Snohomish/Skykomish get screwed

Back on topic and at the risk of getting in the way of some nice rants thought I might interject some information upon which to base our discussion of this distasteful decision.

Like many of the Puget Sound Chinook populations the status of them has not improved since the ESA listing more than 20 years ago. For the period 2000 through 2011 run reconstruction shows that for 7 of those 12 years the number of recruits (number of adult fish that would return to the river without fishing) was less than the number of spawners that produced them. When the recruits/spawner ration averages less than 1.0 the population is in decline. Further the Snohomish natural origin Chinook escapement in 2019 (the dominate year producing the 2021 returns) was the Lowest since the ESA listing of PS Chinook. To put that 1.012 2019 in some sort of context the average escapement in the previous decade (2009 to 2018) was 2,937 spawners. In short the population is not preforming well!

For the period 2009 to 2015 the BC fisheries accounted for 46.9% of the harvest/impacts. The second largest share of the harvest/impacts occurred in the Southern US (SUS) recreational fisheries. Of the total SUS fishing impacts (tribal, non-treaty commercial and recreational) the recreational fishery accounted for more than 85% (87.8%) of that total. As was the case this year when the total fishing impacts have to be reduced in Washington fisheries the bulk of the pain will be endured by the recreational fishery (as it should be?). That problem was made a even more difficult for in Sound/river fisheries by the decision to opt for the high ocean fishing option.

I did listen in either live or through the recordings all the NOF meetings dealing with the Puget Sound region (yes I realize I need to get a life and maybe fish more) and not at one of those "meetings" did I hear any inquiries from those that fish in that the Skykomish river Chinook season. There as a couple public and agency comments about the desire to have a season but none from anyone passionate about that fishery. An observation is that if one is not at the table when that impact pie is sliced up between competing users those not at the table tend to end as losing out (getting a smaller piece).

You can now return to your original programing!

Curt
 
Two page thread and I still can’t figure out what happened

Checked out the new seasons for the Skykomish: Essentially the Skykomish is closed for the whole season, except for two days of Chinook fishing in May when the run has barely entered the system. Really disappointing and upsetting, I was hoping to get out before work everyday to hit some of the holes on that system. What‘s the justification for this? It can’t be poor hatchery returns. I was under the impression wild Chinook returns were poor but comparable to previous years, so why close it now? What are the encounter rates for wild Kings on that fishery? If they are high I can understand shutting it down as mortality rates are going to be high on a bait fishery. Why close the Sky in October? Doesn’t that river mostly get Summer runs? What Summer King is going to be in the mainstem Sky in the middle of October? What is weirder to me is that the Wallace is open but the mainstem is closed. The Wallace is an important spawning tributary for Summer Kings and from what I read many will still be spawning in October. There are spots in that river where you literally see the river packed with dark colored up fish ripe for the pickings for a snagger or a twitcher with too heavy a jig. Meanwhile the Sky is a fast moving wide river where you need to work to find the holes they sit in.

I am grateful we are not loosing Spring Chinook opportunity on the Skagit this year, (In fact we are getting more days this year), but I am extremely sad to see one of the few freshwater Puget Sound Chinook opportunities we have disappear. It is frustrating that the only way to target Kings from a river bank in this area is in the combat fishing snaggeries. With the returns trickling up each year I was waiting for the day the mainstem Snohomish opened up for Summer Kings as well, but that was naive thinking
 
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N. Metz said:
I think it's a conglomerate of factors, including WDFW bending over for the tribes and commercial interests. Habitat destruction (logging is a big culprit and destroys spawning habitat), tribal fishing, commercial fishing, sport fishing harvest (although a drop in the bucket compared to tribal and commercial fishing), ocean conditions, and poor management all factor in. It's hard not to envision a complete shut down of salmon and steelhead fishing with the way things are going. Which is a shame. However, not entirely unpredictable.

Humans have been on the planet a short time but have managed to really mess it up.
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I mean I agree with you in terms of the general trajectory for salmon but in terms of this fishery I don’t quite understand why it’s been closed
 
Kashf said:
Skykomish is essentially closed for the year, including for Summer Kings. My first reaction is anger and disappointment but I haven’t read the justification for the closure so can’t critically analyze it
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Based on what? Are the new regs out?
 
Kashf said:
I mean I agree with you in terms of the general trajectory for salmon but in terms of this fishery I don’t quite understand why it’s been closed
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I agree that some things are closed that shouldn't be. I've never gotten the impression from WDFW that they care about opportunities for recreational fishers, particularly when it comes to salmon and steelhead.
 
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It’s worse: No Snohomish Pink fishery until September 16th, at which point the fish are already going to be colored up. Looks like the justification is based on sound-wide returns being poor, leaving just 133 impacts. It’s sad, and while this particular management decision is questionable I am not sure if blaming agencies will fix anything. I don’t know how much time we have left to restore many of our salmon anyway. There are success stories like Baker Lake sockeye, summer chum, and Skagit Spring Kings, but they are the outliers

I guess all I can is be grateful for the Humpies, so some decades down I can still have salmon to show my grandkids. I’ll take my camera down to the Snohomish this year instead of my fly rod
 
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Kashf said:
Two page thread and I still can’t figure out what happened

Checked out the new seasons for the Skykomish: Essentially the Skykomish is closed for the whole season, except for two days of Chinook fishing in May when the run has barely entered the system. Really disappointing and upsetting, I was hoping to get out before work everyday to hit some of the holes on that system. What‘s the justification for this? It can’t be poor hatchery returns. I was under the impression wild Chinook returns were poor but comparable to previous years, so why close it now? What are the encounter rates for wild Kings on that fishery? If they are high I can understand shutting it down as mortality rates are going to be high on a bait fishery. Why close the Sky in October? Doesn’t that river mostly get Summer runs? What Summer King is going to be in the mainstem Sky in the middle of October? What is weirder to me is that the Wallace is open but the mainstem is closed. The Wallace is an important spawning tributary for Summer Kings and from what I read many will still be spawning in October. There are spots in that river where you literally see the river packed with dark colored up fish ripe for the pickings for a snagger or a twitcher with too heavy a jig. Meanwhile the Sky is a fast moving wide river where you need to work to find the holes they sit in.

I am grateful we are not loosing Spring Chinook opportunity on the Skagit this year, (In fact we are getting more days this year), but I am extremely sad to see one of the few freshwater Puget Sound Chinook opportunities we have disappear. It is frustrating that the only way to target Kings from a river bank in this area is in the combat fishing snaggeries. With the returns trickling up each year I was waiting for the day the mainstem Snohomish opened up for Summer Kings as well, but that was naive thinking
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And really how much longer do you think sportsman will have a salmon fishery in the skagit with the tribes running the salmon fishery in Puget sound ? Looks like WDFW is all to happy to just step aside and let the tribes run/decide how the salmon fisheries are run.
 
Kashf said:
Two page thread and I still can’t figure out what happened

Checked out the new seasons for the Skykomish: Essentially the Skykomish is closed for the whole season, except for two days of Chinook fishing in May when the run has barely entered the system. Really disappointing and upsetting, I was hoping to get out before work everyday to hit some of the holes on that system. What‘s the justification for this? It can’t be poor hatchery returns. I was under the impression wild Chinook returns were poor but comparable to previous years, so why close it now? What are the encounter rates for wild Kings on that fishery? If they are high I can understand shutting it down as mortality rates are going to be high on a bait fishery. Why close the Sky in October? Doesn’t that river mostly get Summer runs? What Summer King is going to be in the mainstem Sky in the middle of October? What is weirder to me is that the Wallace is open but the mainstem is closed. The Wallace is an important spawning tributary for Summer Kings and from what I read many will still be spawning in October. There are spots in that river where you literally see the river packed with dark colored up fish ripe for the pickings for a snagger or a twitcher with too heavy a jig. Meanwhile the Sky is a fast moving wide river where you need to work to find the holes they sit in.

I am grateful we are not loosing Spring Chinook opportunity on the Skagit this year, (In fact we are getting more days this year), but I am extremely sad to see one of the few freshwater Puget Sound Chinook opportunities we have disappear. It is frustrating that the only way to target Kings from a river bank in this area is in the combat fishing snaggeries. With the returns trickling up each year I was waiting for the day the mainstem Snohomish opened up for Summer Kings as well, but that was naive thinking
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nwsportsmanmag.com

WDFW Talks Skykomish, Snohomish Chinook, Pinks, Coho, Steelhead -

WDFW provides more details on 2023 summer salmon and steelhead seasons on the Skykomish and Snohomish Rivers and the factors severely constraining them.
nwsportsmanmag.com

My take based on a quick read is that they had to estimate the number of encounters on the stock along their migration pathway and figure out how to allocate them. Also sounds like Canadian commercial effort will increase this year under whatever treaty regulates that, so once those additional impacts got incorporated into the model they had to reduce hypothetical encounters somewhere, and they chose the Skykomish system even though all of them are probably well aware of the fact that the rate of wild-spring salmon encounters in the mainstem Sky/Sno from late-summer onwards is exceptionally low.

Will be interesting to see what they wind up doing with the several thousand excess hatchery fish that return to the river this year. Going forward I suppose that if there are rivers with endangered wild stocks and hatcheries the hatcheries will be raising fish for saltwater fishing only?

Also saw some speculation that allowing sport fishing - even for a day - unlocks tribal netting on a river but I have to say that seems quite fanciful since I have a hard time believing that tribal fishing is predicated on anything related to non-tribal sportfishing.
 
Well , I will be out fishing for the 5 summer runs that should be returning to the Sky this summer :rolleyes:
What a fucking joke, I think I will stop paying for fishing licenses in WA.

Relax Francise, its a joke.
 
It feels like the river has just been told it has terminal cancer.
You won't die right away, you'll have a few years to live - but they will be low quality years, and eventually you won't be fished any more.
 
skyrise said:
The Communist/Evil tree huggers are running rampant in this state and now have basically shut down salmon fishing on the Snohomish system. Along with the Stilly shut down every year now you know they are going after the Skagit next and then onto the Green river then Puyallup, etc. No good reason for this basically a shut down just excuses they (WDFW) can find and use to force us out. Next excuse will be to shut down salmon or steelhead fishing anywhere because killer whales need the food and they are more important than people. the expected return for summer kings is 7,500 this year ! Not 750 or 1,750 but well over 5,000 which the wallace hatchery easily exceeds every single year. and then there is the restriction on pink salmon. You get what you vote for.
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This is the Bullshit name calling that has been pleasantly absent from this board for some time. "They are going after" for you sounds ominous. For me it sounds like they are trying to save what little is left! But then, I am one of the evil Communist tree huggers you speak of and damn proud of it!
 
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