Coho run coming up short?

I think its tail wagging the dog has a lot to do with it as in tribal & WFC . Such as tribal telling WDFW they are fishing the Skagit. No ask just telling them. Who can blame them when fisheries know salt water guy’s are going over the projected numbers but keep the salt fisheries open anyway.
 
Chucker said:
I have not been down there to look, but two people have independently told me that there are lots of sea lions at the locks and that they are chowing down on the coho. So perhaps that is part of the story, there were loads of coho out in the sound before this last rain event.
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I went down to the locks 3 times this summer and fall. Mid August, early September and mid September
Didn't see a single fish.
 
Took at the latest escapement report (11/4) for the Wallace hatchery coho. They currently have 869 coho on hand which well short of the number needed to meet program egg take goals, The hatchery is programed to take 5,64 million eggs. Last year they spawned 3,904 fish to meet that goal. With the forecasted rain over the next week there may be a push of some coho to the hatchery rack though it is becoming more likely there will be short fall in the egg take this year. The 11/7 count will be interesting.

The Wallace coho program is pretty important regionally and any significant short fall would likely affect your fishing if you fish center or south Puget Sound. Of that 5.64 million coho eggs 1.2 million are for on-site release, 1.6 million go to the Tulalip program and 2.3 million are destined for the South Sound net pens. I would think that WDFW could back fill the South Sound needs from the Marblemount hatchery egg take. The coho fry destined for those net pens typically from Wallace eggs shipped to the Marblemount hatchery for hatching and early rearing before transfer to the net pens. The Marblemount coho have returned earlier and at a smaller size than the Wallace which often have the largest average size of the PS hatchery coho.

Curt
 
Screenshot_20261106_063958_Brave.jpg

1,350 hatchery coho & 145 wild coho collected at Wallace Hatchery as of October 27th.
 
DimeBrite
Thanks!

However, the really important number is the number of adults on hand. It looks like of the fish trapped 501 were mortalities.

Curt
 
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Smalma said:
DimeBrite
Thanks!

However, the really important number is the number of adults on hand. It looks like of the fish trapped 501 were mortalities.

Curt
Click to expand...

Yes, the 501 are post spawn mortality. Egg take numbers should be posted in a couple weeks.
 
Smalma said:
Took at the latest escapement report (11/4) for the Wallace hatchery coho. They currently have 869 coho on hand which well short of the number needed to meet program egg take goals, The hatchery is programed to take 5,64 million eggs. Last year they spawned 3,904 fish to meet that goal. With the forecasted rain over the next week there may be a push of some coho to the hatchery rack though it is becoming more likely there will be short fall in the egg take this year. The 11/7 count will be interesting.

The Wallace coho program is pretty important regionally and any significant short fall would likely affect your fishing if you fish center or south Puget Sound. Of that 5.64 million coho eggs 1.2 million are for on-site release, 1.6 million go to the Tulalip program and 2.3 million are destined for the South Sound net pens. I would think that WDFW could back fill the South Sound needs from the Marblemount hatchery egg take. The coho fry destined for those net pens typically from Wallace eggs shipped to the Marblemount hatchery for hatching and early rearing before transfer to the net pens. The Marblemount coho have returned earlier and at a smaller size than the Wallace which often have the largest average size of the PS hatchery coho.

Curt
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Worth noting there are +5000 coho sitting with their noses on the weir next to the hatchery. I suspect this rain will push them in.1000015084.jpg
 
Smalma said:
DimeBrite
Thanks!

However, the really important number is the number of adults on hand. It looks like of the fish trapped 501 were mortalities.

Curt
Click to expand...
DimeBrite said:
Yes, the 501 are post spawn mortality. Egg take numbers should be posted in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

If I remember corectly, the "Mortality" listed in the WDFW hatchery escapement reports is actually the pre-spawn mortality, due to handling, natural causes other than spawning. The post-spawn mortality is listed under the "Lethal Spawned" column. So the 501 mortalities represents around 37% of the 1350 hatchery coho at the facility.
 
Looks like we won't have a meaningful coho season on the north coast. The Quileute and Hoh systems closed on 10/16 before many fish made it up into the rivers due to low water. I tend to not bother fishing until we get the first push of rain so have yet to go fishing this fall.

Hope that I'm wrong but it looks like there won't be an opening any time soon and I heard a rumor that when they do open, it may be for steelhead only.

I understand the rational and don't disagree with all of the reasons but it's disappointing nonetheless - both the poor run size and lack of imagination in not trying to preserve some opportunity (open for trout w/ tackle lists, etc.).
 
August-September was one of the hottest coho seasons in MA 9/10 that I remember... So what happened between the Sound and hatcheries/gravel? Why so many missing fish?

Was the PS run smaller than forecasted and we were simply blessed with bitey fish?

Or, was the run was strong / near forecast and the coho are simply still staging due to the dry fall (so we'll see escapement numbers bump up in the next couple weeks)

Or, is there a major mortality bottleneck between the salt and PS rivers?

Someone fill me in...
 
DG_ said:
August-September was one of the hottest coho seasons in MA 9/10 that I remember... So what happened between the Sound and hatcheries/gravel? Why so many missing fish?

Was the PS run smaller than forecasted and we were simply blessed with bitey fish?

Or, was the run was strong / near forecast and the coho are simply still staging due to the dry fall (so we'll see escapement numbers bump up in the next couple weeks)

Or, is there a major mortality bottleneck between the salt and PS rivers?

Someone fill me in...
Click to expand...

Those are the key questions that we don’t have the answers to yet, hence all the fishing closures around the sound. Things should become clear soon, once we actually get some real rain.
 
I heard the summer chinook returns at the Wallace had a big surge of old dark fish in October. They didn’t have a whole lot all summer, but now they got 8k back. I guess they were all pooled up in the deep holes all summer instead of coming in earlier and sitting at the hatchery for months like they do some years.

So fingers crossed that the timing of the coho run is just delayed by the lack of rain.
 
It looks like they were short of Chinook at Wallace this year. The goal is to take 8.5 million eggs and they only took 7.553 million.

Curt
 
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