GOTY
Steelhead
There was a clown on Instagram this fall who was constantly posting pics gripping and grinning holding fish out of the water (mainly around C post). Drove me nuts. He was also the first person I saw complaining about the closure.
OP Steelhead Face ESA Listing
- Thread starter GOTY
- Start date
An ESA listing has been the goal for the Hoh tribe since at least 2007 when a tribal member revealed this to me. An ESA listing comes with fuck tons of money with no metrics concerning success. Just follow Long fuck the kings. All they do is brag about money on social media. There is absolutely no incentive within a ESA listing for success just free money from all of us. I would argue that there is motivation for failure in that success means funds are cut and the folks are in love with the cabbage not the fish. Steelhead have been fucked since the people who actually love them decided to splinter into small tribes and fight each other here on foney forums instead of joining arms and fighting for our mutual love. I have been around these forums since the very beginning and I hoped they would bring us all together but alas all we did was poke each other in the eye over how we choose to fish and politics. Blame the tribes for winning if it makes you feel better but we left the steel and salmon to die for the thrill of fighting each other instead of joining forces.A petition to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead under federal Endangered Species Act protections has been accepted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which will now do a deep dive on the request from the Wild Fish Conservancy and The Conservation Angler.
"We find that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the listing may be warranted. We will conduct a status review of OP steelhead to determine whether listing is warranted. To ensure that the status review is comprehensive, we are soliciting scientific and commercial information pertaining to this species from any interested party,” NMFS writes in a prefiling this morning on the Federal Register.
OlyPen Steelhead ESA Listing May Be Warranted, NMFS Finds -
A petition to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead under federal Endangered Species Act protections has been accepted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which will now do a deep dive on the request from the Wild Fish Conservancy and The Conservation Angler.nwsportsmanmag.com
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skyrise
Steelhead
Well Maybe, just Maybe if we had Enforcement any near what it was 30 years ago that crap would be a more rare thing ( and yes I know about the poaching going on from the lime quarry all the way to bacon creek) not to mention the free range alcohol being made in those parts. This state has been in a “Defund the Game Enforcement “ for a long time at least up here around region 4. When was the last time you saw a Game Warden when you were out and about ?
Wow. With Sept. low flows there is no way anglers could hook that many Chinook on flies without deliberately targeting them. The fishermen who did that basically killed recreational fishing on the Stilly. Now I could believe traditional Stilly poachers could catch 17 Chinook using their "specialized" fishing gear that includes heavily weighted 4/0 treble hooks and spear guns. Or dynamite. These gear types have been used to poach Chinook in the past, and they worked well. But to target Chinook with fly tackle, and knowing that potential Chinook encounters are exactly the reasons why the Stillaguamish Tribe has prevented recreational seasons on the Stilly has gotta' rank up there with the stupidest moves ever made by a fisherman.
A proposed ESA listing for OP steelhead yet I could not help but notice the large blackboard out in front of Bella Italia, everyone's favorite "Twilight" restaurant in Port Angeles, announcing the evening's dinner special, fresh Quillayute River steelhead. Should your timing be propitious you can get a table and enjoy a slab taken from a 16 lb wild hen that yesterday was headed for the Sol Duc to do her thing. The battle for the last one continues.
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Exactly. Wow.
I wonder if there were signs posted that said "If you catch a chinook, you're 1/20th of the problem - the season gets shut down at 20 caught chinook" if people would still go after them.
You'd have to post that in pictograms. It's obvious they can't read or they would get that information in the regulations.
Dustin Chromers
Legend
Honest question. Did anyone ever attempt to snag you?
Dustin Chromers
Legend
Lemme guess, young guide material?
Dustin Chromers
Legend
If I saw a sign like that I would just complain about the regulations being too complicated and tail hook another for the gram.
Grandpa Jim
Steelhead
Some ramblings:
I have fished the OP for steelhead since 2010, gear and swung fly. I'm mainly a DIY angler hiking into runs but have done an occasional guided gear or fly trip over the years.
I've been out to the coast 3 times this season...all gear fishing. I landed a nice chrome buck on 1/6. Earliest fish ever for me by almost a month. This last weekend I had an exceptional trip, my largest a 36"x18" double stripe buck.
I ran into another hard-core bank fishermen last weekend. He had done a guided trip where they pulled into a run that had 8-10 big chrome fish jumping all around. I have never seen chrome steelhead jumping in a run early in the season, only the occasional colored up buck jumping late in the season.
Based on above, maybe, just maybe it might be a good return?! Time will tell...
Our ocean conditions have been better since the hot water blob disappeared a few years ago. Much of the upper watersheds of the north OP rivers are fairly pristine and favorable for spawning and smolt growth and survival.
I had a WDFW fish counter waiting for me at my car on a walk-in spot on the Hoh last weekend. In my conversation with him I asked why the WDFW is not reporting OP steelhead catch statistics on their website this year, after all they are devoting resources to gather data. He seemed rather surprised at that and said that it should be somewhere. I have checked several times since then on the WDFW website but see nothing reported for 2023. Transparency...
Also, you cannot find tribal netting schedules or number of fish netted by the tribes anywhere! Transparency...
I've read where some Alaska rivers have some high tech fish counting...and that their Fish & Game people adjust the seasons and retention rules based on that. Why has that not been considered here?
What are true mortality rates for steelhead caught and released by anglers on single point barbless hooks in cold water...and on lures/flies, not bait? I can't imagine it is the 7-8% I've read about. I've landed steelhead with seal gashes and significant amounts of skin missing from tribal net encounters, yet have made it 25 miles upstream from the seals/nets.
It's very unfortunate that us steelhead fishermen, the ones who really care about these fish cannot come to some kind of consensus on how to protect and improve the resource.
I have fished the OP for steelhead since 2010, gear and swung fly. I'm mainly a DIY angler hiking into runs but have done an occasional guided gear or fly trip over the years.
I've been out to the coast 3 times this season...all gear fishing. I landed a nice chrome buck on 1/6. Earliest fish ever for me by almost a month. This last weekend I had an exceptional trip, my largest a 36"x18" double stripe buck.
I ran into another hard-core bank fishermen last weekend. He had done a guided trip where they pulled into a run that had 8-10 big chrome fish jumping all around. I have never seen chrome steelhead jumping in a run early in the season, only the occasional colored up buck jumping late in the season.
Based on above, maybe, just maybe it might be a good return?! Time will tell...
Our ocean conditions have been better since the hot water blob disappeared a few years ago. Much of the upper watersheds of the north OP rivers are fairly pristine and favorable for spawning and smolt growth and survival.
I had a WDFW fish counter waiting for me at my car on a walk-in spot on the Hoh last weekend. In my conversation with him I asked why the WDFW is not reporting OP steelhead catch statistics on their website this year, after all they are devoting resources to gather data. He seemed rather surprised at that and said that it should be somewhere. I have checked several times since then on the WDFW website but see nothing reported for 2023. Transparency...
Also, you cannot find tribal netting schedules or number of fish netted by the tribes anywhere! Transparency...
I've read where some Alaska rivers have some high tech fish counting...and that their Fish & Game people adjust the seasons and retention rules based on that. Why has that not been considered here?
What are true mortality rates for steelhead caught and released by anglers on single point barbless hooks in cold water...and on lures/flies, not bait? I can't imagine it is the 7-8% I've read about. I've landed steelhead with seal gashes and significant amounts of skin missing from tribal net encounters, yet have made it 25 miles upstream from the seals/nets.
It's very unfortunate that us steelhead fishermen, the ones who really care about these fish cannot come to some kind of consensus on how to protect and improve the resource.
don't forget to #keepemwet
The guy that said steelhead we're jumping all over the place was lying.
What makes it stupid? The fact that he was snagging with said consequences or that he was doing so with a so called fly? The best set up to snag stacked up fish is a fly rod and line. The most salmon snagged every fall is done by fly fishermen flossing rotten chum. Let's not get into what goes on up in AK.
Well over 200 fishing sessions last year, 36 different places in Washington, and I saw exactly one warden. I stopped by Vantage for a fishing pit stop during a road trip to a workshop in August and had my license checked.
When I made a comment about them being the first warden I encountered that year, they asked if I did much fishing near roads. According to them that's where enforcement is limited to--main roads. Not by policy, just in practice.
I’ve gotten my license and barbs checked three years in a row all at the same beach and twice by the same warden.
SF
SF
I fish the Stilly with regularity up until about 7-8 years ago. So...maybe 25 years and year-round. In all that time I hooked two kings while fishing for steelhead. Both times it involved abnormal water conditions. Both fish bit the fly. Not once did I ever foul hook a salmon.
Peatbog, I think I have earned the right to be pissed by the actions of those @$#&ing idiots whose selfish actions of targeting those Chinook resulted in the closure of the fishery.
For at least years it has been an uphill struggle to again access to the game fish on the Stillaguamish system. During that period, I personally (and off single handed) lobbied on the behalf of those cutthroat and steelhead fisheries. In those years I spend 100s of hours in that effort making 4 trips (192 miles round trip) to testify in person to the WDFW commission, wrote numerous emails to WDFW, testified annually at NOF, talked directly with both WDFW and tribal staff and leadership of the value of that fishery advocating in my belief that game fish season could be constructed that would have minimal impacts on the Chinook resource. In short, I crawled out on that preverbal limb burning much of my creditability with WDFW and the tribe to achieve what we had last year, and these assholes sawed that limb off me still perched on it. While a limited season we finally had the monitoring whose results which we had hoped would provide the information upon which to craft more expanded fishing opportunities.
Given the action of those few how can one argue that saving a couple Stillaguamish Chinook for a game fish season is a wise use of those precious impacts? Now it will be difficult to craft any sort of game fish season on the North Fork Stillaguamish until November. It should be possible to shoehorn a game fish season on the main Stillaguamish in those years there are harvestable coho and/or pinks.
Why in the heck would I dedicate so much time on those gamefish seasons? Since the early 1980s the sea-run cutthroat returns have rebuilt to the point the Stillaguamish provides one of the best cutthroat fisheries in the State. In the years prior to 1980 a good day on the river would have been 4 or 5 fish/angler. Since the mid-1980s I consistently averaged 5 cutthroat/hour. In the shorten season of 2021 I had my best day on that river in the 45 years of fishing. Then of course there was the Deer Creek summer steelhead whose habitat is slowly improving and the old steelhead blood flowing through my veins would lead me to dreaming that I might one last time skate a dry fly over a willing Deer Creek fish realizing that was highly unlikely. Those of you that in the old days had the pleasure of skating a dry over those fish would understand the passion it still stirs in my old blood! That is the ultimate salt in the wound those idiots that could not leave those Chinook alone caused. In August this pass year WDFW notice a bunch of fish holding below Deer Creek during an early Chinook spawning survey. Believing they were steelhead they attempted to seine and tag some of those hoping to do a mark/recapture type study later in the fall. In their efforts they capture 106 steelhead (Deer Creek fish) and tagged 60. Have not heard the results of the mark/recapture effort but it is highly likely the Deer creek return was as good as any in the last 25 years. But thanks to those idiots there will be a zero chance that any of us the enjoyed those fish in July or August in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s will ever see that fishery in our lifetimes.
Yes, Peatbog I think those @#$&ers were beyond stupid and as far as I'm concern anyone the takes part in such deplore activities forfeit being considered fly anglers. Who will now take up the battle for the Stillaguamish game fish seasons now - YOU?
I do not apologize for the above rant!
Curt
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Nor should you.
When I first read your question I decided that I would answer. I see that Smalma has more than covered anything I could say. Those idiots screwed all other fishermen out of the opportunity to fish for SRC and steelhead in the Stilly not only last fall, but for who knows how long into the future? Shawn Yanity, Chairman of the Stillaguamish Tribe has no love for non-treaty recreational fishing. And now he has the data in hand for why there should be none. Do you seriously think targeting those kings wasn't stupid? Sheesh!
You missed my point or are evading the question. Doesn't matter anymore. All that mattered left with the fish. Here we are on a thread concerning ESA listing of steelhead and it has drifted to the snaging of twenty salmon shutting down a fishery and the adasaty to do it with fly tackle.. Sheesh