"Coho Are Just Ugly This Year"

With the start of the saltwater salmon season setting process (North of Falcon) beginning over the next month we are starting to learn what the preseason forecasts will be.  The Columbia River coho forecast has just been released.

Columbia River Coho Forecast Not Encouraging

My saltwater season goals usually begin with thinking about at least a trip or two out to Neah Bay.  This forecast does not make me optimistic for this summer out at the NW tip of the Olympic Peninsula.  It seems like a Columbia coho return over 500K is a guarantee of incredible fishing and below that results in spotty fishing, especially closer to the entrance and just inside the Strait.

I will not let this keep me from my plans to fish out there this summer, but it will minimize the number of trips out there.  Hopefully, the Puget Sound forecasts will make me smile about the fishing closer to home.

Fingers crossed for that Puget Sound forecast. 

Thank WDFW For Snider Creek Decision

The Wild Steelhead Coalition put up this link:

Thank the WDFW for their important management decision regarding the Snider Creek hatchery

Take a moment to let the managers know that you appreciate them following the science in removing hatchery steelhead from a major river system and creating a Wild Steelhead Management zone on the Sol Duc.

It is too bad that with the mountain of science and evidence of the negative impacts of hatchery fish that WDFW would allow another brood stock program to be started on the Bogachiel River.  First, it will likely be difficult to find enough wild fish to remove from the system during the early portion of the run timing and these rivers need all of the early timed wild steelhead to hit the gravel.  I guess this is what happens when you allow the commercial sport fishing sector (guides) to run their own hatcheries and have too much influence over fish managers.

All of the negative impacts the Snider hatchery had will be magnified on smaller wild steelhead populations.  If hatchery fish were the solution, we certainly would have no problems.

Positivity

I have issues with most things fishing.  This blog has not always been the cheeriest place on the fishing internet.  I probably should spend far less time (closer to zero would likely be best) reading crap on the internet since the vast majority of what I see bugs me.

I am going to attempt something never before done on this blog, and that is to stay positive on this tiny speck on the internet.  From this point on I will be focusing on what I like and not on the things I dislike.  There will be a dramatic decline in content since I will not be focusing on things I despise, such as...

- Guides who give nothing back to the rivers and fish besides over-hyped blog posts and detailed, exaggerated fishing reports.
- Blogs which have serious man crushes on the guides mentioned above and promote them every chance they get.
- Blog stickers - Seriously?!?!?!?!?
- Detailed internet fishing reports.  Do you really think naming less fished streams helps anything but your ego and small dick?  Even worse are when the kiss-and-tell reporters make it clear from their lack of knowledge that they have spent less time on the coastal stream than a tarpon.
- The idea that rivers need more friends.  This is related to detailed internet fishing reports as this argument is always given for kiss-and-tell fishing reports.  One can count the numbers of fish runs saved by overcrowding with one closed fist.
- Calling techniques fly fishing that clearly are not.  This is specifically related to bucktailing in the saltwater.  Trolling is trolling.  People fish flies off downriggers... is that now considered fly fishing?  My recent conversion to positivity prevents me from even mentioning b#$%s and b@#%#$s.
- Fishing on TV.  I have been living at a place with cable for the past few months and have been fascinated by the fact that all fishing shows are seemingly hosted by good ol' boys with unintelligible southern accents.
- Signature Fly Tyers - Fly tying creativity is not putting a trailer hook on a well known pattern


Whew... I feel exorcised.  The demons are gone.  Pure Positive Attitude from here on..... I hope.

Wild Fish Say, "Yes We Can!"

The Osprey Steelhead News blog has a great post about how wild steelhead have responded to the removal of hatchery steelhead from the North Fork of the Clackamas in Oregon.

What makes this case study even more amazing is the lack of genetic issues involved in the population suppression of the wild winter steelhead.  The effects of the hatchery fish were ecological in nature and not genetic.  Genetics are often what get mentioned the most when hatchery and wild interactions are discussed, but this case study shows what damage can happen to populations just by the ecological interactions with hatchery fish.  When we add both parts (genetic and ecological) the effects must be magnified, which makes me hopeful that recovery can also be magnified if hatchery plants are stopped.

Good news is often hard to find in the world of wild fish in the Pacific Northwest with our dwindling healthy stocks and the overwhelming number of ESA listed stocks.  Seeing an eleven mile stretch of river start to produce close to carrying capacity after only ten years of being hatchery free (just above the dam and not the entire river system) has to give us hope when fighting hatchery plans elsewhere (Elwha, Sol Duc).  It also shows how quickly wild fish can respond when we actually give them a chance.  We should see some case studies in Washington State in the years to come as many of the smaller systems without collection facilities have had smolt stocking stopped in the last few years.  Hopefully we will see not only more fish, but more diversity with some increase in the critical early component of the wild winter steelhead run.

I do not know how many nails in the coffin are needed to actually have a shift in hatchery thinking by the agencies in charge, but this only adds to the massive dogpile.

Kudos to ODFW for making this change, how about doing the same thing for the Sandy?

Yes We Can

Pool 32 Magazine #4

Great article urging action regarding wild steelhead.  Especially nice equating the money spent on gear with the total membership dues received by the Wild Steelhead Coalition. 

As I have posted in the past, notably absent in much of the conservation world are the guides who make a living (or at least try) on the backs of the wild steelhead runs.  There are some exceptions but on the whole the guide industry is absent when it comes to wild fish issues especially in Washington State.

Aquaculture is Insatiable

Just another threat to our oceans and fisheries.

Seaweed Aquaculture for Ethanol

This sentence jumped out:
"Seaweed farms also would compete with other uses of the coasts, such as conservation, aquaculture, fishing, recreation and possibly other future forms of renewable energy such as offshore wind and tidal and wave energy."

Elwha River Unchanged?

Olympic National Park glaciers continue to shrink, most recent study finds

Today's article and pictures in the Peninsula Daily News got me thinking about the common wisdom that the Elwha River above the dams is unchanged since the dams were put in.  I often have repeated this when discussing wild fish restoration.

The fact that glaciers are diminishing and the pictures of the Lillian glacier make me wonder what impacts the loss of glaciers since the early 1900's will have on fish returning to the upper watershed for the first time since the glaciers were much larger.  I'm not even sure that the impacts will be negative, but it is certainly interesting to see such major changes in such a relatively short time frame.

Will decreased and warmer summer flows have negative impacts on returning Elwha fish along with other populations throughout the Olympic Peninsula.