Detailed results of first test netting C.R.

[DownTime]

This is from today's Columbian(Vancouver newspaper)2/24/2004
Commercial fishing on hold
Commercial fishing for spring chinook salmon in the lower Columbia River will not start before March 2,Washington and Oregon officials agreed Monday.
The season tentatively was slated to begin today,but test fishing on Sunday found very few spring salmon in the river.
Cindy LaFleur of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said seven commercial fishermen volunteered their boats Sunday.They were accompanied by state observers.
Three boats fished near Astoria,two near Cathlamet-Skamokawa and two just downstream of Longview.
The seven boats combined caught just five spring chinook using 4 1/4 inch tangle nets.Three of the chinook were hatchery origin and all five were from lower Columbia tributaries.
The netters also handled 9 hatchery and 11 wild steelhead.
LaFleur said there will be more test fishing next Sunday.No commercial fishery will be set until more spring chinook enter the river,she added.
-The Columbian

And you wonder why you havnt caught many springers yet?

JB

[blacktail519]

Thanks for the report downtime . I am still gonna be out there chasin them springers.
Soon they will come in numbers.

[ctflyfish]

I find it disgusting that the nets are taking 4 steelhead for every chinook. With a 20% kill rate, they will once again demolish our wild winter steelhead. Can't they find a better way?

[Time Off]

Let see; in order for me to catch one they have to be thick enough to walk across the river on their backs sooooooooo... I think I'd better wait. :grin:

[Bill Monroe]

They also lost just as many and maybe a few more to sea lions...and all 20 steelhead were revived and released...they used tangle net for testing to eliminate as much trouble as possible.

Originally posted by Bill Monroe:
They also lost just as many and maybe a few more to sea lions...and all 20 steelhead were revived and released...they used tangle net for testing to eliminate as much trouble as possible.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Wonder how many of those steelhead actually survived [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]

[Thumper]

Y'know, there is something very sickening about this whole thing. It just churns the stomach. :depressed:

[boater]

Originally posted by Bill Monroe:
and all 20 steelhead were revived and released

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">

[fishnxtc]

Ya you know those steelhead will die just from taking their picture . Just think what a net will do to them ................Chris

[Lucky 13]

I certainly hope none of the sea lions were hurt stuffing themselves on all of those freshly released ironheads!

[Full Freezer]

Did they lift any of those WILD fish OUT OF THE WATER????!!!!

[eyeFISH]

Here we go again!? Is this their idea of "selective" fishing? I heard Bob Toman's initial reports a while back about these tangle nets catching way more steelhead than springers... sometimes as much as 10:1. Please tell me they're not thinking about prosecuting a full-blown net fishery for spring kings with these "tangle" nets.

[WHO'S BELLS RINGING?]

I Support the nets staying out of the CR until it is full of fish and in the heart of the sport fishing season, as everyone knows sports spend to much time and energy trying to harvest these overrated fish. Thats the trouble with our economy wasted effort for naught.

[Pete]

The test fishery is done with tooth tangle nets to determine the stock composition ... they need to catch steelhead to know if they are in the river. If there are large numbers of steelhead, the real netting will be done with 9 inch mesh, to allow the steelhead to swim through. Later in the season, when the steelhead run has passed, tooth tangle nets would be used since the mortality on wild chinook is lower. They type of net depends on run composition.

[reeldick]

Determine the type of net but no pictures.

[Got Fish?]

Now remember a 4 and half inch tangle net is meant to tangle chinooks, but it is also the size of mesh that acts as a perfectly good gill net to steelhead. I think they should leave them steelies alone and just use a gill net for chinooks wich is 8 inch or better.

Also if they set nets during the day time you can bet they lost 2 to 3 times the fish to seal and sea lion predation. I'd be willing to bet they lose more fish to mammals then what they actually bring in the boat. Especially when there is only 7 nets in the river as opposed to up to a hundred.

No matter what we think the nets are still going to get fishing time this year. I say let them pound it with 8 inch or better nets, hit their impacts and get out so the sporties will get at least the last half of march and all of april.

[Abalone]

So did Pete or any other IFISH'ers get to go along as Observers ?

Why not ?

I think it would be very useful to have some Digital photos to present to the IFISH community.

Don't you all ?

Put everybodies mind to rest about the issue ! ( Yeah right )

[ 02-25-2004, 01:46 PM: Message edited by: Abalone ]

[Sirprize Sirprize]

Thanks very much for the info...

[Pete]

Remember, they are using 9 inch nets right now for the main fishery. The tangle nets are just for run composition testing since they need to know if there are any steelhead in the river. The are using short soak times, short nets and rescusitation boxes. They are making an effort to reduce impact on steelhead and upriver fish - they have strong economic incentive to do so.

I have asked to be an observer during the actual fishery. I will bring a camera if I go. I'm interested in seeing what goes on and I'll report back what I see.

[slabhunter]

Pete, Did you pick up a card from the commercial gillneter in Olympia? Good luck!

Sorry but I have very little, if any, faith in the integrity of the commercial gill netters. Hoping that they will "do the right thing" in their efforts to get their quota would be naive.
Just my opinion

[SPAZZ]

Hey blacktail59 aka Todd, you can count me in on fishing with ya any time. Brian

[IFISH4U]

Boy, thats pretty low fish numbers even for this time of year, should have been more steelhead than that, the problem really is, while the main netting goes on, the summer run steelhead in the lower Columbia around Cathlamet is really getting going. Prices are really good during this run and do you really think they throw all those hatchery steelhead back, not as many natives in the summer.

Those nets are really hard on the fish tangle or not, even the mortality with the revival stations on the boat for natives isnt good enough.

I am torn both ways on this issue their are alot of great people on the commercial fishing side, and recreational. Ive made alot of good friends on both sides. We really need to work this out together, thats the only way. [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img] :grin:

[Hogmaster]

They also lost just as many and maybe a few more to sea lions...

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">But would those sea lions have had such easy pickings if the fish weren't being corralled by the nets?

Sort of an interesting question it seems... How much does gill-netting contribute to the mortality of fish by sea lions?

[greenhead]

Yea you can Kiss the NATIVE FISH GOOD BYE.
Exampel March Hogs E Fork of the LEWIS

[SalmonSeason]

HI There's a lot of people on IFISH who complain about the nets [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] I hate the nets [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] But there's been several years of netting [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] and opportunity for us to stand together and fight the nets [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img] but everyone complains but does not attend or vote

Please come to the meetings when they open them to the public. There's more of US then there are of THEM [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]
Together we're strong Divided we fall