Olympic National Park Closing Queets, Salmon, Upper Quinault To Steelheading -

[Derby]

Washington state starting to close rivers for the upcoming steelhead season due to low run forecasts



Subject: Olympic National Park Closing Queets, Salmon, Upper Quinault To Steelheading -

https://nwsportsmanmag.com/olympic-...queets-salmon-upper-quinault-to-steelheading/

 

[pacemaker]

Once again, this is most unfortunate but not totally unexpected. That is, or was, a really tremendous steelhead fishery that they have down there. I have drift boat fished those rivers several times with my U.S. friends who have also been fishing Nootka with us for the past 25+ years. The social aspect of these trips is often of equal importance to the fishing part. Hopefully the fish on both sides of the border can recuperate.

 

[Coyote Spooner]

This is sad. I’ve also made many trips down that way, and always admired how healthy these systems were. I’m not sure, but I think they decided to move away from hatchery enhancement, on some, if not all of these rivers? Hopefully the wild fish, will be given the chance to recover.

 

[Sharphooks]

My favorite part of that news feed:

...."The sport fishing closures are due to low forecasted returns, anticipated commercial harvest outside of the park..."

This is where we are headed: despite meager projections, the tribal guys are going to fish and to hell with the fishery manager's minimum escapement calculation....just lower the number required and then go and soak all those tribal nets

Very simimilar to what's happening on the Skeena, although instead of the FN's, it's the guides and lodges that bully fishery managers to lower the escapement requirments so they can keep pounding the ever-shrinking resource

 

[Whitebuck]

Would be nice if we had some closures like this in the LM for steelhead. There is 6 flows that have crashed to dismal levels over the last 10 years. Dec 15 closures till the summer opening would save whats left . The few that come back get beaten on by the yearly increase in anglers and social media.You have 50+ anglers hitting some of these small rivers daily in the winter months.There is even guides who take people on these small flows just to make a buck. Sickening. One still has brood stock taken from it, even though the run is probably 10% what it was a decade ago.

Unfortunately nobody wants to talk about the decline in numbers as it may be as a reflection of their "numbers" that year. Or they are to green to see what's really going on. Upper spawning areas that you see dozens and dozens of redds now hold maybe a handful during spawning in the spring now, with fewer each year.

The hardest part of being an angler is sometimes looking in the mirror and admitting you may be part of the problem.

 

[mikep]

100% agree whitebuck. Tough time for steelhead, I was lucky to see the late 90s and early 2000s but 2012+ has been hard on them. Now I look at photos and hope they can make a comeback.

 

[eroyd]

As much as I love fishing our rivers in the winter, I have seen the decline. 10 fish days were the norm in the 1980's and even then we were being told about the good old days.. Now 1 fish is good day. I fear shutting it right down would be the last nail in the coffin, as this would put zero value on this species, and therefore give them little protection. I'm sure Federal Fisheries consider steelhead a nuisance.

Some closures, especially in spawning areas and times would help. Angler etiquette, the overplaying and handling of fish?

I took up fly fishing for these beasties. My attempt at conservation. I still get to spend a great day on the river, but rarely have to worry playing and unhooking fish. ha ha.