 million is 10% of the population. Makes sense to me

[Special T]

The pike minnow fishery ive heard is a lot like bass fishing except it pays to go out. I KNOW if i lived in those areas that is what I would be doing!

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