I have never released a hatchery salmonid of any kind from any fishery that was legal to keep.
NOF 2022
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
One thing I definitely don't do is release hatchery fish. Especially coho. I just don't feel right releasing coho that I don't believe handle release very well. (Speaking specifically about gear fishing charters. I have released plenty of fly caught fish personally in scenarios where I feel I can safely release them easily enough).
For the most part I don't release legal chinook either. If fishing is good and we bring a smallish legal fish to the boat, we'll keep it and generally just make that a crew fish so the customer can potentially keep a bigger one. I have no problem eating smaller hatchery fish at all. If fishing is tough, well a small fish is better than no fish from most customer's perspective. I also don't allow high grading even when requested, as I don't feel right about it. If someone doesn't want to keep a 10 lb chinook because they're hoping for a 20, I'm just not really on board with that. The crew limit gives us some flexibility for someone to upgrade that 10 lb fish, but I'm not just going to release such a fish, where it could die anyway, just to hope for a bigger one. (That's also an easy way for a bite to shut off! Seen that play out far too many times)
The bulk of my ocean salmon trips are June and July, when chinook far outnumber the coho in most cases, so I don't really have many trips where we just go out and load up on coho and come home. Our salmon trips are sold as salmon trips, not chinook or coho trips specifically, so ultimately it's up to me what we target and how we go about it, but for me and really all of our captains, if there are chinook around we try everything possible to get people their limit of chinook first. If there are coho around we'll gladly keep any hatchery fish we get while targeting chinook.... we always run a diver or two while chinook fishing, partly to put some coho onboard, but also because we catch a ton of chinook on divers even when fishing deep water. When the coho show up in big numbers in August we are mostly tuna fishing, but if we are salmon fishing I still try my hardest to get chinook first and foremost as that's the prize to most customers. I just don't really feel good about going out and loading up on coho in a couple hours when I know we could get chinook if we put in the effort. Still, when they are thick it can often be tough to even get gear down to the chinook without hooking coho. When that happens I'll generally switch to big plugs or great big spoons, or go fish different water.
I definitely sympathize with the people who spend a ton of money and effort to bring their boat out to the coast and don't want to be done fishing in 20 minutes. The charter captain in me loves that concept because I've never once had a customer complain about short days and easy limits. Still, I feel like if someone is really wanting to maximize their day there are options to help do that. Bottomfish is definitely one way. Personally I highly enjoy bottomfishing and have no problem switching over once I get a limit of salmon. But also even when the coho are thick, if someone is motivated and has a bit of knowledge of the area, there are things they can do to specifically target the chinook. Bigger gear is one option, but at Westport specifically one can also target different water. Pulling divers up on the beach in 20-50' of water generally results in fewer coho. The downside can be that the chinook aren't always frequenting that water, so it could turn into hours of fishing just for a few bites, or in some cases none. But of course the option is always there to switch things up and go target coho.
Westport is a bit different for salmon fishing though, at least compared to some other popular areas. Area 2 in general is far less affected by tides, theres next to zero areas that truly ever consistently hold fish like other places. It's just a big highway and fish are always moving. Intel plays a huge role out there as from day to day the productive areas are constantly changing. One day there might be a great chinook bite on the north beach, the next day it's straight out in 200', next day it's 120' off the south jetty, then suddenly it's in 400' of water to the southwest. As a charter my biggest advantage is being out there every day and having a huge network of Intel, no doubt about that. Still, the general radio Intel available is usually really strong. Since things are constantly changing people tend to be pretty open when it comes to sharing. So if someone drags their boat down there and walks the dock the night before they can generally get a pretty good idea of where the bulk of the fleet will be found, and how the fishing has been. So if the report is the fleet is loading up on coho near the GH buoy, and they really want to target chinook or make the most of their time, it's easy enough to go off and do their own thing. It could pay off in great chinook fishing, could just result in 20 minute limits of coho elsewhere, and it could lead to a big fat zilch, but at least at that point they could decide to run to the GH and bang out some quick coho.
For the most part I don't release legal chinook either. If fishing is good and we bring a smallish legal fish to the boat, we'll keep it and generally just make that a crew fish so the customer can potentially keep a bigger one. I have no problem eating smaller hatchery fish at all. If fishing is tough, well a small fish is better than no fish from most customer's perspective. I also don't allow high grading even when requested, as I don't feel right about it. If someone doesn't want to keep a 10 lb chinook because they're hoping for a 20, I'm just not really on board with that. The crew limit gives us some flexibility for someone to upgrade that 10 lb fish, but I'm not just going to release such a fish, where it could die anyway, just to hope for a bigger one. (That's also an easy way for a bite to shut off! Seen that play out far too many times)
The bulk of my ocean salmon trips are June and July, when chinook far outnumber the coho in most cases, so I don't really have many trips where we just go out and load up on coho and come home. Our salmon trips are sold as salmon trips, not chinook or coho trips specifically, so ultimately it's up to me what we target and how we go about it, but for me and really all of our captains, if there are chinook around we try everything possible to get people their limit of chinook first. If there are coho around we'll gladly keep any hatchery fish we get while targeting chinook.... we always run a diver or two while chinook fishing, partly to put some coho onboard, but also because we catch a ton of chinook on divers even when fishing deep water. When the coho show up in big numbers in August we are mostly tuna fishing, but if we are salmon fishing I still try my hardest to get chinook first and foremost as that's the prize to most customers. I just don't really feel good about going out and loading up on coho in a couple hours when I know we could get chinook if we put in the effort. Still, when they are thick it can often be tough to even get gear down to the chinook without hooking coho. When that happens I'll generally switch to big plugs or great big spoons, or go fish different water.
I definitely sympathize with the people who spend a ton of money and effort to bring their boat out to the coast and don't want to be done fishing in 20 minutes. The charter captain in me loves that concept because I've never once had a customer complain about short days and easy limits. Still, I feel like if someone is really wanting to maximize their day there are options to help do that. Bottomfish is definitely one way. Personally I highly enjoy bottomfishing and have no problem switching over once I get a limit of salmon. But also even when the coho are thick, if someone is motivated and has a bit of knowledge of the area, there are things they can do to specifically target the chinook. Bigger gear is one option, but at Westport specifically one can also target different water. Pulling divers up on the beach in 20-50' of water generally results in fewer coho. The downside can be that the chinook aren't always frequenting that water, so it could turn into hours of fishing just for a few bites, or in some cases none. But of course the option is always there to switch things up and go target coho.
Westport is a bit different for salmon fishing though, at least compared to some other popular areas. Area 2 in general is far less affected by tides, theres next to zero areas that truly ever consistently hold fish like other places. It's just a big highway and fish are always moving. Intel plays a huge role out there as from day to day the productive areas are constantly changing. One day there might be a great chinook bite on the north beach, the next day it's straight out in 200', next day it's 120' off the south jetty, then suddenly it's in 400' of water to the southwest. As a charter my biggest advantage is being out there every day and having a huge network of Intel, no doubt about that. Still, the general radio Intel available is usually really strong. Since things are constantly changing people tend to be pretty open when it comes to sharing. So if someone drags their boat down there and walks the dock the night before they can generally get a pretty good idea of where the bulk of the fleet will be found, and how the fishing has been. So if the report is the fleet is loading up on coho near the GH buoy, and they really want to target chinook or make the most of their time, it's easy enough to go off and do their own thing. It could pay off in great chinook fishing, could just result in 20 minute limits of coho elsewhere, and it could lead to a big fat zilch, but at least at that point they could decide to run to the GH and bang out some quick coho.
Chris Bellows
Steelhead
I think there's definitily a difference in gear vs. fly when it comes to this debate. At a 5% mortality (which I believe is high for non-netted fly caught coho) you can release 40 fish before killing 2 fish.
It would be an interesting experiment to have WDFW biologists run quota numbers based on selective regs versus a quick limit including wild fish. Might be interesting to see the variations based on location. Would more Northern marine areas have much smaller quotas due to lower wild runs in the Strait and Puget Sound or would it impact southern marine areas due to ESA listed stocks in the Columbia. Would be an interesting experiment that i'm sure there is no funding for.
I have no beef with those who wish to harvest fish this way, but a blanket forced quick limit certainly would put a crimp in fly anglers experience in salmon fisheries. Let's tighten up fish handling rules and exclude tackle that causes higher mortality before doing something like forced harvest. Yes, fish handling rules are pretty unenforceable, but so is a ban on c&r (I can't imagine how many fish I would lose right beside the boat
)
It would be an interesting experiment to have WDFW biologists run quota numbers based on selective regs versus a quick limit including wild fish. Might be interesting to see the variations based on location. Would more Northern marine areas have much smaller quotas due to lower wild runs in the Strait and Puget Sound or would it impact southern marine areas due to ESA listed stocks in the Columbia. Would be an interesting experiment that i'm sure there is no funding for.
I have no beef with those who wish to harvest fish this way, but a blanket forced quick limit certainly would put a crimp in fly anglers experience in salmon fisheries. Let's tighten up fish handling rules and exclude tackle that causes higher mortality before doing something like forced harvest. Yes, fish handling rules are pretty unenforceable, but so is a ban on c&r (I can't imagine how many fish I would lose right beside the boat
)It appears that WDFW has amended the proposed MA 9 season. From July 14 - 23 it would be open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Then it will open the full week starting July 28th.
https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/2022-23ProposedRegulationChanges03.28.2022_DRAFT.pdf
It sounds a lot better than the August 1st deal, knowing that we would be able to fish for chinook at around the peak of the run and also get more time for resident coho.
https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/2022-23ProposedRegulationChanges03.28.2022_DRAFT.pdf
It sounds a lot better than the August 1st deal, knowing that we would be able to fish for chinook at around the peak of the run and also get more time for resident coho.
I’ll take it. In July, I think showing up midnight on Friday should get me a primo spot on the beach come first light Saturday
.Very sad that we are losing late September days from MA 9 though! Sept 25th close to salmon is new I think, and on a year when runs are sort of okay. Super uncool that even fewer and fewer days are left to fish during a time period when I think there is very little potential to impact the constraining stock and when coho fishing can be really good.
I am happy to have a few July days, but the dismay over marine salmon fishing trends seems to grow for me every year..
I am happy to have a few July days, but the dismay over marine salmon fishing trends seems to grow for me every year..
I'd give up all of July for coho in MA 9 to get October back.
SF
SF
