Wdfw and quotas

[Come Get Some]

Westport quota is almost met, our wdfw is cutting it off for kings well below our percentage. They are allocating 30% of our catch for mortality and applying it to our quota. Everytime fisherman come in and the bio asks how many fish you have released  they apply it to mortality + the fish you have punched on your card. Be careful telling them how many fish were released. It does nothing but hurt us. We can keep unclipped fish in the ocean and above puget island to protect the tule fish but not until the 24th in the columbia
below puget island. Tonight the gillnetters go in from warrior rock to Bonneville. They will be getting the steelhead that are way above the 10 year average as well as chinook. Good thing we have been releasing unclipped  fish at bouy 10 and steelhead has been closed since the August 1. We can usually start keeping wild chinook on the 13th of august..this all makes no sense to many of us. I am sure someone will highjack this thread and justify all of these actions. Lets see how it all plays out

[metlhead]

I am not careful when I report at the dock. I flat out lie. Let the YouTubers talk about all their encounters.

[metlhead]

Does anyone here have the real science behind the quota of 12,070 area 2 chinook? Is it physical dead fish? Does that number include mortality or is it low with mortality factored above? Lots of questions on what that guieline number actually means.

[NWBrute]

Is there real science to much of what they do now days??

[Stein]

My understanding is that chinook quota for recreational non tribal is encounters.  The state attempts to calculate how many chinook (of any kind, adult, jack, this river, that river) have had a hook in them and brought to the boat and that is what they regulate to.

So, if you bonk one, that is one encounter.  If you release one that is one encounter.  If you hook a 6 incher that is one encounter.  If you get a bite and lose it half way up, I don't believe that is an encounter (they specifically ask for intentional releases).

There is much debate on whether they use the dock surveys (Did you intentionally release anything?) or not.  Many people say they run boats and get their own shaker ratio (which I have seen their boat fishing plenty of times).  I do find it hard to believe they are spending time gathering survey data that they don't use, my guess is they rely on it and also have a fudge factor.

My best guess is they count boats and rely heavily on survey data to see how many encounters per boat and then use their own catch data to determine the fudge factor to apply to that.  That's just a guess as WDFW does not talk about how they get their numbers for fish, crab, shrimp or anything else.  I was tempted to do a FOI request to just see how they do it, but then remembered that with the current wonky system it doesn't much matter as we will be limited to the rivers with the tiny runs any way you go.

[The scout]

The fishing is ridiculous and the kings are finally big now, so must be about time to shut it down. Trying to understand there reasoning will only make you mad.

[metlhead]

So from what I'm reading, 12,070 quota is not 12,070 dead fish? We were sold a number, then taxes took out theirs.

[fishngamereaper]

Yes the quota is not retained fish
It adds in the assumed mortality rate of encounters. Driven by dock surveys and test fishing.
I've heard they are assuming 5 encounters per 1 fish retained this year. They don't trust dock surveys as much as they used to. To much internet chatter of people telling people to lie to the checker's. So the test boat goes out and what they catch or don't catch is factored in....

It's junk science at best. Just like halibut, and just like shrimp.

[Stein]

So, 12k quota equals about 2k fish in the box.

[Kola16]

Why would they have us release fish if they just assume they're going to die? Isn't that why they changed the rockfish retention to any rockfish, minus yelloweye? Because a bunch of canaries and boccacios were just left to float? If they assume a native king dies when you release it, why not just let them keep it before they catch 2 more native kings before they finally catch the hatchery? 1 dead native is better than 3 dead natives and a hatchery. And then why the not taking them out of the water rule? And barbless hooks? If they just die anyway? They have so many laws that they all contradict each other.

[Wa hunter]

Very good points Come Get Some.

[metlhead]

Anybody notice in the new Area2 emergency rules, the state tosses in 'modest guideline'. Suppose they are reminding us to quit bichin and be happy with our bone.

[the mule]

one bite at a time they are eliminating us from the picture, special interest money has allot of pull in Olympia

[metlhead]

Anyone notice the area 2 commercial schedule for Willapa? Many dates fall right before a weekend. Be nice to have first shot at a bay full of fish for the working class. Give them Mon-Wednesday.

[metlhead]

Headed out this weekend for some silver action with a boatload of buddies. I noticed that the last posting of quotas shows that only 92% of the king harvest has been met. As whimsical as the state's numbers are, will they be stealing our last 8% also? Most kings have moved on, gimmee a weekend opening for an incidental chinook!