Reading these threads about spring steelhead, summer steelhead fishing on the Stilly and other rivers, and generally arousing my Jim Traver's personality traits. I've read here and elsewhere that there is no spring steelhead fishing season on the Skagit and Sauk Rivers this year because WDFW didn't receive funding from the Legislature to carry out the monitory activity necessitated because Skagit and all Puget Sound wild steelhead are listed as threatened by NMFS under the ESA. WDFW produced two different quotes of the cost of monitoring that I heard about, first $150,000 and then $350,000. WDFW didn't say anything publicly about exploring a less costly monitoring alternative. It doesn't take a statistical genius to know that a less robust monitoring effort than the 2 samplers working every open section every open day is capable of producing a statistically reliable estimate of steelhead catch and handling. But as far as I know, WDFW did nothing to "make the season happen" other than whine about not having the money. WDFW has choices. The Department could have elected to move funds from one program or activity to another. They do this all the time. Instead, Deputy Director Kelly Cunningham was quoted saying, "I want the sport fishers to feel the pain!" - so that we would call and write our legislators to get them the money. (Personally I'm offended by this, and I want to defund Mr. Cunningham so that he can feel the pain of an irritated angling community.
Moving on, forthwith, the "Washington Department of Salmon" announced that the Skagit River is opening on April 20 for recreational fishing from Gilligan Creek downstream to the Memorial Bridge in Mt. Vernon for spring Chinook salmon. This fishery will be intensively monitored to ensure that ESA impacts are not exceeded. Aha! The DOS (department of salmon) can monitor a Chinook salmon fishery that targets expensive hatchery produced spring Chinook, but it cannot monitor a recreational fishery for wild steelhead. This, along with all the rest that we have heard from WDFW tells me what I need to know. I fish recreationally for gamefish species in anadromous waters, and WDFW does not work for me. My angling interests are not its interests, and they aren't going to change or do anything to help out recreational fishing, to wit: Skagit, Stillaguamish, and Snohomish basing sport fishing over these last 10 years or so. Yes, we have had some Skagit spring steelhead fishing again since 2018, but that was ONLY because of Occupy Skagit organizers prodding the WDFW Commissioners to instruct Director Susewind to have staff prepare an ESA compliant Skagit steelhead management plan. It's an excellent piece of work, outstanding even, but it never would have come to pass if WDFW had been left to its own. Initiative and innovation are not hallmarks of WDFW management.
I have felt for some time that Director Susewind has been leading the Department to the brink of irrelevance. Except for inland lakes and non-anadromous waters, I no longer have need of WDFW. Do you? If so, what are they doing for you? Smalma and others have mentioned management alternatives, like mobile app reporting as a form of Skagit steelhead monitoring. Since the extant monitoring relies on truthful angler reporting to the WDFW samplers, personal mobile reporting could provide equally accurate and reliable data for management purposes. And for those who don't have cell coverage on the river or other challenges, reporting later at home via personal computer could fill that gap. What I'm getting at is that I don't think we need WDFW any longer for these fisheries. Screw 'em - let Cunningham and the rest of them feel the pain of fishery management irrelevance.
I think Occupy Skagit can partner with a tech whiz kid or whomever to develop and set up the Skagit steelhead management forum. It needs to be accessible via app and internet connected personal computer to accomodate angler reporting. WDFW should be allowed to have an account in case they show and have some interest in Skagit steelhead management, but I won't count on it.
If you participated in Occupy Skagit you recall that we brought fishing gear to the river and held a "protest" fishery with hookless flies and lures. The wildlife agents present agreed that we were good to go. I have read that WDFW doesn't expect to have funding for Skagit steelhead monitoring again in 2027, so I think we can have this product up and running by then. I am proposing hookless flies and lures. But not just fishing at Rockport. Nope. A full season, running from February 1 through April 15. Random fishing days at random fishing locations. WDFW may not condone this. WDFW may send out a bevy of wildlife agents to check and see that anglers are indeed fishing hookless. Which would only prove that WDFW is willing to spend more money harassing recreational steelheaders than if they just spent the money to monitor the fishery in the first place.
I'm not saying this plan is perfect, and there are probably some details or other aspects that could be improved. But Occupy Skagit brought Skagit steelhead fishing back when WDFW wouldn't have. This will at least give WDFW a chance to get off their ass and show us that they want to work for recreational steelheading . . . or they don't.
Moving on, forthwith, the "Washington Department of Salmon" announced that the Skagit River is opening on April 20 for recreational fishing from Gilligan Creek downstream to the Memorial Bridge in Mt. Vernon for spring Chinook salmon. This fishery will be intensively monitored to ensure that ESA impacts are not exceeded. Aha! The DOS (department of salmon) can monitor a Chinook salmon fishery that targets expensive hatchery produced spring Chinook, but it cannot monitor a recreational fishery for wild steelhead. This, along with all the rest that we have heard from WDFW tells me what I need to know. I fish recreationally for gamefish species in anadromous waters, and WDFW does not work for me. My angling interests are not its interests, and they aren't going to change or do anything to help out recreational fishing, to wit: Skagit, Stillaguamish, and Snohomish basing sport fishing over these last 10 years or so. Yes, we have had some Skagit spring steelhead fishing again since 2018, but that was ONLY because of Occupy Skagit organizers prodding the WDFW Commissioners to instruct Director Susewind to have staff prepare an ESA compliant Skagit steelhead management plan. It's an excellent piece of work, outstanding even, but it never would have come to pass if WDFW had been left to its own. Initiative and innovation are not hallmarks of WDFW management.
I have felt for some time that Director Susewind has been leading the Department to the brink of irrelevance. Except for inland lakes and non-anadromous waters, I no longer have need of WDFW. Do you? If so, what are they doing for you? Smalma and others have mentioned management alternatives, like mobile app reporting as a form of Skagit steelhead monitoring. Since the extant monitoring relies on truthful angler reporting to the WDFW samplers, personal mobile reporting could provide equally accurate and reliable data for management purposes. And for those who don't have cell coverage on the river or other challenges, reporting later at home via personal computer could fill that gap. What I'm getting at is that I don't think we need WDFW any longer for these fisheries. Screw 'em - let Cunningham and the rest of them feel the pain of fishery management irrelevance.
I think Occupy Skagit can partner with a tech whiz kid or whomever to develop and set up the Skagit steelhead management forum. It needs to be accessible via app and internet connected personal computer to accomodate angler reporting. WDFW should be allowed to have an account in case they show and have some interest in Skagit steelhead management, but I won't count on it.
If you participated in Occupy Skagit you recall that we brought fishing gear to the river and held a "protest" fishery with hookless flies and lures. The wildlife agents present agreed that we were good to go. I have read that WDFW doesn't expect to have funding for Skagit steelhead monitoring again in 2027, so I think we can have this product up and running by then. I am proposing hookless flies and lures. But not just fishing at Rockport. Nope. A full season, running from February 1 through April 15. Random fishing days at random fishing locations. WDFW may not condone this. WDFW may send out a bevy of wildlife agents to check and see that anglers are indeed fishing hookless. Which would only prove that WDFW is willing to spend more money harassing recreational steelheaders than if they just spent the money to monitor the fishery in the first place.
I'm not saying this plan is perfect, and there are probably some details or other aspects that could be improved. But Occupy Skagit brought Skagit steelhead fishing back when WDFW wouldn't have. This will at least give WDFW a chance to get off their ass and show us that they want to work for recreational steelheading . . . or they don't.
