Derelict fishing gear

[Pink Nighty]

Heres something I havent seen much here, but I'm gonna do it.

Trigger Warning: fucking disgusting display of neglect, laziness and disregard for the foundation of life in this part of the world. When I saw it I was shaking mad and willing to say things I wouldnt want heard in public, so yah.

Spent saturday chasing coho and chums on the local river. On my last trip up I had scouted a fantastic new run but hadn't fished it, and was salivating over it for the two weeks I had to wait.

I walk down a trail of the railroad tracks that leads to a large rock outcropping forming a large eddy before flattening into a classic swinging run.

I get to the waters edge and it's clear that I'm in an empty fish camp. Couple partially strung tarps, some empty coke cans, a pole hung up to hang fish on.

Looking into the water I see 4 nets tied off to the bank, each of them tangled into the brush and logs in the water and all of them containing at least a couple coho corpses that are at least a week dead.




I go about trying to haul the nets out of the water and at least get them up on land. It's pretty clear I'm outgunned however, the amount of junk tangled up made hand removal impossible. I also realize that I dont know if I'm on solid legal ground to pull them out.

So I take some pictures, screenshot my location and text my local game warden.
I tell him what I've found and that I hope he knows how to deal with this, and he said he was on top of it.

I go back to fishing, upset about the nets but absolutely enthralled by the water they were in. As I'm crawling along the rocks that form the eddy, I'm hit with an overwhelming smack of salmon carcass funk. I follow it to the source, and find yet another net tied off to the rocks, this one hauled a couple feet out of the water and containing 30-40 coho, also all decomposing and abandoned.



So why am I posting this gross bit of awful? I'm hoping to find a more efficient place to send this information than the local warden, who while an awesome officer and guy is stretched very thin and not necessarily the person who can ultimately help with things like this.

Unless this was just a flat out poach job, which seems unlikely due to its brazeness, this was a legal tribal fishery. Is there a better place to have reported this? Am I in a legally defensible position to go bring the dudes and tools out 5here and clean it up?

Is there anything that those of us who give a fuck can do about this?

 

[Buzzy]

Heres something I havent seen much here, but I'm gonna do it.

Trigger Warning: fucking disgusting display of neglect, laziness and disregard for the foundation of life in this part of the world. When I saw it I was shaking mad and willing to say things I wouldnt want heard in public, so yah.

Spent saturday chasing coho and chums on the local river. On my last trip up I had scouted a fantastic new run but hadn't fished it, and was salivating over it for the two weeks I had to wait.

I walk down a trail of the railroad tracks that leads to a large rock outcropping forming a large eddy before flattening into a classic swinging run.

I get to the waters edge and it's clear that I'm in an empty fish camp. Couple partially strung tarps, some empty coke cans, a pole hung up to hang fish on.

Looking into the water I see 4 nets tied off to the bank, each of them tangled into the brush and logs in the water and all of them containing at least a couple coho corpses that are at least a week dead.

View attachment 42961
View attachment 42962View attachment 42963

I go about trying to haul the nets out of the water and at least get them up on land. It's pretty clear I'm outgunned however, the amount of junk tangled up made hand removal impossible. I also realize that I dont know if I'm on solid legal ground to pull them out.

So I take some pictures, screenshot my location and text my local game warden.
I tell him what I've found and that I hope he knows how to deal with this, and he said he was on top of it.

I go back to fishing, upset about the nets but absolutely enthralled by the water they were in. As I'm crawling along the rocks that form the eddy, I'm hit with an overwhelming smack of salmon carcass funk. I follow it to the source, and find yet another net tied off to the rocks, this one hauled a couple feet out of the water and containing 30-40 coho, also all decomposing and abandoned.

View attachment 42971

So why am I posting this gross bit of awful? I'm hoping to find a more efficient place to send this information than the local warden, who while an awesome officer and guy is stretched very thin and not necessarily the person who can ultimately help with things like this.

Unless this was just a flat out poach job, which seems unlikely due to its brazeness, this was a legal tribal fishery. Is there a better place to have reported this? Am I in a legally defensible position to go bring the dudes and tools out 5here and clean it up?

Is there anything that those of us who give a fuck can do about this?

I used the "sad" emoji because I just can't get angry at this kind of thing anymore. It's not uncommon and it truly, at least to me, is sad.

I hope someone on the forum has an idea of some practical measure that we, as conservation minded fly fishers, can agree on and help prevent a few of these sad events.

 

[Wanative]

Heres something I havent seen much here, but I'm gonna do it.

Trigger Warning: fucking disgusting display of neglect, laziness and disregard for the foundation of life in this part of the world. When I saw it I was shaking mad and willing to say things I wouldnt want heard in public, so yah.

Spent saturday chasing coho and chums on the local river. On my last trip up I had scouted a fantastic new run but hadn't fished it, and was salivating over it for the two weeks I had to wait.

I walk down a trail of the railroad tracks that leads to a large rock outcropping forming a large eddy before flattening into a classic swinging run.

I get to the waters edge and it's clear that I'm in an empty fish camp. Couple partially strung tarps, some empty coke cans, a pole hung up to hang fish on.

Looking into the water I see 4 nets tied off to the bank, each of them tangled into the brush and logs in the water and all of them containing at least a couple coho corpses that are at least a week dead.

View attachment 42961
View attachment 42962View attachment 42963

I go about trying to haul the nets out of the water and at least get them up on land. It's pretty clear I'm outgunned however, the amount of junk tangled up made hand removal impossible. I also realize that I dont know if I'm on solid legal ground to pull them out.

So I take some pictures, screenshot my location and text my local game warden.
I tell him what I've found and that I hope he knows how to deal with this, and he said he was on top of it.

I go back to fishing, upset about the nets but absolutely enthralled by the water they were in. As I'm crawling along the rocks that form the eddy, I'm hit with an overwhelming smack of salmon carcass funk. I follow it to the source, and find yet another net tied off to the rocks, this one hauled a couple feet out of the water and containing 30-40 coho, also all decomposing and abandoned.

View attachment 42971

So why am I posting this gross bit of awful? I'm hoping to find a more efficient place to send this information than the local warden, who while an awesome officer and guy is stretched very thin and not necessarily the person who can ultimately help with things like this.

Unless this was just a flat out poach job, which seems unlikely due to its brazeness, this was a legal tribal fishery. Is there a better place to have reported this? Am I in a legally defensible position to go bring the dudes and tools out 5here and clean it up?

Is there anything that those of us who give a fuck can do about this?

That has been going on at that hole / rock since time immemorial literally.
It is illegal to handle tribal nets without proper permission.

 

[Pink Nighty]

That has been going on at that hole / rock since time immemorial literally.
It is illegal to handle tribal nets without proper permission.

To be clear, I did not remove them as this was the conclusion I arrived at. And yes, it likely has occured on that rock since it got uncovered at the end of the ice age. I do not mean to disparage tribal fisheries or fisher people. I personally support this rivers tribal fishery by sourcing my restaurants salmon through them whenever possible.

Really not looking for a punishment for the people who set the nets, but a path to reporting and removing the dangerous junk.

 

[speedbird]

Make noise. On the Fraser River, tribal and I believe some non tribal poachers would harvest excessive fish intended exclusively for ceremonial or sustenance use, sell them on Craigslist or Kijiji, and if they were unable to find customers, the fish would be dumped by the river bank as it was cheaper for them to dump the fish than to buy ice to keep them sellable. The story was widely discussed in angler circles, but enough noise was made that the issue was raised by local media

 

[Wanative]

To be clear, I did not remove them as this was the conclusion I arrived at. And yes, it likely has occured on that rock since it got uncovered at the end of the ice age. I do not mean to disparage tribal fisheries or fisher people. I personally support this rivers tribal fishery by sourcing my restaurants salmon through them whenever possible.

Really not looking for a punishment for the people who set the nets, but a path to reporting and removing the dangerous junk.

No issues with your post.
I was just providing information.

 

[Salmo_g]

Reporting directly to a WDFW LE agent is the most effective thing you can legally do. That should result in getting the gear out of the water. WDFW can also notify tribal enforcement. Tribal enforcement ranges from less than useless to pretty darn effective; it just depends on the tribe and its government. Neither you nor WDFW can prevent it from happening again. Sometimes legal nets are lost to high water events. And a lot of times nets are left out by shithead ne'r do wells. Until it's legal to shoot lawbreakers, recidivism is a sure bet.

 

[Pink Nighty]

Reporting directly to a WDFW LE agent is the most effective thing you can legally do. That should result in getting the gear out of the water. WDFW can also notify tribal enforcement. Tribal enforcement ranges from less than useless to pretty darn effective; it just depends on the tribe and its government. Neither you nor WDFW can prevent it from happening again. Sometimes legal nets are lost to high water events. And a lot of times nets are left out by shithead ne'r do wells. Until it's legal to shoot lawbreakers, recidivism is a sure bet.

Yes, these appear to be legal nets that were thrashed in the big push of water a couple weeks ago. While i wish the answer was something more actionable on my part, its answers from guys like you I was looking for posting this here. I appreciate it.

 

[nwbobber]

That upsets me. I have to say I have been hearing stories like this for I guess four decades now. I worked up there for a bit and saw evidence of a severe lack of care for the resource along the lower river. It makes me sad and angry, and I wouldn't be surprised if it makes most tribal fishers angry as well.

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

Gillnets just suck. Being a tribal member doesn't absolve you from being a shithead.

 

[Stonedfish]

Gillnets just suck. Being a tribal member doesn't absolve you from being a shithead.

Speaking of shitheads. How about this asshole.
SF

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

Speaking of shitheads. How about this asshole.
SF

View attachment 43086View attachment 43087

Needs to be drawn and quartered!

 

[nwbobber]

Nice! Not the shithead, but the karmic backlash.

 

[speedbird]

Needs to be drawn and quartered!

It would be nice if we did to poachers what they do in some of the African countries. Shame Salmon don’t attract the same public outrage as charismatic megafauna

 

[SurfnFish]

not to mention the gear lost just from fishing...first time I met my friend Jack 'Flyman' Harrell, I was scouting new to me coastal river salmon water during mid summer, checking out a highly popular spot for the gearheads when I spotted a snorkel bobbing in the river...bit later, a guy in full wetsuit and dive mask emerges from the river with a metal bucket in his hand, water streaming out of the holes he'd punched in it, the bucket filled with every style and make of salmon spinners you could think of, big 5/0 hooks with heavy leaders, assorted corkies, tangled floats.. Jack's version of river stewardship...cleaning up the river his beloved salmon had to travel through to the spawning grounds.

 

[Yard Sale]

So this is on public lands but Tribes have legal right to fish it this way?

Seems like there might be some non-fishing legal issues that could be pursued. Littering, etc. What if a kayaker got caught up in that shit and died?

I'm no legal expert but maybe time to think outside the box. Might be small charges but year after year it may add up?

 

[Buzzy]

not to mention the gear lost just from fishing...first time I met my friend Jack 'Flyman' Harrell, I was scouting new to me coastal river salmon water during mid summer, checking out a highly popular spot for the gearheads when I spotted a snorkel bobbing in the river...bit later, a guy in full wetsuit and dive mask emerges from the river with a metal bucket in his hand, water streaming out of the holes he'd punched in it, the bucket filled with every style and make of salmon spinners you could think of, big 5/0 hooks with heavy leaders, assorted corkies, tangled floats.. Jack's version of river stewardship...cleaning up the river his beloved salmon had to travel through to the spawning grounds.

Great story to share! There used to be a couple who'd camp at Heller's Bar, he spent most of his time wading the drift right below the Ronde using a mop to retrieve gear while she'd rope chrome.

 

[Salmo_g]

So this is on public lands but Tribes have legal right to fish it this way?

Seems like there might be some non-fishing legal issues that could be pursued. Littering, etc. What if a kayaker got caught up in that shit and died?

I'm no legal expert but maybe time to think outside the box. Might be small charges but year after year it may add up?

Treaty tribes have the reserved right to fish in ". . . all usual and accustomed waters (U&A)." That can include crossing private property, in addition to public, to access a traditional site if necessary. Lost or abandoned fishing gear may be a navigational hazard, considered legally the same as a natural hazard in that treaty fishing rights supersede any non-treaty use of water deemed "usual and accustomed." The federal government has to have Congressional authorization to build a dam on treaty U&A (FPA being an act of Congress.).

 

[ianpadron]

Gillnets just suck. Being a tribal member doesn't absolve you from being a shithead.

Words of wisdom right there. WDFW and the commission would benefit from adopting that mindset.

 

[Dustin Chromers]

Heres something I havent seen much here, but I'm gonna do it.

Trigger Warning: fucking disgusting display of neglect, laziness and disregard for the foundation of life in this part of the world. When I saw it I was shaking mad and willing to say things I wouldnt want heard in public, so yah.

Spent saturday chasing coho and chums on the local river. On my last trip up I had scouted a fantastic new run but hadn't fished it, and was salivating over it for the two weeks I had to wait.

I walk down a trail of the railroad tracks that leads to a large rock outcropping forming a large eddy before flattening into a classic swinging run.

I get to the waters edge and it's clear that I'm in an empty fish camp. Couple partially strung tarps, some empty coke cans, a pole hung up to hang fish on.

Looking into the water I see 4 nets tied off to the bank, each of them tangled into the brush and logs in the water and all of them containing at least a couple coho corpses that are at least a week dead.

View attachment 42961
View attachment 42962View attachment 42963

I go about trying to haul the nets out of the water and at least get them up on land. It's pretty clear I'm outgunned however, the amount of junk tangled up made hand removal impossible. I also realize that I dont know if I'm on solid legal ground to pull them out.

So I take some pictures, screenshot my location and text my local game warden.
I tell him what I've found and that I hope he knows how to deal with this, and he said he was on top of it.

I go back to fishing, upset about the nets but absolutely enthralled by the water they were in. As I'm crawling along the rocks that form the eddy, I'm hit with an overwhelming smack of salmon carcass funk. I follow it to the source, and find yet another net tied off to the rocks, this one hauled a couple feet out of the water and containing 30-40 coho, also all decomposing and abandoned.

View attachment 42971

So why am I posting this gross bit of awful? I'm hoping to find a more efficient place to send this information than the local warden, who while an awesome officer and guy is stretched very thin and not necessarily the person who can ultimately help with things like this.

Unless this was just a flat out poach job, which seems unlikely due to its brazeness, this was a legal tribal fishery. Is there a better place to have reported this? Am I in a legally defensible position to go bring the dudes and tools out 5here and clean it up?

Is there anything that those of us who give a fuck can do about this?

One time I got in trouble for removing various and abundant abandoned nets from a well known river. It was hard work especially with a canoe. I got it from both barrels, the tribe, and WDFW. I was told to not touch them under any circumstances.

I've ever since that day been pulling out every one I see and setting it on fire on the bank with zero shame as to the fuel and monofilament smoke marking my progress. When confronted I simply tell whomever is confronting me that I'll simply call every news station I can and provide them with the appropriate footage including the current interaction and my arrest. Haven't been arrested yet. I decided a long time ago I won't be obeying laws that are absolute horseshit and m direct opposition of their stated goal.