Baker Lake Sockeye

[Dan Boone]

Sounds good to me.

[gfakkema]

...

[Bodofish]

Not sure how feasible it would be, but what if they didn't open the river fishing til there were X fish at the dam/lake? I realize that it would give the river fishers less time, but it would ensure that there would be enough in the lake to have a decent fishery. I would just hate to see too many fish get pulled from the river and kill the fishing at the lake. Just a thought.

Ummmm sounds pretty much like the plan. They count the fish at the dam.

[gfakkema]

...

[Bodofish]

He was talking about forecast numbers but he only way to know if and or when you've reached those numbers is to count the fish at the dam.

[gfakkema]

...

[Bodofish]

Yep. They have a pretty good handle on the numbers because they trap and truck every fish to the lake. Makes it easy to know how many made it back. They used to have counters (Bio Students or the like) in the fish ladder viewing area at the locks, just clicking away on they're little counters.......

[gfakkema]

...

[Bodofish]

Yep. They have a pretty good handle on the numbers because they trap and truck every fish to the lake. Makes it easy to know how many made it back. They used to have counters (Bio Students or the like) in the fish ladder viewing area at the locks, just clicking away on they're little counters.......

I guess I'm confused again. I know that they truck and count when they do so. But aren't they using the numbers that they count to extrapolate the "forecast"? What I'm getting at is... I was hoping that they would wait for the lake to be near fully stocked for a productive fishery (4k-7k?) before they even consider opening the river. So, no "forecast", just a solid number that must be in the lake (i.e. 5k socks in the lake) and then considering opening the river. I guess this is kind of the same thing as the "forecast", but to me a "forecast" is an extrapolation and leaves room for error, where as a stock/truck count is a set amount.

The forecast numbers come from what they released, they'll confirm with a real count at the dam and yeah with the numbers the way they're looking, the lake should be well underway before they ever the river....... If the proposal is used.

[TomD]

Sorry Guys... was away for a bit... That is a good idea... We have to plan most of the fisheries based upon forecasts sice they happen below/before fish get to the trap.. so Swinomish and Upper Skagit fisheries for sure, and traditionally the river recreational fishery...

But we could entertain not opening the river unless we had X number of fish at the trap... It might get complicated, because the split between the fisheries is done based upon the forecast and split 50/50... so if more fish come in than forecast, both sides get more fish. When that happens, the fish are already above the Usual and Accostomed areas for the Tribal fisheries, so they get fish from the trap (not their preference). We would then have to allocate rec between fish already dumped in the lake and some amount of river fishery... sounds really complicated!!!

[TomD]

UPDATE from NOF 1 - 3/15 in Olympia

There will be further discussion at the meeting in Mill Creek this Saturday.

Currently the Department is modelling this as a combo of lake and river fishery.

If memory serves...

Both fisheries drop from a 3 fish limit last year to a 2 fish limit this year.

I think the river would only be open for 2 weeks this year compared to 4 weeks last year.

I think the lake would open July 16 this year rather than July 1 last year.

See you in Mill Creek if you are interested!