Elliott Bay Sport Fishery Closes

[nickbell]

News release from WDFW.

OLYMPIA - Recreational salmon fishing in Elliott Bay will close Friday (Aug. 6) because of a low return of chinook to the Green River, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today.

The closure takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 6. The fishery, which opened July 2 on a Friday-through-Sunday schedule, was slated to close at the end of the day Aug. 8.

To date, anglers have caught 144 chinook, the lowest sport catch in that fishery in nearly a decade, said Steve Thiesfeld, Puget Sound salmon manager for WDFW. A recent test fishery conducted by treaty tribes and WDFW also resulted in very low catches of chinook.

"Indications are the chinook return to the Green River watershed is going to be much lower than expected this year," Thiesfeld said. "To allow more salmon to reach the spawning grounds, we are closing the final weekend of the sport fishery and the tribes have cancelled their chinook fishery."

Marine Area 10 outside of Elliott Bay remains open for recreational fishing. Anglers fishing that area have a daily limit of two salmon, but must release wild chinook. Beginning Aug.

[Matt]

Bulllllllll honky... the fish are just late. Closing it to let the natives get their nets in. Too bad, really was looking forward to fishing it.

[wintersteelhead]

I'll second that. That fishery gets going mid-late august. I wonder if the numbers increase, if they will open it again. Classic example of over-management!!!!

[Matt]

I think the deal is that traditionally they let the native nets go in for the FIRST part of the season and then let the sportys in for the second half, but this year they let us in first because of all the people complaining about going in after the nets. Turns out the nets should go in first cause the fish aren't in yet, now they are going to dominate! I'd be curious to see if they re-open it as well, I would say that is not out of the realm of possibility.

I also don't see the point of closing it early due to LOW catch numbers, if they numbers were abnormally high that would make sense to protect the run, but low numbers? I have no idea about that piece of genius.

[jbball50]

Eh they always do this with every sound fishery though nowadays. Closing it early before the run even gets here.

[medic1]

The same thing was done this spring with springers on the columbia below McNary. WDFW closes the fishery before the majority of the run showed up

[Bro-Rando]

Tribes cancelled their chinook fishery for the year.

[sickbayer]

Tribes cancelled their chinook fishery for the year.

yohoooooo:cheers:

[wolverine]

The fish may be late, but its far better to be proactive and take a rather safe than sorry position. Last year was an exceptional season for kings and it appears that this season is far below "normal". If the tribes stop fishing for conservation purposes you can take it to the bank that this years run is far below normal. Hopefully enough wilds and hatchery make it back to replace themselves.

[racfish]

Ive been saying all along with a few others. They should not open fishing or netting till the hatchery has got their quota.

[Matt]

Ive been saying all along with a few others. They should not open fishing or netting till the hatchery has got their quota.

That way all that is left to harvest are boots for all

[Shane]

SEATTLE -- Salmon fishermen in Elliott Bay are glum after a disappointing season is drawing to an early close.

Normally during the day in early August, boats would be trolling up and down the western edge of the Bay, but not this week as there are no salmon. So officials are closing the salmon season on Elliott Bay on Friday.

But for those who like to drop a pot for crab, the fishing may get better.

On Saturday, I went out crabbing with my friends. We got the limit of Dungeness for one per person, which is five. We had to go Saturday because crabbing is illegal on Sunday.

But this weekend, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission could decide to include Sunday in next year's season, and possibly not cut the season short as has happened in the past because of quotas -- tipping a balancing act in favor of recreational crabbers.

"That's the balancing act that the state always has to face is how are we going to spend the currency of our natural resources," says recreational fishing advocate Tom Nelson.

Nelson says that's good news for generations of families who've say they've been shortchanged on crabbing days because of inequities.

Every year, the tribes get half of the overall limit and the commercial crabbers and recreational crabbers are supposed to split the rest. But the Coastal Conservation Association, a lobbyist for recreational fisherman, say it's more like a 40-10 split in favor of commercial crabbers.

Last year, 248 commercial crabbers paid the state $64,000 in license fees, but 236,000 recreational crabbers paid in $3.4 million.

"That's allot of people getting shut out of a really big resource," Nelson said.

The commission will meet Saturday to go over the new proposed rule changes for crabbing.

Meanwhile, salmon fisherman are both celebrating and lamenting their season -- it all depends where their fishing. Elliott Bay will close to all salmon fishing early on Aug. 6.

"There hasn't been enough wild fish to sustain that fishery and so the state and the co-managers, in this case the Muckleshoots, have decided lets shut it all down," Nelson said.

A sign of the times -- this year's Elliott Bay Salmon Derby winner won with a 16 pound fish -- usually the winning fish is three times that size. But salmon are running at record numbers up the Columbia.

In real estate and fishing, its all about location, location, location.

Options for proposed rule changes

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has selected three alternatives for recreational crab seasons, as part of its review of the existing management policy for Puget Sound Dungeness crab.

The three alternatives were selected for further review after receiving input from recreational crabbers and WDFW’s commercial and recreational crab advisory groups.

Option A
Recreational fishery managed using a fixed season
• July – Labor Day
• 5 days per week, including weekends
• October – December Winter Season (7 days/week)
• 5 crab daily bag limit

Option B
Recreational fishery managed using a fixed season
• July – Labor Day
• 4 days per week, including weekends
• November – December Winter Season (7 days/week)
• 5 crab daily bag limit

Option C
Recreational fishery managed with a harvest target based on an average of recent
years (2005-2009) catch
• July – Labor Day
• 4 days per week (one weekend day)
• Winter Season as remaining quota allows (7 days/week)
• 5 crab daily bag limit

The Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to meet and take public comment before voting on this policy at 10am Saturday, August 7 in the Natural Resources Building, Room 172, 1111 Washington Street SE in Olympia.


This is from komo4news. Only 16lb fish to win the derby thats small.