Puget Sound

The emergency reopeners have been rumored to be highly likely, just good to hear some confirmation that we should know soon, I know you have some contacts in that space. We'll see what the outcome ends up as..
 
johnnyboy said:


Not much left in terms of the MA9 chinook quota. Over 3,000 caught in a 3 day period (~1k per day is absolutely ridiculous).
Click to expand...

I see the quota is 3900 for MA9 (Also noticed they aren't counting sublegal and unmarked encounters in MA9). But where did you see that they are already over 3000 from the weekend?
 
ffb said:
I see the quota is 3900 for MA9 (Also noticed they aren't counting sublegal and unmarked encounters in MA9). But where did you see that they are already over 3000 from the weekend?
Click to expand...
There was a section in there earlier today saying that 3,049 of the 3,900 were caught in MA 9 as well as around 2/3rds of the quota being taken in MA 7. Looks like the writer deleted it for some reason.
 
How does WDFW determine that there were about 1,000 chinook caught per day on the three day opening. Seems pretty high to me.

Also do the number of fish in the creel reports include all encounters including sub legal fish.

Lastly they used to I believe open coho fishing in 9 once the chinook fishing was shut down.
Are they going to do that this year? Or maybe it was just opened for coho in the past and we have lost that opportunity for some reason. (Maybe that’s why the licenses were so cheap this year!!!)

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Blackdogfishing said:
How does WDFW determine that there were about 1,000 chinook caught per day on the three day opening. Seems pretty high to me.
Click to expand...

Doesn’t seem crazy to me. The number of boats out in Area 10 was unbelieveable. I didn’t even try to count the boats I could see from where I was, but it was at least 100. In past years if 9 and 10 were open, 10 was relatively quiet because the majority of people went to 9. If the split was anything like that then 9 must have been insane. From what I have heard, fishing in 9 was really, really good. Lots of boats X lots of fish caught = all the quota gone.

They estimate catch and effort based on boat ramp checks, plus flyovers counting boats, plus on the water surveys to get ground truth data on where vessels fishing in each area are coming from. Is it accurate overall? Probably as close as it’s possible to get. Data collection and sampling is hard to get right.
 
Well Thursday is less than 24 hours away, not even an update from wdfw. Really really indecent that they have given no official communication imo. Makes it impossible for people to plan ahead. Even if they don’t have the data to make a decision, some sort of update on where the process is would be the right thing to do.
 
1,000 per day in A9 would be over 3 times the average catch per day for the most recent 5 years.

I supported the idea of what WDFW was trying to accomplish with aligning Areas 7, 9, 10, and 11 to be open for chinook on the same days to try and alleviate pressure on any one marine area.

However I think WDFW's messaging may have been better with regards to the 3 day openers. Based on the quota and historically average daily catch, it would be predicted that A9 should have more than just 3 days of chinook fishing. But as things were portrayed in the regs it seems many anglers thought it was 3 days and that is all for the year, potentially leading to the large crowds. Or...fishing was just really good and lots of people went out as a result. I'm not sure on the root cause.

I don't know enough about WDFW's models, but I am concerned that these short term openers are creating a record of high participation and catch which cuts against future opportunity. If Area 9 was, instead of open for chinook for 3 isolated days after being closed for roughly 10 months, open for all salmon starting August 1-September 23, with chinook retention based on quota availability, how many anglers with jobs and young children would make it out on a weekday? How many would make it out even 2 weekends in a row? I'm not sure we would see the same daily participation if anglers knew, or were given the impression, that they would have more than 3 days to try and get out and fish for salmon. I could be wrong though.
 
SeaRunner said:
1,000 per day in A9 would be over 3 times the average catch per day for the most recent 5 years.

I supported the idea of what WDFW was trying to accomplish with aligning Areas 7, 9, 10, and 11 to be open for chinook on the same days to try and alleviate pressure on any one marine area.

However I think WDFW's messaging may have been better with regards to the 3 day openers. Based on the quota and historically average daily catch, it would be predicted that A9 should have more than just 3 days of chinook fishing. But as things were portrayed in the regs it seems many anglers thought it was 3 days and that is all for the year, potentially leading to the large crowds. Or...fishing was just really good and lots of people went out as a result. I'm not sure on the root cause.

I don't know enough about WDFW's models, but I am concerned that these short term openers are creating a record of high participation and catch which cuts against future opportunity. If Area 9 was, instead of open for chinook for 3 isolated days after being closed for roughly 10 months, open for all salmon starting August 1-September 23, with chinook retention based on quota availability, how many anglers with jobs and young children would make it out on a weekday? How many would make it out even 2 weekends in a row? I'm not sure we would see the same daily participation if anglers knew, or were given the impression, that they would have more than 3 days to try and get out and fish for salmon. I could be wrong though.
Click to expand...
I agree 100%. “Race to fish” is considered an actual concept in fisheries science that I feel wdfw is ignoring. Counted around 500 boats in area 9 in the morning.

I like the idea of opening in August. It’s the peak of the ocean chinook run, but also when coho and pinks start to come in and if last year wasn’t an an anomaly, are very voracious targets. I imagine less experienced anglers (or light tackle and fly enthusiasts like us) would happily take the limit of silvers and keep pressure off the chinook.
 
Opening August 1st in MA 9 basically cuts the season to two months. No July fishing and no October fishing. That's a hard no from me. If they don’t reopen MA 9 again until August 1st this year, you’d lose up to two weeks of coho fishing opportunity compared to years past.

Chinook are what the majority want to catch. I can’t see why they couldn’t keep coho open starting on the 18th. If chinook retention is closed, participation and encounters will be way down. People that want to catch chinook just aren’t going to put in the same effort for a 3 lb coho, if any effort at all. Just look at the creel check numbers for anglers checked at places like Everett when chinook retention is open versus when it isn’t.
I was at a MA 10 beach on Sunday and other than folks crabbing, there was little activity that I saw from a fishing standpoint because chinook fishing was closed.
SF

wdfw.wa.gov

Seasonal Puget Sound salmon fishery guidelines and quotas

Check the most recent Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet and the latest emergency rules for up-to-date regulations.
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
 
Last edited:
speedbird said:
Well Thursday is less than 24 hours away, not even an update from wdfw. Really really indecent that they have given no official communication imo. Makes it impossible for people to plan ahead. Even if they don’t have the data to make a decision, some sort of update on where the process is would be the right thing to do.
Click to expand...

There has been a lot of communication from WDFW on this. I agree that they could have been faster in getting an update out, but it’s not due to lack of communication, and they have said since the start that they would not be giving updates until today.

According to this:

nwsportsmanmag.com

WDFW Crunching Puget Sound King Catches After 3-day Opener -

Puget Sound Chinook anglers should know soon whether they'll have another July go at the marked hatchery fish after last week's opener "saw plenty of effort and catch," particularly in Admiralty Inlet.
nwsportsmanmag.com

Over 1000 fish recorded by fish checkers at public ramps for area 9. Almost 300 for 10. I don’t expect another area 9 chinook opener. We might get another couple weekends in 10, but if they are consistent with distributing pressure, they won’t open 10 until August 2, when Elliott bay is also open.
 
Over 1000 a day in A9. Roughly 300 a day in A10. Crazy. Well above historical catch per day.

I wish that WDFW would also post CPUE when it reports on catch per day. Are we seeing such high daily catch totals because of increased success or increased effort? Maybe a bit of both? WDFW does this fluctuating between CPUE and catch per day in its NOF presentations too and it annoys me.
 
SeaRunner said:
Over 1000 a day in A9. Roughly 300 a day in A10. Crazy. Well above historical catch per day.

I wish that WDFW would also post CPUE when it reports on catch per day. Are we seeing such high daily catch totals because of increased success or increased effort? Maybe a bit of both? WDFW does this fluctuating between CPUE and catch per day in its NOF presentations too and it annoys me.
Click to expand...
Paper chinook
 
I would hope no news on A9 on the last weekend before the August coho opener means we get a Chinook opener in August. (Maybe just a day?) Otherwise I am bummed out that they aren’t using the rest of the Chinook quota to give us more days for coho. I am itching to hit my favorite beaches
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top