Stilli opener delayed

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

This shit is maddening because I just don’t see it. I’ve been fishing the NF nearly every day since the opener. Floating when I can and walking in when time is limited after work or early mornings and at minimum just snooping around checking on things as I drive to and from town. I haven’t seen a single chinook roll and I also haven’t rowed over any (and I’m looking in every run as I row around) or seen any chinook redds between cicero and town. I saw some small schools pinks, and just this week finally saw some coho splashing in select spots. I haven’t seen anyone flailing away at salmon at all. No spin rods spotted. Everyone I’ve crossed paths with has been legitimately out there fly fishing for trout. Sad state of affairs that somehow this is the result.

Leave the river closed all spring and summer and don’t bother to respond to reports of poaching while it’s getting hammered by spin fishermen, bait and people legitimately clubbing chinook. Then open it for fly fishing for trout for a couple weeks and be all up in everyone’s ass and close it anyway. Very WA.

I like the bit “Limited allowable take of Chinook in the Stillaguamish system necessitates this action to preserve coho opportunity later in the fall.” You mean after the kings have spawned and are circling an eddy or dead on a gravel bar? At this point counting spawned out carcs in the bushes against our take wouldn’t even surprise me. I guess it also is worth pointing out that since there isn’t ever a coho salmon kill fishery on the NF what they really mean is NF gamefish season is being sacrificed so someone on the mainstem can knock a coho on the head next month. It’s almost like you’re supposed to read that and feel grateful.

Was anyone on the river on 9/7 between about 5 and 8pm? Was that ant fall not absolutely biblical? I’d rather relive that night one more time then kill another salmon in the next decade. Zoom in to see my secret chinook fly.

View attachment 192665

That's a killer chinook pattern. Especially when paired with 5x tippet....

 

[the_chemist]

That's a killer chinook pattern. Especially when paired with 5x tippet....

Too be fair. There was a fairly infamous encounter with a fly guy catching and releasing chinook on the nf in front of wdfw and tribal biologist a few years back that really screwed us for encounters.

Or at least thats the story the basin biologist told me last year.

 

[Salmo_g]

Too be fair. There was a fairly infamous encounter with a fly guy catching and releasing chinook on the nf in front of wdfw and tribal biologist a few years back that really screwed us for encounters.

Or at least thats the story the basin biologist told me last year.

I think it was two, perhaps three, years ago. A trio of anglers hooked, and maybe landed 15 Chinook over a weekend, maybe it was a 3-day weekend, and posted about it on Instagram or other social media. Yes, 3 idiots got the the river shut down by "handling" the entire allowable ESA incidental take. Those guys should be banned from setting foot on the Stilly ever again. You don't hook 15 Chinook "incidentally" in a single weekend. They had to be deliberately targeting Chinook. Not hard if one wanted to, cuz the Chinook all hang out in the few really deep pools that are well known to anglers who fish there regularly.