Willamette and Columbia sturgeon retention suspended

R
rainORsnow1
Just heard from my brother who works for odfw that the ruling came down today that sturgeon retention on the willy and Bonneville to the mouth will be closed all of 2013 and potentially a few years. They even closed above oc falls! Counts show that the population has drastically fallen. AND THATS NOT ALL! barbless hooks for salmon and steelhead on the willamette and Columbia! Let the grumbling begin....
 
G
Gettin' Jiggy Wid It
Yay! Barbless hooks for fin-clipped salmon and steelhead! But let's keep gill-netting the hell out of them! Hooray Oregon!
 
T
Toyracer38
No grumbling here. Barbless helps save wild fish and if sturgeon numbers are declining and the fishery is not sustainable, gotta shut it down.
 
H
halibuthitman
Thank God... just like all fish and wildlife departments they are a day late..and a dollar short, 5000 lbs of the cure is worth a pound of prevention... or something like that:think:
 
S
steelhead_slayer
halibuthitman said:
Thank God... just like all fish and wildlife departments they are a day late..and a dollar short, 5000 lbs of the cure is worth a pound of prevention... or something like that:think:

Agreed
 
bass
bass
It sure seems to me like the measure is not even close to being too late. I can usually catch at least 6-10 sturgeon out of my kayak on most days with several keeper sized and an occasional oversized. I read plenty of stories of 20, 30, 40 fish days from folks on other forums. It sure seems like the population, while maybe not what it once was, is certainly not in any danger of disappearing if we act now.

I think an advantage for sturgeon is that they are not suffering from the habitat degradation that is afflicting salmon. I have not read any studies indicating that sturgeon spawning areas are under any duress. Thus, I would anticipate that a closure on retention will slowly rebuild (since they grow slowly) the population back to the carrying capacity of the rivers.

The only remaining threat are sea lions. Certainly they will take their share of fish (they can't read the memos from Kitzhaber) but I find it pretty unimaginable that this will have all that much impact on the recovery. Sea lions and sturgeon have always lived together and they will find a natural balance.

Just my $.02
 
S
steelhead_slayer
I don't know much about that fishery I was just speaking for most government actions
 
R
Roolinghills
So the same year that "bass" hooks me up with sturgeon info I can't even take one. Bummer!

I agree with the gill-net assessment. I also saw something this summer that really opened my eyes to the number of fish being taken. I pulled up to the locks to sign up for pikeminnow while I fished below Bonneville and watched a truck pull up and sit there for about 5 minutes. Then another truck pulls up with a boat and 2-50 gallon coolers (looked like 50 gallons compared to a barrel). They proceeded to transfer the stocked coolers of fish in to the other truck for 15 minutes. My girlfriend and I lost count at 50. Salmon, steelhead.. they were grabbing up both. I asked them how much they charge and they said $5/lb. "As soon as we're done unloading we're going back out". When I looked in to their boat there wasn't a single rod, just one big gill net.

Now, I'm all for tradition, heritage and culture. I love watching the documentaries about northern cultures making hand made boats, going out with hand made gear and pulling in a whale that they use in the most resourceful, traditional way. And they do it once a year (at least they did a few years ago). The guys I saw at the locks were on a 17 foot powered boat, blue jeans and flannels, and a very obviously commercially made net. I don't understand what's traditional about it. Now, from what I've seen the Columbia shuts down on certain days for the commercial fisherman. It doesn't seem to be open year round. These sleds full of guys with no legal limit or obligation to the fishery seems to be a problem, in my mind. I really don't get it.

I'd like to see some change in that system.
 
T
Throbbit _Shane
Roolinghills said:
So the same year that "bass" hooks me up with sturgeon info I can't even take one. Bummer!

I agree with the gill-net assessment. I also saw something this summer that really opened my eyes to the number of fish being taken. I pulled up to the locks to sign up for pikeminnow while I fished below Bonneville and watched a truck pull up and sit there for about 5 minutes. Then another truck pulls up with a boat and 2-50 gallon coolers (looked like 50 gallons compared to a barrel). They proceeded to transfer the stocked coolers of fish in to the other truck for 15 minutes. My girlfriend and I lost count at 50. Salmon, steelhead.. they were grabbing up both. I asked them how much they charge and they said $5/lb. "As soon as we're done unloading we're going back out". When I looked in to their boat there wasn't a single rod, just one big gill net.

Now, I'm all for tradition, heritage and culture. I love watching the documentaries about northern cultures making hand made boats, going out with hand made gear and pulling in a whale that they use in the most resourceful, traditional way. And they do it once a year (at least they did a few years ago). The guys I saw at the locks were on a 17 foot powered boat, blue jeans and flannels, and a very obviously commercially made net. I don't understand what's traditional about it. Now, from what I've seen the Columbia shuts down on certain days for the commercial fisherman. It doesn't seem to be open year round. These sleds full of guys with no legal limit or obligation to the fishery seems to be a problem, in my mind. I really don't get it.

I'd like to see some change in that system.

Were these guys native? If so, some of their traditional ways of fishing were ruined when the dams were placed there.
 
T
troutmasta
Well above or city falls is open right now. they may not open it next yeat but for all you sturgeon hunters go out of newberg you have till new years
 
S
Socaaron
You don't have to be native to use gillnets, the only restrictions(I think) are a commercial license($83) and that Natives can have stationary gillnets while all others have to be drift or attached to a boat. Also sale of commercially netted Salmon(gillnet) is supposed to be restricted to licensed wholesalers, restaurants, etc they're not really supposed to just sell them on the bank. I enjoy fishing for Sturgeon but I'm fine with the closure as long as we can still Catch and Release, hopefully they wont close that too.


Throbbit _Shane said:
Were these guys native? If so, some of their traditional ways of fishing were ruined when the dams were placed there.
 
R
rainORsnow1
I'd be careful with those fish. studies have shown high mecury counts. Most people don't keep them. But a smaller keeper would be fine every now and again I would imagine.
 
G
Gettin' Jiggy Wid It
I just get frustrated with the system. This year it's barbless hooks for salmon/steelhead. Ok...great if it reduces mortality for catch-n-release. But how much will it really get at the root of the problem? Barbless hooks have been used for sturgeon...and the result? Complete closure for sturgeon retention in 2013 and possibly longer. To me, it seems ODFW and Oregonians in general never really want to get at the root of the problem and always try to cut down the tree with a nail file instead of using an axe. Barbless hooks are a nail file. Stopping the over-fishing is the axe. For people who are subsistence fishermen living below the poverty level who can't afford to buy protein in the form of chicken, beef, etc., they should be allowed to apply for a license allowing them to harvest salmon/steelhead at a reasonable level to feed their family. But the majority of the fishermen i know can afford other sources of protein. It's these sport fisherman that are over-fishing -- catching 200 lbs or more of salmon/steelhead per year and not eating all of it. There is a lot of freezer burned fish being wasted in Oregon every year. Guys at my office bring in smoked salmon and cooked salmon and leave it in the lunch room for co-workers to eat because they are overflowing with it at home --- and a lot of that salmon ends up in the workplace trash. Seriously, I like to eat salmon, but I cannot possibly eat a pound of it a day every day, so why should ODFW let me retain 365 lbs. of salmon a year just because i can afford the salmon tags?
When my uncle passed away (God bless his soul), we had to clean out the pantry in his house...hundreds of quart-sized mason jars filled with salmon, most of it a decade or older...rancid and wasted.
And when my buddies in Washington went fishing recently, they killed five king salmon during catch & release (with barbless hooks) before they caught the two kings they could legally keep. 7 dead fish, when there could have been only two dead fish if the regulations were set up properly.

Sorry for the rant, but barbless hooks seem like a joke to me. Maybe it will save a couple thousand fish next year. Wonderful. But not much of a game changer.

At least ODFW got it right on the sturgeon closure. But maybe it wouldn't have gotten to that point in the first place if they had limited the harvest even more in previous years.

So...now i suppose I have to grab the needle nose pliers and pinch down all the barbs on my Kwikfish and other lures. Hopefully ODFW will be okay with that. Or will i have to go out and buy new barbless hooks?
 
Last edited:
T
Throbbit _Shane
Socaaron said:
You don't have to be native to use gillnets, the only restrictions(I think) are a commercial license($83) and that Natives can have stationary gillnets while all others have to be drift or attached to a boat. Also sale of commercially netted Salmon(gillnet) is supposed to be restricted to licensed wholesalers, restaurants, etc they're not really supposed to just sell them on the bank. I enjoy fishing for Sturgeon but I'm fine with the closure as long as we can still Catch and Release, hopefully they wont close that too.

I was just trying to say it's easy to point your finger at something when you dont know the full story or all the facts.
 
H
halibuthitman
Socaaron said:
You don't have to be native to use gillnets, the only restrictions(I think) are a commercial license($83) and that Natives can have stationary gillnets while all others have to be drift or attached to a boat. Also sale of commercially netted Salmon(gillnet) is supposed to be restricted to licensed wholesalers, restaurants, etc they're not really supposed to just sell them on the bank. I enjoy fishing for Sturgeon but I'm fine with the closure as long as we can still Catch and Release, hopefully they wont close that too.

A lower columbia commercial gillnet drift permit is selling for around $7500 as of today, ANY commercial harvester may sell their product to anyone they want to as long as they don't proccess it past dressing ( cleaning) $85 bucks is the price of a crew commercial fishing license.. The average commercial gillnet costs between $1500-$3000 apiece.
 
S
Socaaron
Agreed. It its what it is and we'll just continue to fish whenever they let us however they as long as they let us. If next year they tell me all salmon fishing has to be done with a stick and your line must be braided yaks hair, save me some yaks hair while i learn how to braid :)
 
T
troutmasta
yaks hair only works for coho.
 

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