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When and the source of the Twin Lakes introduction of cutthroat; referred to as an "intermontane cutthroat (clarki Lewisi) has been lost in history. However, records show that by 1915 the Department of Fisheries and Game had established an egg taking station on the lakes and that year took 1.4...

HauntedByWater I would expect that any improvement in fish passage on the upper Skagit dams will have for downstream movement of resident rainbows to the lower river will be just like the Baker dams. That is to say minimal. About the only time in the past when there has been downstream...

Those non-indigenous cutthroat are west-slope cutthroat or what often were referred to as Montana black spots (MBS). Those MBS often establish self-reproducing populations in lakes in which they have been planted and typically colonizing downstream streams. Those west-slopes have been planted...

Circling back to this regulation proposal; the window for commenting on or influencing this proposal is fast closing. Commenting (either pro or con) are likely to be most effective as part of the NOF process. This is because this potential change is tangled up with the salmon seasons in the...

Interesting, I think it is good that mother nature can continue to illustrate that more complex than we like to think.

Remember this proposal would be set up with volunteer anglers only (no limit on the number of those volunteers) that have agreed to use the app. As such the results from the app would potentially provide both the number of fish handled as well the of man-days fished. If there is the desire to...

For the co-managers having a census rather than an estimate would be the selling point; would not be much different than how they report some of their catch. I suspect the first year or two having some information from a "creel census" to compare might be required. curt

This coming license year (starting in April) WDFW is launching there MyWDFW mobile app that will allow anglers to report their salmon and crab catches on the water. What I'm proposal is that app be adapted for the CnR season, In theory the result would be a census rather than an estimate...

Yesterday I expressed my concerns that just transferring funds from the warm water game fish fund to WDFW fish, wildlife and conservation would necessarily or even likely would result in funding for the Skagit/Sauk CnR fishery monitoring. When questioning things I like to supply an alternative...

Used to take the kids out for crawdads where we used rings (24" diameter) baited with a fish carcass, usually used a ring apiece and would rotate around pulling each ring very 20 minutes or so - great action for the kids. We fished a lake without bass and did well. If bass are present, then...

I have to wonder what makes people think that if this bill passes that a portion of that "new" money would be used for the Skagit spring fishery? At the first NOF meeting there was talk of budget short fall for enforcement officers (I think it was said they are down 9 positions) and some...

Have done well with small woolly buggers fished on full sinking lines. Favorite color combination was a olive body with brown hackle and tail but have also done well with whites and yellows. Early in the season (and it looks like those fish in the pictures have not yet spawned) typically find...

Harvest all the perch you want, they are excellent table fare! That said there is no way that the recreation fleet can keep them in check to the point they don't hind the trout survival. Even a switch to catchables is not fool proof solution. Catchables will keep the fishery going though they...

Generally immature Chinook on inland waters are referred to blackmouth or sometimes feeder Chinook. Just to make things a little more confusing 50 plus years ago jack Chinook (2-year mature males) in rivers were defined as Chinook of less than 28 inches. Today here in Puget Sound the...

Unfortunately, Puget Sound Chinook have gotten surprising young. The last two years of available CWT information (2023 and 2024) showed that the average Chinook age of the harvested Chinook in MAs 9 and 10 was 3.15 years. Those 4 to 8# fish are mostly 3-year-olds, and the vast majority are...

Moving back to the Skagit - "A Two-decade Watershed Approach to Stream Restoration Log Jam Design and Stream Recovery Monitoring: Finney Creek, Washington", Nichols and Ketcheson, 2013. "Finney Creek was once the most productive salmon stream in the lower Skagit River (WDFW and Western...

ELJs (engineered log jams) can come with a short cost to the fish resource which often is not considered. A couple of examples In the early 1990s the USFS installed a log structure in a mid-sized Sauk tributary that had blown out (upstream logging?) during the summer. The stream supported...

If I were the Skagit czar my first action would be to end the power peaking generation from the upper Skagit projects. By ending those nearly daily floods with rapid flow increases and decreases would almost immediately provide up to a 10-fold increases in peak insect abundances and...

In the comments in both the federal registrar and in the public meetings leading up to the listing of PS steelhead and other ESUs the importance of the resident rainbows to the O. mykiss complex was a issue of debates. The in the hall discussions with the Feds implied that omission was not...

With populations with significant escapement contributions from repeat spawners, we see two very different populations response between that with limited recruitment (say with following a drought or low flows - climate change driven) and when those repeat spawners experience excessive harvest...