Gillnetters... How are they doing?

birdsnest · 02-27-2002, 10:21 AM

I hear the nets have been in the river since Monday

. . Does anyone know
how they are doing? I looked on ODFW site and couldn't find any catch reports.

kingfisher · 02-27-2002, 01:02 PM

Check with Got Fish?
He work with Wash Fish and Game..
He is on that project..

swampy · 02-27-2002, 02:55 PM

What's this done to the sport fishery ? Anyone been out the last few days ??? Thinking of chasing springers on friday ...

Jim · 02-27-2002, 03:34 PM

Just talked with the gal who oversees the "commercial landing" for WDFW on the Columbia. She heard that they didn't do well today...the total catch, (and I am not sure if this is just Washington or both) was 111 clipped fish kept on Monday. Lots of unclipped fish put in the recovery tank and let back to continue their journey. Though this concept has some negative connotations...I sure like the feeling of equality that I have right now with the commercials having to let the unclipped go.

Jim

Joe Schwab · 02-27-2002, 03:58 PM

Went out on a look see trip this morning from Tongue Pt. upriver to Altoona. River was beautiful, no wind, lots of sea lions. Probably 25 gillnet boats working the area. Talked to a couple of them. They weren't catching anything. Also talked to OSP fishery patrol and they confirmed low catch rates. They said some steelhead were being caught but very few Chinook. Went to Hammond and received similar reports. Ran the dog and went home. Willamette looks liek the only show for now. I know it's early but I always get anxious this time of year. They're coming, they're coming!!

dogfishboy · 02-27-2002, 05:02 PM

Scroll down this for the various fisheries. 2002 net dates

dfb :depressed:

dogfishboy · 02-27-2002, 05:04 PM

[ 02-27-2002, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: dogfishboy ]

invader · 02-27-2002, 07:34 PM

damn gillnet boats!!.wheres my torpedoes!!!!!

BUGLEMAN · 02-27-2002, 07:58 PM

Sure the Gillnetters slow down the fishing during the early run. There is a bright side though. That is they will get tired of throwing back those unclipped Fed and Indian hatchery fish. Finally someone who has the ear of those in charge will start to complain / lobby. They didn't care about this issue before - I bet they do now.

Pilar · 02-27-2002, 08:14 PM

Good point Bugleman. Burden them with the same thing the sport fishers deal with. Watch them lobby to change it. How ironic.

Barnyard · 02-27-2002, 08:24 PM

Sure wish they were useing smaller mesh and had shorter set times...Good start though...

Thumper · 02-27-2002, 11:14 PM

How long will they be in?

Kenia · 02-27-2002, 11:22 PM

Nets should follow this schedule:

From 5:00am to 7:00pm on Feb.25,Feb.27,Mar.1, Mar.4,Mar.6,Mar.8

All nets will be tangle tooth to allow release of wild stock.

Kenia

Artwo · 02-27-2002, 11:36 PM

Did anyone from this BB volunteer to be an observer on one of the net boats. I read awhile back that I think it was WDFW and ODFW were looking for people to volunteer to be observers onboard these boats to monitor the release of wid fish. If anybody has volunteered or knows how we can get a report on how the new nets and holding tanks to revive these fish went I would be very interested.

Thanks,
JK

Ramstrong · 02-28-2002, 07:26 AM

Barnyard,
I know it would seem logical that smaller mesh would be better. However in looking over the data from last years experimental fisheries. (Thanks Stacie) The mesh size used is the one that had the lowest mortality. This years fishery is a proof fishery to try and confirm last years test results. I do agree that the set times seem to be longer than what the best data found last year. I hope the spike in mortality from it isn't too great.

I would imagine that if their release mortalities are higher they may reach their designated upriver impact before the reach their quota. With the heavy monitoring this year, I would imagine they'd be kept honest. Now if they reach the impact before the quota their season is done, right?

Fishbulb · 02-28-2002, 07:46 AM

For commercial landings on the web go to ODFW's site then click Columbia River and Ocean fisheries icon, then click action notices. Landing links are at the bottom of the page.

The commercial fishery is targeting Willamette River stock springers (the first spring stock to enter the system). These springers have a very high clip rate of around 80% maybe slightly higher. The commercial fishery will have very little interaction this early with upriver indian and Fed springers to get them on the ad-clipped war path. The mainstem Columbia sport fishery will be dealing with the 40% clip ratio on the upriver fish in late March and April. Unfortunatly that means 6 out of ten fish have to be recovered in all the sporties recovery tanks and most of them will actually be of hatchery origin.

What has this done to the sport fishery? 111 fish now have no chance of being landed in the sport fishery. Of which 10 or so may have actually been biters.

Phish_on · 02-28-2002, 08:33 AM

Anyone know - ? Do commercial license fees provide a proportional amount of support to our hatcheries? If a commercial is allowed to catch (what? ... 50?) 50 times as many fish as I am, does he pay 50 times as much $$$ for his license?

Just curious ... :whazzup:

cosmo · 02-28-2002, 08:35 AM

Two weeks ago I fished the Willamette. First spot we hit--a double--one 23 pound clipped chinook and a 14 pound summer, yes summer steelhead, both mint bright. If the summer steelhead comes in as strong as the winter run, it should be a banner year---but what will a chinook tangle net do to a steelhead? Five or six inch mesh should be just about lethal on the smaller steelhead. I hope they're not taking care of one run at the expense of another.

Another interesting thought. Talked to a biologist at ODFW. One the coast (no nets) re-run steelhead make up roughly 20% of the year's run. In the Columbia tributaries they're just about nil. Above Bonneville, the kelts are killed by dams not designed to transport adult fish downriver, so that explains that area. But below (Sandy, Clack, Lewis, Kalama, Cowlits, etc.) there should be some reruns--but no go. How many kelts die in spring gilnets? They cannot take the stress. And now we have expanded seasons and certainly even higher intercept rates. All you get when you bring it up is a fast backpeddle and a change of subject.
Fact is, there is no way to run a clean net season on the Columbia. Until we accept the fact no real solutions will ever hit the table.

Got Fish? · 02-28-2002, 09:42 AM

Ok I don't know the exact numbers of mortalities but they are very low. All I can say is that on Wednesday we observed about 5 picks from a boat working the middle columbia. The person ended up with 5 nice sized clipped chinook, but also ended up catching roughly almost 20 steelhead, some unclipped, some clipped, some summers, some winters, and one reterner. Most of these fish came onboard and were put in the recovery box that is mandatory on all commercails this season. I was skeptical about how well the live boxes worked but if you put a lathargic fish belly up in one of those boxes, anywhere within 5-15 min. these fish would regain strength and could be realeased into the water. And when the box was opened those fish hit the water and shot streight to the bottom.

Most of the fish that got caught displayed small if not any signs that they incountered a net. The reason why I said most was because ther was one small steelie that got in it deep enough to bring the net passed its gills. This fish needed about one half hour to recover, and after that if you tried to handle it to observe it it would explode in the box. Once again when it was released it knew what was going on and shot right to the bottom.

Now the Chinooks that were caught displayed hardly any markings at all. It was incredable to see a 20+ pound chinook brought in without any damage to its body. The only marks you saw was a couple of rigns around the mouth. The bodies were perfect!

I spend about 150 days on the water a year sportfishing. Im not sure if I like the nets in as much as anyone else, but if they are going to net I would like to see this way done in the future.

If anyone is interested i could type up a copy of the mortality rates from last years study and post it on the BB.

Oh and cosmo the returning steelie that we caught spent some time in the recovery box and retured to the water same as the others. When it was brought into the boat there was no bleeding and it was pretty active. I just hope it dosn't die somwhere else down the line.

Brine · 02-28-2002, 10:17 AM

Fishery will be managed not to exceed a 0.68% impact rate on listed upriver spring chinook or a catch of 9,700 (13% of run)Willamette stock hatchery spring chinook (excluding net-pen releases in Select Areas).
How many $ / pound is a springer worth?
Total run is 75,000?
Total catch 2001 by sportsmen 7000 kept 3400 released.
Catch estimated 2002 9000 - 10000 keepers?( with nets in water)(X 13% without nets)How many $ / does a fish caught by a sportsmen add to the economy?
Who should get the fish?

Got Fish? · 02-28-2002, 10:31 AM

Im going to play devils advocate but the guy we observed yesterday had a great point that I couldn't even argue with.

If the columbia is having a great run of chinook then why should the sport anglers be the only ones to have at it. There are a lot of people that sportfish and a lot of people that don't. The people that don't still pay the taxes and contribute to the success of the run. Granted a lot of fisherman are fortunate enough to spend a day on the river and catch a wonderfully tasty fish. But the people that don't fish (or don't get the chance to) never get a chance at enjoying a spring chinook. The only difference is that the people who fish bought boats and bought gear to chase these salmon. The people who are goign to buy it from stores and fish markets basically paid the commercials to get the salmon in one way or another.

Also I've been told that the commercials right now could easily get over $5 a pound becuase the markets have not flooded. Some people are also predicting that these columbia caught fish are going to beat out Copper River fish. Im not a salmon eater but if i had to eat a salmon it would be a columbia springer!

Barnyard · 02-28-2002, 05:30 PM

If their going to be netting I think we can agree the tooth tangle is the way to go..I wonder if the states are figureing the same mortality as with catch and release, on the revived fish...

Got Fish? · 02-28-2002, 06:48 PM

Absolutly the tangle tooth has got to be the way to go if the netters are going to be in the river. As far as mortality rates they go like this for a hang ratio of 2:1, wich allows less of a loose net. For immediate CHS mortaliters with a 3.5 inch net is 0% as far as the test fishery. With the 4.5 inch net there was a 1.1% immediate CHS mortality rate. With a 5-6 inch net there was a 8% immediate mortality rate. All tests with 75 fathoms of net and no stringers.

As far as catching the fish with a 4.5 inch net hung evenly (2:1) the average was 3.39 fish per hour. with a 5-6 inch net there was a catch rate of 2.70 fish per hour. Im not sure about the exact time in the water but im sure it was the same for all the same mesh sizes.

There are alot of different variables listed here but I think these are the basic ones that give a broad understanding of the success rate for the tangle tooth nets.

Im just looking off this info. This is the first time I've dealt with nets, hang ratios, mortality rate, etc. etc. etc.

Keep in mind the condition of the Chinook getting caught was excellent!!!!!!!

finclipped · 02-28-2002, 11:21 PM

For me it comes down to issue of fairness and access. You can't possibly be suggesting there aren't enough salmon to eat and we must gillnet to make them accessible to the public? Salmon is cheap and the commercial fisherman have complained that prices are too low, but if they can make $5 a pound it turns into public access issue? Why should gillnetters get to set nets and sell fish when sportsanglers can't? Couln't you and I also provide spring salmon to the public: aren't the tribes already doing that?

By promoting sportsangling, at the expense of
commercial fishing, you have not denied anyone access to the resource. Everyone has the right to fish, and tribes will continue to offer springers to the public.

$5 a pound to line the pockets of some gillnetter really doesn't make any sense to me when promoting sportsangling has a much bigger bang for the buck.

We are the largest user group and yet our take is the smallest. We should have full access to a sports season before considering a commercial season. If there is enough for a commercial season, okay..., but if not limit it only to sportsangling.

Another thing is the non-tribal commercial and sports angling fish share comes out of the same bucket. This is after the Ocean commercial fleet has fished for them and after the tribal 50/50 split allocation is made.

cosmo · 02-28-2002, 11:30 PM

In all the meetings I've been to you hear the same story. Gillnetters say they serve the other 80% of people in the Northwest who do not fish but like to eat fish. Funny thing is---the Fish and Wildlife departments defend gilnetters by saying they get so much money for spring chinook------by selling them to the finest restaurants in New York, Chicago, San Francisco---not in the grocery store down the street. Check it out. History does not lie. And while your at it---look at prices on these fish in the present day compared to what they sold for in say '86, '87, '88 and such. Factor in inflation and they sell for much less now than they did then. (and sport fishing continues to get more expensive)
In the end, almost every single sport dollar hits the ground in the Northwest--truly a benefit for those tax dollars supporting the fishery.
And lastly--if not one single commercial salmon was harvested from the Columbia for the next decade, no one in the region would go without salmon. There is simply a market glut out there. Obviously too, there is no glut of quality sport fishing.

Got Fish? · 02-28-2002, 11:46 PM

Keep in mind im speaking for the guy i spoke with yesterday. Its not that he was saying it was a public access issue, but I guarantee that there are a lot more people that like to eat salmon than those that can fish for them.

You are right that everyone has the right to fish but there are those who can't.

I also don't think that he meant that there was not enough salmon to go around and thats why hes there netting them. And yes salmon is cheap when there is an abundance but exept for last year when was there columbia springers available on the open market? This I don't know... I don't buy them.

Believe me I think sportangling helps the economy a lot more than the commercials. What was it last fall, the average cost a person going sportfishing was $23 or something like that? Fill me in if you know.

I would like to see more fish for sportsanglers that is true we have the largest group and not the largest share. You would think that the majority would get the majority but I guess thats not for us to decide.