A day of superlatives!

Blue sky, barely a hint of a breeze and warm enough to go barefoot!  How is that for a late October morning in Forks!

The Sol Duc looks amazing.  Crystal clear but the low angle of the sun makes the river look jet black.

The boat ramps are untracked since the high water two weeks ago, and you don’t have to wait long to see a chrome silver roll.

Awesome!

Last weeks meeting on limited entry, fishing closures, welfare reform, and I don’t know, oral hygiene? Brings to mind other superlatives.

Frankly it couldn’t have been more fucked up if it had been crashed by zombie strippers.

I feel bad for Larry Phillips, the new WDFW region 6 manager. Trial by fire for the new guy.  He stuck to his guns though.  The Quillayute tribe told him they had taken 280% of their allowable harvest on kings, leaving the run below escapment, he doesn’t have much option besides closure at this point.

I think had he had more time to familiarize himself with the situation on the Hoh he would have realized a king closure was essential there also.

Assuming we get fall kings there again I am sure he will be on it.

As for the limited entry, well hell, everyone agreed the fish were taking a beating, there were way too many guides, the quality of the fishery was being impacted by over crowding, but only a few seemed to have the balls to suggest we do anything about it.

There in there right now, will it open the 4th? Or the 6th?

Otherwise the evening was an entertaining mix of gentlemen who wanted more hatchery fish, bigger hatchery fish, and some one else to pay for them.

Ahhhhhhhh, good times.

But seriously, there were several folks that drove a long way to say insightful things and honestly seemed to have the long term interests of the fishery in mind.  And thats great.

The last word is this…

These fisheries are super expensive to manage.  WDFW is out of money.  To make steelhead and salmon management work on the north coast we need

1. Two full time enforcement officers.

2.Penalties that actually deter poachers

3.Year round creeling and river monitoring, with an on sight biologist supervising.

If those of us who make our livelihoods from this fishery can not find a way to step up and pay more of these bills, who will?

We kinda need to figure that out soon.

Fishing will open back up in early November, it should be pretty awesome for silvers. I will post open dates soon.

Jim Kerr

Rain Coast Guide

Forks Wa

 

 

Posted in Salmon Fishing | Tagged , | 6 Comments

6 Responses to A day of superlatives!

  1. Joe missel says:

    Thank you for the up-date Jim and being in support of our sports fishery.

  2. Jason says:

    I would think that Seattle has plenty of money for more officers since the minimum wage is $15 right? I mean there must be so much money there because of the Socialists.

    • raincoastguides says:

      Hey Jason,
      I’m super not sure I understand your comment at all, but Cool, if they have a ton of extra dough tell them to give it to wdfw, enforcment.

  3. Joel says:

    280%!?! Wow.

  4. Paul says:

    Ideas and not in order:

    Limit the amount of guides. Similar to Montana
    Simpler rules that are enforceable
    Lower catch limits
    If the goal is to preserve salmon, then closures have to be earlier…do them so they work…not after the fact
    On site biologist working with guides…good idea Jim
    Have river docents that can offer suggestions and provide as a go between WDFW, Native communities and sports Fisher people
    The OP is a treasure of the lower 48. Don’t take it for granted.

Leave a Reply to Joe missel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *