Cutthroat

Green Eyes · 05-22-2009, 08:01 PM

Heading down to the beach with the family this weekend and can't wait to hit all my favorite holes near my parents cabin. Will be on the Nehalem, and seems like the past has had me into some nice ones. This year we will be eating some of those fat trout thanks to the rule change. Don't have a digital camera yet but will report how we do when we return.

tight lines

fishandcrawl · 05-22-2009, 08:16 PM

just a reminder no bait above mohler sand and gravel, river is at 4.3

rockthief · 05-24-2009, 05:40 PM

pls be mindful that SRC have been depleted for many years. Why the ODFW has allowed some fish to be kept is beyond any common sense. Please reconsider keeping and eating the fish. Do you remember 20+ years ago when SRC were common? THey are threatened now. Keep that in mind if you will.

fair hooker · 05-24-2009, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockthief

pls be mindful that SRC have been depleted for many years. Why the ODFW has allowed some fish to be kept is beyond any common sense. Please reconsider keeping and eating the fish. Do you remember 20+ years ago when SRC were common? THey are threatened now. Keep that in mind if you will.

I'm from further south on the coast where keeping cutthroat has been allowed for years. Lots of searun and resident cutthroat down here. Last year was very good for searuns. Whats the basis for saying they are depleted? Any science to back up the statement or just an opinion?

ToneFish · 05-25-2009, 08:02 AM

There seem's to be a belief that the SRC's are depleted like they were 10 years ago. Based upon the opinions of fishery biologists and the experience of a vast majority of fisher people this is just not true.
Now, if we are not careful and diligent it could get over fished again but the 2 fish rule seems to be a reasonable starting place and it appears to have worked well on the mid and south coast.

rockthief · 05-25-2009, 08:06 AM

there is information on the net regarding ORegon cutthroat depletion. I have read a bunch the last few years but I expect folks who are interested can do their own research. By personal observation and that of fishing friends there are not the numbers, not even close, to what there were years ago. Bluebacks on the Siuslaw were a huge deal but not so much any more. One problem is stream degradation - I recall a logging road built across a tributary of the Siuslaw. Look, I am not interested in a rousing fight here. I just want people to hold these lovely fish in high regard. Heck, ODFW has even listed these fish as "sensitive". I am curious about the size of cutts these days. I wonder if the big ones are still around.
Good fishing to you.

ToneFish · 05-25-2009, 11:32 AM

Rockthief: I appreciate the positive tone of your reply. I just respectively disagree. I have almost 50 years experience in fishing sea run's. When the proposal was made to open North Coast to a limited fishery I called odfw biologists in mid and south coast area's and asked them if they thought the 2 keeper rule was having any impact on the populations. They said they did not. I then talked with the North Coast odfw fishery people and they stated they did not believe there was any reason to believe the the populations were not healthy once again. In the last few years myself and my fishing buddies were noticing a real increase in the numbers of sea run's caught while bobber fishing for chinook.

Now for the real info!. Saturday I went down to two North Coast streams with my drift boat. In both streams at the top of tidewater area I first put a worm on and drifted it. Caught a fish right away and the very first one was deeply hooked so I kept it. Got out a spinner and caught several more and cleanly released them. I then went to another Tillamook area stream and on my first two cast's with a worm on I missed the fish and then on third cast hooked a nice fat 14 incher and put it on the barbeque.Caught several more with a spinner-not every cast but almost. I can tell you that fishing was better then I can ever remember. I am talking a lot of years here.

Now this type of info does not mean that any particular stream cannot be in trouble for a variety of reasons but it certainly tells me that the closure of consumptive fishery is not needed where I fish.
PS- I drove around some Saturday and I only found two other people fishing for sea run's. Maybe having the rule at 2 discourages most.

thanx

Ladyangler · 05-25-2009, 01:14 PM

Tonefish, in the regulations it stipulates that once you have achieved your daily bag limit on any species you are done fishing for that species. So it's o.k. to continue to trout fish even if you've achieved your daily bag limit because of what? Bragging about killing fish and then illegally fishing for more after you've attained your catch isn't something worth bragging about.

After reading the regulations in an attempt to address the possession limit, this may be another cloudy issue. Are they saying you can catch 2 legal limits in 1 day as long? The daily limit says 2 fish over 8 and 2 daily limits in possession. Which means once you have caught your 2 fish you are done until you transfer them home. Boy do I love ODFW and the ease of the regulations, NOT!

have a nice day LA

ToneFish · 05-25-2009, 02:17 PM

Ladyangler: That is probably a good point..at what point is it legal switch to catch and release fishing?. I will re-read regs and probably call odfw for clarification.
Now as far as bragging about killing fish. First of all I was trying to make a point about the fact there are a lot of fish in the rivers. I hope it did not sound like bragging..goodness knows there are a lot of more skilled fisher people than me!!
Now about the killing fish part- Yep I have no problem with killing fish to eat (as long as the species/run/location is in good shape and being managed appropriately) no difference than buying that chunk of white fish at Safeway that may very well come from a poorly managed over fished population.
So yes, I kill and eat fish.

good fishin..........

Bearden · 05-26-2009, 05:09 AM

Tonefish-Thanks for the reports!

On the streams I fish the natives are doing really well and I am happy to be able to keep a couple for the frypan, especially for the occassional badly hooked fish. Some of the fish are even stunted and would benefit from selective removal! It is time for ODFW to rethink some of the confusing special regulations (restrictions) on some streams in the SW that are doing much better with the major increases in habitat quality by both public and private land managers.

I have advocated for a three fish limit for a long time. The reasoning is that you could keep two (which will give you enough for a meal) then you could legally continue to catch and release. Whether or not you ever keep #3 wouldn't matter (yes it is illegal to continue to angle and it doesn't matter if you intend to c+release).

Bearden

firesweep · 05-26-2009, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToneFish

...I then went to another Tillamook area stream and on my first two cast's with a worm on I missed the fish and then on third cast hooked a nice fat 14 incher and put it on the barbeque.Caught several more with a spinner-not every cast but almost. I can tell you that fishing was better then I can ever remember. I am talking a lot of years here...

Would it be legal to catch three more fish if the Tillamook area stream has a limit of 5 trout per day? It may be legal to continue fishing. I could be wrong? I just figure as long as he's not over five he should be good!
Congrats on the catch!

Ladyangler · 05-26-2009, 06:58 AM

The limit is the limit. Why not catch 1 and then play catch and release without the use of bait on the others.

How about making the limit 10 then you could catch 5 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon.

Better yet why not create a harvest tag for those tasty trout. This would pay for the continued enforcement that is needed in educating the angler. The tag would be necessary for those who enjoy taking home their catch. You are done when you have caught your 2 fish whether you like it or not. You could still fish for those abundant steelhead and springers if we had any.

Or better yet head to one of those abundant lakes and catch 5 and be HAPPY, then again they are not cutthroats.

Just kidding, the fishery will last as long as the fish and when they are gone so will the angler. Hopefully we will still have the power in numbers to bring them back once again. If anything catch your limit and go home.

Green Eyes · 05-26-2009, 07:45 AM

My daughter and I fished Sun evening and caught searuns and sculpin. Was planing on only keeping one each if we got a toad or two. I also fished Mon AM and did well on trout. We did not keep any as none were real bruisers.Think the fishing would have been better if I could have found my favorite bait. Fished only tidewater, saw three other fisherman,only fished the mainstem Nehalem from the bank.Haven't noticed a lack of fish in fact seems like more and far better(native) not planted stock. At least we can keep the ones that swallow the hook to deep. Sorry did not mean to offend anyone, just a fishing report with my daughter. Guess I should keep to myself.

shorthair · 05-26-2009, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockthief

pls be mindful that SRC have been depleted for many years. Why the ODFW has allowed some fish to be kept is beyond any common sense. Please reconsider keeping and eating the fish. Do you remember 20+ years ago when SRC were common? They are threatened now. Keep that in mind if you will.

You said it right when you mentioned common sense but why did you expect the regs to make good sense. The one nice thing we can all do is NOT keep fish we believe are threatened & just maybe if enough of us do this on our own we can make this run come back.

Bearden · 05-27-2009, 05:08 AM

Thanks for the report GreenEyes, and don't worry this is still IFish, not IRelease!

Bearden

Green Eyes · 05-27-2009, 09:49 AM

Thanks Bearden, after starting only a couple of threads on ifish, the negative responses make me wonder? I have always followed the rules, turned in a few poachers, and try to keep my girls and their friends involved in the outdoors. Isn't this better than what a lot of kids these days do?Have not had the girls post or read much of ifish due to the in fighting between fisherman, hunters,etc. I find it hard to believe SRC's are that bad off, since they quit stocking them the number and quality of fish in the north coast rivers I fish has improved dramatically. And as a family we release way more fish than we keep, trying to focus on hatchery or plentiful stocks.If ODFW says we can keep 2, then us keeping one each that was bleeding or otherwise mortally wounded is not going to threaten the stock any more than if those half dead fish were released to dye in the river.

Kokanee Slow · 05-27-2009, 08:18 PM

thanks for the report. good luck fishin'