Salmon regs for fall fish

[crusty old fisherman]

I just looked over the fall salmon regulations and am kind of sad to see the limit dropped to only one fish down on the elk and sixes river this year, it makes it hard to justify the gas money to drive down there. I love fishing those rivers they are my favorite on the whole coast.

I do on the other hand think its great that they are trying to protect those runs because man oh man do they ever get hammered every guide in oregon and northern california is on those 2 rivers from november to late december its a total mad house.

I will still make at least a couple trips down there this fall providing i can find people that want to go and pich in for gas and help rowing but I dont think I will be heading down once or twice a week like i did in past years.

on an up side looks like it will be a coho whack fest on most rivers this fall but wth low quotas per river I am sure it wont last long before the quota is met.

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

Coho should be fun, I think the quotas will last a bit longer than in prior years, theres more fish in general to tag. I think when they first started doing the quotas some people were traveling to target those fish putting more pressure on them, with more rivers available this year, i think the season should go a bit longer.

There was a river last year that left almost half of there quota on the table at the end of the season.

 

[crusty old fisherman]

yeah that is true but in my opinion it shouldnt be open in the ocean for wild fish they have no way to select what rivers those fish come from, at least with the inland fisherie they can keep track of where the most fish are coming from. on the other hand they are going to kill tons of coho through hook and release mortality in the ocean and its a shame to sink those beautifull fish to the bottom for crab bait.

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

Out of the 4 we released last Sunday in the ocean, one I seen floating belly up 2 minutes later on our second troll through, one came up bleeding from the gills, and one wasn't looking to sweet when it went away. Im not a big fan of the ocean coho fishery.

 

[beaverfan]

I agree, while from a distance it seems fun and exciting you won't catch me doing it anytime soon. 50% mortality is no bueno!

 

[crusty old fisherman]

I had a discussion with Steve Williams from ODFW once and voiced my concerns about the coho ocean fisherie and mentioned that I thought the mortality rate was way in excess of 50% yet they use 10% in all their run size models. his answer was that they really have no clue what it is in the ocean but it could be as high as 70 or 80% mortality.

I then posed the question with the mortality rate on wild coho so high wouldnt it be better for the fish runs if they just went back to the old catch 20 fish and get the hell off the ocean rules ?

his answer was of course it would be but the season would last about 2 weeks and coastal communities would be griping to their politicians and the politicians would be griping at ODFW and when ODFW was trying to get funds they would be denied any special funding by the politicians, so they try to balance it the best they can.

its unfortunate that protection of our fish runs are so caught up in the political wheel. I fear that with it all about votes and campain contributions and funding the fish are at the bottom of the list along with the sport fishing community.

 

[crusty old fisherman]

Its not uncommon to hear of 30 natives hooked, to get 8 hatchery keepers.

13,000 fish quota this year, thats a lot of natives getting yanked around the seas.


Im with you beaverfan, No bueno.

I have fished out in the ocean some and I have rarely ever seen it at less then 10 wild fish for every 1 hatchery fish with that kind of ratio when they have a 50.000 hatchery fish quota that means they are handeling 500.000 wild fish and with even a 50% mortality rate that means 250.000 fish wasted and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

I am not a believer in an ocean coho fisherie at all those fish just can't handle the stress out there. I believe that if they confined the coho fisherie to the bays and rivers they would suffer far less mortality and be able to set quota's on specific rivers so that weaker runs would be left alone and only the strong runs be harvested from.

unfortunately with the political system involved that kind of protection will never happen for any of our wildlife because votes and local community dollars reaped from tourisim and sportfishermen mean more then the survival of our salmon runs.

 

[plumb2fish]

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Sport Fish Division, 333 Raspberry Road, Anchorage, AL 99518, USA

Accepted 21 May 1992. Available online 30 September 2003.

Abstract
Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) were caught with sport gear in the estuary of the Little Susitna River, southcentral Alaska. Fish were double marked and released. All coho salmon observed migrating through a weir above the estuary and a portion caught in a sport fishery below the weir were examined for marks. A second group of coho salmon were caught using similar sport gear above the estuary. These fish were handled and marked identically as the fish captured in the estuary, except that they were held in a holding pen at the weir with an equal number of coho salmon dip netted at the weir. Coho salmon which were caught and released in the estuary suffered a significantly higher rate of mortality (69%) than did either the coho salmon caught and held above the estuary (12%) or those which were dip netted and held at the weir (1%). Factors that could influence rates of hook-induced mortality were measured at the time of hooking. Hook location, hook removal, and bleeding significantly affected the measured mortality rate.


Coho don't do well when hooked in the estuaries either