Dang Gillnets

[Abalone]

What's going on with the Nets ?
Aren't they done yet ? How many fish have they killed ?

I haven't seen an update for awhile and was just wondering.

The CR opens tomorrow above I-5 so is anyone going fishing ?

[Abalone]

I don't know about now but in the 80's and before, Illegal gill nets where a real problem.

There is a lot of river out there with not many patrols to cover the whole river. Think about how much water there is between Porltand and Astoria. Lots of back water to set a net illegally.
They do have an impact. The State police aquired the side Scan sonar to find the nets but I wonder how much they are using them ? They catch the fish at night and use Sea Planes to haul the fish out of the area. Anyone see anything suspicous going on should make a call.

They Gillnetters put them under boat houses and under other structure that is hard to detect.

I wonder how much impact they are having these days ?

In the past they have even found them in the Willamette near Oregon City.

[SalmonSeason]

They have taken illegal nets from the Columbia MC,Willamette, and Molalla rivers and I'm sure I'm missing others just FYI

There's illegal activity all the time somewhere

[Conspiracy Theory]

Pete,
Got a couple of things maybe you can clear up.

First - it says 9" nets. Does the nine inches refer to diameter of opening or circumference or ???. When we watched the netters Thursday by Stella the nets didn't appear to be 9" nets. The diameter of the opening looked like about 4" or 5". We were watching the netters through binoculars.

Second - It says soak time of 45 minutes from first time net meets water to last mesh part leaves water. They were waiting until 45 mins. to start retrieving nets. Not have net in boat by 45 minutes.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

Thanks

[Pete]

Columbia River Compact
Joint State Action Notice

March 15, 2004

THE FOLLOWING COLUMBIA RIVER SEASONS WERE SET:

2004 COMMERCIAL DEMONSTRATION SALMON FISHERY

DATES: 3 PM Monday March 15 to 6AM Tuesday March 16, 2004 (15 hrs)
AREA: Mouth to Kelley Point, (Zone 1-4)
SANCTUARIES: Grays River, Gnat Creek, Elokomin -B, Abernathy Creek, Cowlitz River, Kalama-B, and Lewis-B.
GEAR: Net length not to exceed 150 fathoms.
9" minimum and 9 ¾ " maximum mesh sizes
ALLOWABLE SALES: Adipose fin-clipped chinook salmon and sturgeon. A maximum of 3 sturgeon may be possessed or sold by each participating vessel per day
PARTICIPANTS: Commercial River commercial fishers with appropriate licenses and legal gear that attended state-sponsored workshop concerning live captive commercial fishing techniques and possess a certificate that allows participation in the fishery.
MISCELLANEOUS RULES: Soak times, defined as time elapsed from when first mesh enters the water to when last mesh leaves the water, must not exceed 45 minutes.
Red corks are required at 25-fathom intervals and red corks must be in contrast to the corks used in the remainder of the net.

Use of recovery boxes will be required on all lethargic or bleeding salmonids.

Each participant will be required to have 2 operable recovery boxes or one box with two chambers in place to participate in this fishery. Operable recovery boxes will require a flow of 16-20 gallons per minute to the box or each chamber. Each box shall be operating during any time that the net is being retrieved or picked.

Lighted buoys required on each end of nets being fished between sunset and sunrise. Optional use of a steelhead excluder panel hung between the cork line and the tangle net mesh. Excluder panel must be a minimum of 5' in depth and not exceed 10' in depth with a 12" minimum mesh size restriction in effect. Use of weedlines or droppers, used in smelt bobber nets, are allowed in place of a steelhead excluder panel. Weedlines or droppers must extend a minimum of 5' above the tangle net mesh. Net length can increase from 150 to 175 fathoms for nets constructed with a steelhead excluder panel, weedline, or droppers.

Quick Reporting Rule in effect for Washington wholesale dealers, WAC 220-69-240.

[Lured In]

Abalone...i didn't see you post, but just posted last weeks results on another thread. Total was 1300+ kept last week.

Pete, don't you love the way they are sticking to the Tuesday/Thursday dates for the nets? :whazzup: With the one starting today, the nets will have effectively fished each of the days of the week except for sat/sun. [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

[ 03-15-2004, 12:24 PM: Message edited by: Lured In ]

[Joe Schwab]

CT, 9" mesh nets are measured corner to corner on the openings of the net. In other words a diagonal measurement while the net is under 10 pounds of vertical tension. So yes theoretically a nine inch net opening will measure 4 1/2 inches on a side.

If it was a nine inch square nothing would stay in it.

[bugs]

Does anyone know how many fish they can take before they are done.Count was just under 2,000 this morning.

[Lured In]

Bugs there are 3 metrics used to keep the fishery open. The first two are the ESA impacts on wild upriver chinook and steelhead. The third is the commercial allocation of Willamette hatchery fish which is about 15,000. (There is also a ESA impact guideline on wild Willmette basin fish, but it is 15% and likely would not be reached).

Based on the current impact percentages, prior to yesterday/today's results, they were at 8% impact on wild chinook and 10% impact on steelhead. So at the current impact rates they would come close to 20,000 fish kept.

These are still relatively low percentages, and while that means they get to fish more still, it also means the fishery is being managed better than in the past. Another important note is that the vast majority of the catch is of lower river stock so far. This also aids in keeping the impact percentage down. As the run picks up, the netters impact will increase more rapidly as more upriver fish are handled.

Keep in mind that the ESA impacts are based on run size. If the run size is adjusted (up or down) the impacts will be adjusted as well.

So to answer your question. There is still a long way to go before the nets come out. I do know that the CRC does not want the nets in once April starts to reduce net/sport fishing conflicts. We'll see.

[IFISH4U]

Hey, thats very smart of them to sneak in the sturgeon like that, wow, they are very smart and sneaky. Bye,Bye sturgeon.