Chehalis EMERGENCY!: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Brain, I don't know where you got your info, but it is wrong. Those of us on the Grays Harbor Committee did not agree to what will be the final agreement.
First of all you have to understand that our 50% of the harvestable fish is split between us the Sporties, the Commercials and the Chehalis Tribe, I know you know this. Out of our 50% the split has always been devided, by the State, 60%-40%. As in we get 40% and the Commericals are given 60%. We have the numbers provided by the State that show the Commercials always get their's and of course we apparently are unable to catch ours. With the exception being last year on Silvers because there where no Coho to be caught by anyone.
They have produced numbers that show in Willipa area, the Commercials have gotten as high as 92% on some years with an average of the last 6 years being around 89% for Coho. These are the numbers they have and yet we sit in meetings listening to the commericals always asking for more fish. It is unbelievable. They also have numbers that indicate that the split is much closer to 60%-40% in the Chehalis basin, but that's debatable.
The pre season forcast is for 1642 chinook, in the Chehalis basin. The numbers are much higher in Willipa and have been for years. Last year they allowed a one fish per day Chinook retention in area 2.2 that opended on Oct. 1st and closed Oct. 16th. Area 2.2 opended Sept 16th for a Coho fishery and it was catch and release all Chinook. We had roughly 450 fish to retain as sports fishers. We took about 350 the 1st day and proved how good we are by surpassing our aloted take by as much as 1000 fish over. Like wise the Tribes took around 1600 fish. Even though this had the makings of an over harvest apparently we still met escapement. Now I say we as I talk about that fishery in the bay, and I don't even fish it. However I am representing the sports fishing communittee so we are all involved.
You need to understand that last year we where talking about 450 fish per side, as in Sportsmen and then 450 for the Tribes. Our Committee stands on the beliefs of conservation and getting our Chinook numbers back up. We did not agree to a Sports Fishery in the bay last year, because we knew what would happen. WDFW did it anyway. We got lucky they met escapement.
Fast forward to present. The proposal at the NOF meeting in Olympia last week, was some what as you described it. They pulled numbers out of somewhere that they feel very strongly about and that there are enough Chinook in the system to support a chinook fishery in the bay, area 2.2 and the mainstem Chehalis up to porter for 31 days. As in open OCt 1, close Oct 31.
They insisted that we would not over fish these fish and that they where ok with the Commercial Coho Harvest having low impacts on the chinooks to the point that they are not even required to use live boxes this year. So, the Commericals can keep their so called incidental catch and not have to worry about releasing live kings.
We did not agree to this, the meeting drug on and on, some of us had to leave and when it was all said and done the aboved mentioned regs where kept in rough draft form, as in we where told (nothing is set in stone).
So, yesterday in fact, I spent my morning to afternoon up at Sea-Tac attending the PFMC to try to present information as to the direction we on the Committee would like this years regs to go. By the way, there is no charge for the personal time I spend trying to make a difference and do the right thing. Anyway, I was not going to be able to present to a council or commission group even though I had all my paper work in order and copies of our proposal that we would in fact put our name on. Due to the fact that WDFW and the Tribes had not even completed agreements on all of Puget Sound, nothing was moving forward until that mess was resolved. I had no choice but to leave our proposal with members of the region 6 office and was assured it would be addressed.
We got the phone call late this evening that the rules will be written as previously described. As in they will not make any changes....

Here is what we proposed...
RECOMMENDATION:

We respectfully request that the Council consider the following alternative Grays Harbor proposal specifically regarding Marine Area 2-2 and the Mainstem Chehalis:

September 16-30:
- Marine Area 2-2… SIX salmon total, only TWO adult coho, release adult chinook and all chum.
- Mainstem Chehalis River north bank upstream to the confluence of Elliott Slough… SIX salmon total, only TWO adult coho, release adult chinook and chum. Single barbless hook, no bait, fishing permitted only from the bank.

October 1-15:
- Marine Area 2-2… SIX salmon total; only TWO adults, ONE of which may be a chinook; release all chum.
- Mainstem Chehalis River upstream to Porter Bridge… SIX salmon total; only TWO adults, ONE of which may be a chinook; release all chum.

October 15-November 30:
- Marine Area 2-2… SIX salmon total, only TWO adult coho, release adult chinook and all chum.
- Mainstem Chehalis River… SIX salmon total, only TWO adult coho, release adult chinook and all chum.

This will not be the final rules as we will see in final draft when it comes out. I assure you that the Committee is not having our name attached to what will be adopted for this season. At this point we feel that 3 years of tryiong to understand the methods by wich WDFW manages our fisheries, and the efforts to bring back the chinook runs to the Chehalis basin have been a complete waste of time....

FireFish Out...

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Member of Grays Harbor Salmon Management Committee:

1. Working to Unite Sporties to get Issues
Resolved...
2. Working Hard to Get Back Our 50% of the Bolt
Decision...