Fish checkers

[Born2late]

Took two buddy’s out today and came back with one silver and 5 pinks. I have been going out quite a bit so the same fish checker gal has checked me numerous times. Today when I pulled in I told her we had a silver so she could get her little wand to scan it as I went to get the truck. She was all excited and ran back to her stuff and went down to my boat. She opens the cooler and tells my buddies I think this is a sockeye. They both are avid coho fisherman and said ahh no I don’t think so. She says” I’ll take a picture and send it to my boss and let you know “ she takes her phone and snaps a picture and sets her phone on the edge of the cooler lid that is standing straight up. Of course she bumps the lid and the phone falls straight into the cooler with 5” of blood and water and 6 fish in it. She,all flustered grabs her phone jumps out and walks off without her wand scanner we had to go return it to her.
Does anybody know if these people doing the checks are volunteers or college students that are trying to go in to the field as a biologist or what. She is super nice and all but the reason I ask is I wonder how accurate are counts are if they can’t identify fish species correctly.
Edited: apparently I need the classes to better identify the fish 😳

[full choke]

We had a federal game warden check us at a National Wildlife refuge in the parking lot. We had to explain to him what species of ducks and geese we had were- he honestly did not know. But he did give my brother a ticket for out of date registration on his pick up. So yeah, I have concerns for the accuracy of their counts.

[Jake Dogfish]

Took two buddy’s out today and came back with one silver and 5 pinks. I have been going out quite a bit so the same fish checker gal has checked me numerous times. Today when I pulled in I told her we had a silver so she could get her little wand to scan it as I went to get the truck. She was all excited and ran back to her stuff and went down to my boat. She opens the cooler and tells my buddies I think this is a sockeye. They both are avid coho fisherman and said ahh no I don’t think so. She says” I’ll take a picture and send it to my boss and let you know “ she takes her phone and snaps a picture and sets her phone on the edge of the cooler lid that is standing straight up. Of course she bumps the lid and the phone falls straight into the cooler with 5” of blood and water and 6 fish in it. She,all flustered grabs her phone jumps out and walks off without her wand scanner we had to go return it to her.
Does anybody know if these people doing the checks are volunteers or college students that are trying to go in to the field as a biologist or what. She is super nice and all but the reason I ask is I wonder how accurate are counts are if they can’t identify fish species correctly.

No pic?

[wadu1]

Had federal game warden's and state wardens pull into our decoy spread to check us. We had our ducks on sperate stringers to prove who had what. The state wardens said I was over my limit on pintails. I pulled out my waterfowl ID cards and said what he thought were pintails were actually immature widgeon. The federal wardens said I was correct. The state guy was at the boat launch and started it all over again. Got his name and badge number and sent it to the game department.
Never got a response from them, go figure.

[Gettin Birdie]

Took two buddy’s out today and came back with one silver and 5 pinks. I have been going out quite a bit so the same fish checker gal has checked me numerous times. Today when I pulled in I told her we had a silver so she could get her little wand to scan it as I went to get the truck. She was all excited and ran back to her stuff and went down to my boat. She opens the cooler and tells my buddies I think this is a sockeye. They both are avid coho fisherman and said ahh no I don’t think so. She says” I’ll take a picture and send it to my boss and let you know “ she takes her phone and snaps a picture and sets her phone on the edge of the cooler lid that is standing straight up. Of course she bumps the lid and the phone falls straight into the cooler with 5” of blood and water and 6 fish in it. She,all flustered grabs her phone jumps out and walks off without her wand scanner we had to go return it to her.
Does anybody know if these people doing the checks are volunteers or college students that are trying to go in to the field as a biologist or what. She is super nice and all but the reason I ask is I wonder how accurate are counts are if they can’t identify fish species correctly.

I worked for WDFW a few years ago, and it was disturbing/disgusting.  Most are college students or recent graduates just looking for a job, not even interested in biology, fish, wildlife or hunting.  Many are anti-hunting, anti-guns, etc. So many idiots, more than normal folk, it was unbelievable to me.  That is what made my mind up to leave the state, as I was seasonal perm, but could have got full year perm easily.  WA state don't care anymore my friend, sorry, she probably had never fished a day in her life, honestly.  Sad state of affairs in WA, I love the state, its beautiful, but hunting and fishing are being overrun by morons and antis, the writing was on the wall.  Keep up the fight though, all you can do, it was easy for me to leave, unlike many others. 

[Born2late]

Took two buddy’s out today and came back with one silver and 5 pinks. I have been going out quite a bit so the same fish checker gal has checked me numerous times. Today when I pulled in I told her we had a silver so she could get her little wand to scan it as I went to get the truck. She was all excited and ran back to her stuff and went down to my boat. She opens the cooler and tells my buddies I think this is a sockeye. They both are avid coho fisherman and said ahh no I don’t think so. She says” I’ll take a picture and send it to my boss and let you know “ she takes her phone and snaps a picture and sets her phone on the edge of the cooler lid that is standing straight up. Of course she bumps the lid and the phone falls straight into the cooler with 5” of blood and water and 6 fish in it. She,all flustered grabs her phone jumps out and walks off without her wand scanner we had to go return it to her.
Does anybody know if these people doing the checks are volunteers or college students that are trying to go in to the field as a biologist or what. She is super nice and all but the reason I ask is I wonder how accurate are counts are if they can’t identify fish species correctly.

No pic?

Nope

[Encore 280]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

[storyteller]

This sounds like a fishing trip  that I had a few  weeks  ago, I posted the pic on FB on area 1-13 fishing, we marked it on card as a silver.   It sounds like the same lady, our fish was getting dark, very slimy, caught down past Richmond  Beach heading toward Shilshole.    She showed us why she called it a sockeye  but also took a picture to show her boss.   The tongue was white, no teeth to speak of.   After looking it over and researching some more, I think she is right.   First sockeye we ever ran across in the salt , or at least that I know of.    It was 7.09 pound

[duckmen1]

This sounds like a fishing trip  that I had a few  weeks  ago, I posted the pic on FB on area 1-13 fishing, we marked it on card as a silver.   It sounds like the same lady, our fish was getting dark, very slimy, caught down past Richmond  Beach heading toward Shilshole.    She showed us why she called it a sockeye  but also took a picture to show her boss.   The tongue was white, no teeth to speak of.   After looking it over and researching some more, I think she is right.   First sockeye we ever ran across in the salt , or at least that I know of.    It was 7.09 pound

I would have to see a picture of the actual fish to make a judgement call

[storyteller]

I have another pic of actual fish but I cant figure  out how to make it load up.

[storyteller]

here it is

[Caseyd]

Screenshot the pic then load the screenshot.

[duckmen1]

Full fish pic showed up. And I kinda half to agree too. Looks like a sockeye

[Limhangerslayer]

That is a sockeye imho

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Sockeye = no silver in the tail and no spots. Sockeye also have more gill rakers.

Hard to see tail in that photo but other than that, looks like a sockeye.

[Born2late]

This sounds like a fishing trip  that I had a few  weeks  ago, I posted the pic on FB on area 1-13 fishing, we marked it on card as a silver.   It sounds like the same lady, our fish was getting dark, very slimy, caught down past Richmond  Beach heading toward Shilshole.    She showed us why she called it a sockeye  but also took a picture to show her boss.   The tongue was white, no teeth to speak of.   After looking it over and researching some more, I think she is right.   First sockeye we ever ran across in the salt , or at least that I know of.    It was 7.09 pound

Well she might have been right on our fish.
Looking at the picture ours was similar I think.
https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,280622.0.html
This picture of his silver has a dark tail that has no silver in it either.
So I don’t know.

[ducks4days]

The irony of folks on here railing against this girl for not knowing how to ID a coho vs sockeye only for her to be right is pretty funny.

[2MANY]

LOL.

[huntandjeep]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

Gal that checked us in Chinook was only checking half the boats . Said it had to do with her being alone on a busy weekend.  Said they average the count . Another  way the great State gets an accurate fish count of harvested fish . Did you also know that every fish  released goes against the harvest quota .

[jay.sharkbait]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

Gal that checked us in Chinook was only checking half the boats . Said it had to do with her being alone on a busy weekend.  Said they average the count . Another  way the great State gets an accurate fish count of harvested fish . Did you also know that every fish  released goes against the harvest quota .

This is why I think that we should keep native and hatchery fish and use barbed hooks.

[Happy Gilmore]

The 3 at sekiu weren't even walking the docks or getting out of their tent.

[jay.sharkbait]

The 3 at sekiu weren't even walking the docks or getting out of their tent.

I think all they were doing were counting boats and people.

[huntandjeep]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

Gal that checked us in Chinook was only checking half the boats . Said it had to do with her being alone on a busy weekend.  Said they average the count . Another  way the great State gets an accurate fish count of harvested fish . Did you also know that every fish  released goes against the harvest quota .

This is why I think that we should keep native and hatchery fish and use barbed hooks.

Or when they ask " how many released " just answer 0

[jay.sharkbait]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

Gal that checked us in Chinook was only checking half the boats . Said it had to do with her being alone on a busy weekend.  Said they average the count . Another  way the great State gets an accurate fish count of harvested fish . Did you also know that every fish  released goes against the harvest quota .

This is why I think that we should keep native and hatchery fish and use barbed hooks.

Or when they ask " how many released " just answer 0

That is policy with our group. It probably doesn’t matter though.

[huntandjeep]

Two days ago in Tokeland they were only checking every other boat. WTF is with that? Something fishy going on. One of the checkers didn't know a coho from a Chinook. 

Gal that checked us in Chinook was only checking half the boats . Said it had to do with her being alone on a busy weekend.  Said they average the count . Another  way the great State gets an accurate fish count of harvested fish . Did you also know that every fish  released goes against the harvest quota .

This is why I think that we should keep native and hatchery fish and use barbed hooks.

Or when they ask " how many released " just answer 0

That is policy with our group. It probably doesn’t matter though.

Ours also . They are probably amazed that all we ever catch are keepers 

[Happy Gilmore]

The 3 at sekiu weren't even walking the docks or getting out of their tent.

We netted around 75-85 fish on swiftsure to get 5 limits on Aug 5th. Granted around half were pinks. We kept a few to fill the limit when it was time to go.

[bullcanyon]

We came into Canby by ilwaco last Friday and she was only checking for crab. She said 13% of boats were crabbing. One of the biggest fisheries in the nw being the b10 fishery and they don't care 🤷‍♂️ Not her fault, she's only doing what they have instructed her to do.