Puget Sound Black Mouth

[cskip]

I'd heard a rumor that State officials were gonna "cancel" the February Blackmouth season on Puget Sound?

Anybody heard about this?

Cskip

[Mike Gilchrist]

I have not heard that rumor and I also can not think of any justification for a closure.

Blackmouth are not a "run" so escapement is not an issue. There are no runs of salmon that migrate at the same time and wild steelhead are not usually caught it the salt so bycatch is not a concern. Unless the ESA has something to do with it, or some sort of unresolved treaty allocation, there should not be any reason for a closure.

The treaty allocation was decided last spring so that should not come up now. The only thing I can think of is a NMFS application for "take" but even that should have been done a long time ago.

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

That would totally suck if they did, but as far as I know, and what I've heard, everything is a "go". February 16th is the opener in all of the Sound, so if they are going to stop it, they better do something quick. Although an emergency closure is never surprising.