ODFW Meeting

[iwanttofish]

I was at the meeting today but had to leave by noon so I did not get to here any of the testimonials. It took that long for them to read through the proposals. So we will all have to wai to get the rest of the story. They did say that last night the nets in the river got 10,000 lbs of smelt so they are in. I wish I could have stayed for the entire meeting. There were about 100 people present.

[ 02-05-2004, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: iwanttofish ]

[Fishplay]

What meeting are you refering to? :whazzup:

There will be an ODFW meeting held at the Sportsman show tomorrow. Commissioner meetings are always held on Friday.

Here is a LINK with tomorrows agenda.

[iwanttofish]

The meeting in oregon city.

[Pickles]

I believe he was refering to the Columbia River Compact Meeting. I was in attendance, but had to leave at 3:00, and was only able to listen to some of the testimony. I did however get to meet some other Ifisher's Freespool, RiverRogue, and of course Pete. From what I gathered at the meeting, Salmon fishing above the I-5 bridge will not open until March 16th. Hopefully the gillnetters will not dig into our impacts, and we will be able to fish above the I-5 bridge through April.

[ 02-05-2004, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: fish-addict ]

[Chris Nordling]

This was a very interesting meeting, with very little [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] between the sporties and the gill netters. In fact everyone seemed pretty happy that we actually had spring season available to even argue about, or decide how many fish each can take.

I think that it's often easily overlooked that these are people like you and me, trying to raise families and put a few dollars into our pockets,some of the gill netters have been at it for over 50 years.

There will be changes from the previous years as to when they are actually able to fish, and where. Test fishing will be done, with small enough nets to limit impacts on wild steelies, and to see where in the run we are at. The first is scheduled for later this month.

There are also strong indications that we will be able to sportfish for springers through most of ,if not all of April. Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee

Though it seemed like the agenda and any decisions had been pre-decided( kinda like pro wrestling), it was an informative(and long) process I was happy to be able to witness and participate in.

Kudos to both state's and their staffs for all the countless hours they have put in to make this years(and those to come) Columbia River Spring Chinook fishery happen for all(including the netters) who are chasing the most prized salmon in our region.

One more thing.....Removing a fish that must be released Totally from the water will be unlawful this year, so we shouldn't see many pics of nates being held this year out of the water.

Springer season is here! Bring 'em on!!
Chris Nordling