Coho Closure Protest **We Need Your Support**

[RiverChromeGS]

Right here is a great opportunity to make a stand and be part of something for our fishing in Washington. The pre-season estimates for low coho returns were extremely incorrect for 2016. Simple as that.

To put pressure on WDFW to reopen our systems for fall coho fishing in a timely manner...We are doing a "fish anyway" this Saturday, Sept 24th at 561 s lewis street, monroe wa 98272......We are not using hooks, but casting weights or cut off hook lures, staying legal is important to voice our message legitimately. We are working on the rest as far as getting news involved, WDFW hearing our message ect... Leave that to us.

The most important thing is this needs to be BIG. It is already getting quite a bit of attention... We estimate 80-100 people showing up so far. Which is awesome. But I know more than that want to fish coho this fall on a very healthy return of both wild and hatchery fish in all our rivers, including Skagit, Stilly, Sky and Snoho. We need attention. We need everyone. Show up and support, I canceled a guided day to be here. I suggest you make an effort if you can, if you want to fish on this amazing coho return this fall! Thank you everyone and hope to see you there

***IMPORTANT***
This is in NO way a tribal thing. This has nothing to do with the tribe at all. This is between us and WDFW. Do not mention the Tribes at all or this will not work.

[dj2loud]

i'll be there early as I work nights in seattle..... Just finished a job down in monroe and miss the sky.......

[The_chemist]

Its a little early to say the forecast are "extremely incorrect" don't you think?

Sunset Falls has 400+ wild coho and the Wallace has got 40+ hatchery brats.

Comparing that to a good year and a bad year:

At this time in 2013(good) we had 700+ to the Falls and 60+ to the Wallace.

At this time in 2015 (bad) we had just shy of 600 at the Falls and nothing reported at the Wallace.

At the end of December in 2013 the Falls had ~20,000 Coho.

At the end of December in 2015 the Falls had ~6,000 Coho.

I think closing down game fish on the Snohomish system is an overreaction at this point. A Coho closure on the other hand seems pretty justified by the current return numbers.

[RiverChromeGS]

The_Chemist.... Unfortunately we have done much much more research into this than you may think. First off... The recent hatchery escapement reports you mentioned were done 2 days before the very first solid rain we have had this entire fall. You simply cannot even come close to estimating run size with mid sept hatchery escapement... ESPECIALLY without water yet. It just doesnt work... How do you know theres not 5000 coho right below every hatchery waiting for a flood? (There is... Btw. Ive seen them).....there has been virtually no water to move coho into hatchery tanks... So having 400 at sunset... 150 in cascade trap already ect... Are relatively high numbers given water flow. Its based on water, not timing, so you cannot go off 2013 numbers or any year for that matter for mid sept... Only final results in the winter

Secondly... We have been on rivers doing our research. The Skagit has more than its "8900" predicted wild run in it already, likely quite a bit more even. Its mid September. The Skagit gets fresh coho through January... It will likely exceed 100,000 in run size. I have guided the Skagit for 7 years and fellow guides for 30+... We all agree we have never ever seen this number of coho spread throughout the system in Sept. Its simply remarkable... Trust me. I was running fly fishing trips up there before it closed. It. Is. Insane... Cascade will meet egg take with a single drop of rain... Lol

Lets move to Snoho-Sky. The amount of fish rolling in the snoho is ridiculous. Have you gone and looked? Yes there may only be 40 in the actual hatchery tank... But thats due to low water... Go ahead, i dare you to look under the highway bridge on the wallace. There are a couple hundred there waiting for rain alone. Once we get a good flood, thousands will go into the hatchery. They will meet escapement instantly.

Samish river... So many wild coho you can barely even target chinooks... I went to look one day, entire river was complaining about them... Guys never seen so many in September...

Nooksack... Already fish near hatchery on southfork. I went up to look. I also floated it on friday. Saw 2-300 fish roll over the day... Water only had 6 inches of vis and we still caught 15 fish... Oh yea and this is after tribal gillnets took all they can at the mouth...i know a tribe guy had 4000 lb of coho in one night at nooksack mouth

Stilly.... 2 examples. I know 2 guys who live on the river. They messaged me asking why its closed... Rollers are insane... Secondly... I went up to granite falls to steelhead fish in AUGUST. FREAKIN AUGUST... There were literally 2000 coho at the falls. Already! At the falls on the southfork. Sooo far up the system. Literally insane...

What else.... The Bay? Catches in the bay are stellar. Nonstop guys complaining to me and on facebook about how many are there they have to release... These are fish that havent even gotten here yet!

Point being bro... You cannot yet base your facts on hatchery escapement. They dont even have a report out that comes after a solid rain yet. And its only mid Sept. They barely start trickling into hatcheries in Sept. Trust me... We are not being selfish. If coho really were in trouble... Id be All for taking a hit for the fall and letting them spawn. This isnt the case. Every single system has massive coho returns... All we want to see is WDFW giving us somewhat of a season... Even if its restricted

[The_chemist]

Whoa. That's a lot of words there...

Lets hope your anecdotes start showing up and the escapement report next week reflects them. At the end of the day the WDFW needs numbers to go off of and right now, by the numbers, we are looking worse than last year.

Here's to the rain bringing in some massive schools.

[RiverChromeGS]

Talked with cascade river hatchery today... The met escapement on this last rain... Haha. He sent me a video of thousands of coho near the hatchery and in the creek below the tank... Told ya. Wdfw would already know if they had done the test nets they said they were going to do... They did not test net this last weekend... Which has not made many folks happy... Hopefully our get together this weekend gets their attention

[dj2loud]

Thank you Danny for the latest info !

Here is a few takes from my recent trips...




Samish ????? I have been to the samish the last 4 days, including today....... there are fish rolling but I sure can tell you this they aren't biting anything....... Its off and its off bad..... The only bite is the floss'n jig style....

The south fork nooksack is so low there is no water near the hatchery.... let lone able to fish it...

Plus the river is closed from the bridge at saxon all the way to the hatchery....

https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efis ... sp?id=1850" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[4steelhead]

What time is the protest?

[Mike Carey]

What time is the protest?

8am to noon.

[RiverChromeGS]

dj2loud.... I never said the guys catching coho on samish were actually getting them to bite... Haha!!!! Yea the normal samish snaggers were complaining about wild cohos when i walked down to look. And yes. Southfork is WAS really low... If you hike, to deep water there were hundreds. Now with this recent rain the coho are thick. I drove to hatchery to look. Tons in pens now

[strider43]

wont it be illegal to fish without hooks: does the terminal gear matter if the river is completely closed to fishing?

[riverhunter]

Talked with cascade river hatchery today... The met escapement on this last rain... Haha. He sent me a video of thousands of coho near the hatchery and in the creek below the tank... Told ya. Wdfw would already know if they had done the test nets they said they were going to do... They did not test net this last weekend... Which has not made many folks happy... Hopefully our get together this weekend gets their attention

I find it interesting that wdfw posts on Thursdays escapement reports but they didn't last week. Are they trying to hide real numbers from us? Also I agree with low water conditions. Wallace for example. Most guys will catch fish under the bridge way before it rains and way before the numbers in the traps go up. They hang out in deep pools of the river until their is enough water for them to easily move up the tube. After a good rain the catch rates drop under bridge and skyrocket near the intake tube and the stretch from bridge to to hatchery is only about 1/4 mile.

[RiverChromeGS]

wont it be illegal to fish without hooks: does the terminal gear matter if the river is completely closed to fishing?

Nope. Its not fishing without hooks. Just casting. Again this has happened before. Take occupy skagit for example. The river is closed to all fishing in april but steelheaders go up and cast without hooks to fight or our steelhead fisheries back. Game wardens show up every year and observe the event

[RiverChromeGS]

Talked with cascade river hatchery today... The met escapement on this last rain... Haha. He sent me a video of thousands of coho near the hatchery and in the creek below the tank... Told ya. Wdfw would already know if they had done the test nets they said they were going to do... They did not test net this last weekend... Which has not made many folks happy... Hopefully our get together this weekend gets their attention

I find it interesting that wdfw posts on Thursdays escapement reports but they didn't last week. Are they trying to hide real numbers from us? Also I agree with low water conditions. Wallace for example. Most guys will catch fish under the bridge way before it rains and way before the numbers in the traps go up. They hang out in deep pools of the river until their is enough water for them to easily move up the tube. After a good rain the catch rates drop under bridge and skyrocket near the intake tube and the stretch from bridge to to hatchery is only about 1/4 mile.

Yep exactly. Spot on... There are thousands of fish that shot into all hatcheries this week just after escapement report. Cascade just met egg take... before oct 1 which is unheard of. Wallace hatchery on this weeks report will skyrocket above last years numbers too. There are plenty of fish... Hopefully wdfw realizes soon... Imagine how many coho will be here in october......

[riverhunter]

Talked with cascade river hatchery today... The met escapement on this last rain... Haha. He sent me a video of thousands of coho near the hatchery and in the creek below the tank... Told ya. Wdfw would already know if they had done the test nets they said they were going to do... They did not test net this last weekend... Which has not made many folks happy... Hopefully our get together this weekend gets their attention

I find it interesting that wdfw posts on Thursdays escapement reports but they didn't last week. Are they trying to hide real numbers from us? Also I agree with low water conditions. Wallace for example. Most guys will catch fish under the bridge way before it rains and way before the numbers in the traps go up. They hang out in deep pools of the river until their is enough water for them to easily move up the tube. After a good rain the catch rates drop under bridge and skyrocket near the intake tube and the stretch from bridge to to hatchery is only about 1/4 mile.

Yep exactly. Spot on... There are thousands of fish that shot into all hatcheries this week just after escapement report. Cascade just met egg take... before oct 1 which is unheard of. Wallace hatchery on this weeks report will skyrocket above last years numbers too. There are plenty of fish... Hopefully wdfw realizes soon... Imagine how many coho will be here in october......

Not sure to be angry at the fact that we cannot fish when there's plenty of them showing up or actually be all smiles knowing that wdfw was wrong and that our runs are stronger then they believe

[RiverChromeGS]

To tell you the truth im just thrilled our coho were able to find a way to be healthy in warmer ocean conditions and return in such an incredible number. Great for our future in puget sound.... Shows you that preseason forecasts are nothing more than educated guesses... Pretty pathetic we base seasons off it. Anyway... We have the coho. Now we need the fishery

[strider43]

OK, see you Saturday on the river. A Coho season would sure be good for my soul right now. Think rain and bouncing jumping silvers.......oh and tasty

[RiverChromeGS]

For those doubting... Straight from the mouth of the hatchery managers.... Go ahead and look back to see if you can find a year in history wallace had 5000 coho sept 22... This is why we are fighting

[JoshH]

This whole thing makes me cry. I live on Camano, went down to Cavalero Park just to have a look..... Coho surfacing everywhere, flipping their tail at me like they were flipping me off.. laughing. Rivers and Marine areas need to open up now.

[riverhunter]

That really makes me bubble with anger as the Wallace is my stomping grounds for coho. They sure didn't post escapement reports the last 2 Thursdays which makes me wonder if they are trying to hide something from us. Also take a look at soos creek. No coho have been recorded at the hatchery as of yet but they decide that the green is open for retention. Where is the logistics in that?