Yet again, WDFW, the people you and I hire with our state
tax and license fee dollars, decided to throw sport fishing under the bus for
largely imaginary salmon conservation benefits.
See here:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/02067/2019-20agreement.pdf
Looks like no summer fishing season for SRC and summer steelhead NF Stillaguamish. The mainstem, SF Stillaguamish below Granite Falls, and all large tributaries are also closed. The legitimate conservation concern is impacts to wild (and hatchery) Chinook, which remain depressed (but are encountered in marine fisheries in far larger numbers than would ever be handled in the summer flyfishing season). Impacts to Stillaguamish Chinook are already minimal with flyfishing only, single barbless hooks, and no bait requirements. It should also be noted that Stillaguamish Chinook are threatened with extinction independent of any and all fishing in WA waters. The stock would likely already be extinct but for the intervention by the Stillagauamish Tribe maintaining it through their hatchery efforts over the last 30 to 40 years. And with the Oso landslide five years ago, the resulting sediment release has made it impossible for the habitat to produce one recruit (adult Chinook) per spawner, meaning that without the hatchery intervention the run would disappear.
Fishing, and especially the SRC and summer steelhead fishing on the Stillaguamish is not now, nor ever has been, the problem with this Chinook population. We fly fishers don't target Chinook, and the number incidentally hooked while sport fishing pales in comparison to the number poached each year by snaggers, spear guns, and dynamite (all of which I witnessed in years gone by). Stillaguamish Chinook are in a world of hurt, but closing sport fishing makes no difference to the future of this salmon population. The only reasonable recourse to saving Stillaguamish Chinook is the continued effort to culture these fish at the Stillaguamish Tribal hatchery in hopes that the watershed may one day recover to the point that the Chinook can successfully reproduce in the natural habitat.
With flyfishing only regs, weight is not permitted to be added to the line, and in the past hook size limits were put in place as an additional way to discourage targeting Chinook. If the catch of Chinook was in fact limiting the agency's ability to operate the fishery, even more restrictive regulations could be put in place, requiring the use of floating lines, etc., and by doing so, virtually eliminate angler encounters with chinook entirely. Of course, use of gear restrictions to prevent catch of Chinook in the fishery would only be "effective" if the actual goals of management were to simultaneously conserve Chinook as well as preserve the sport fishing seasons for gamefish. As it stands, a fishery with essentially no impacts to Chinook is being indefensibly sacrificed under false pretenses. If you care about this continued assault on recreational gamefish fisheries statewide, contact WDFW leadership in Olympia to let them know how you feel about their failure to advocate for our recreational angling that has no measurable impact to Chinook. These are the people who sell us out:
craig.burley@dfw.wa.gov Fish Management Division Leader (360) 902-2784
ron.warren@dfw.wa.gov Assistant Director (Fish Program lead) (360) 902-2799
jennifer.whitney@dfw.wa.gov, District 13 fish biologist, (425) 775-1311 (ext. 107)
See here:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/02067/2019-20agreement.pdf
Looks like no summer fishing season for SRC and summer steelhead NF Stillaguamish. The mainstem, SF Stillaguamish below Granite Falls, and all large tributaries are also closed. The legitimate conservation concern is impacts to wild (and hatchery) Chinook, which remain depressed (but are encountered in marine fisheries in far larger numbers than would ever be handled in the summer flyfishing season). Impacts to Stillaguamish Chinook are already minimal with flyfishing only, single barbless hooks, and no bait requirements. It should also be noted that Stillaguamish Chinook are threatened with extinction independent of any and all fishing in WA waters. The stock would likely already be extinct but for the intervention by the Stillagauamish Tribe maintaining it through their hatchery efforts over the last 30 to 40 years. And with the Oso landslide five years ago, the resulting sediment release has made it impossible for the habitat to produce one recruit (adult Chinook) per spawner, meaning that without the hatchery intervention the run would disappear.
Fishing, and especially the SRC and summer steelhead fishing on the Stillaguamish is not now, nor ever has been, the problem with this Chinook population. We fly fishers don't target Chinook, and the number incidentally hooked while sport fishing pales in comparison to the number poached each year by snaggers, spear guns, and dynamite (all of which I witnessed in years gone by). Stillaguamish Chinook are in a world of hurt, but closing sport fishing makes no difference to the future of this salmon population. The only reasonable recourse to saving Stillaguamish Chinook is the continued effort to culture these fish at the Stillaguamish Tribal hatchery in hopes that the watershed may one day recover to the point that the Chinook can successfully reproduce in the natural habitat.
With flyfishing only regs, weight is not permitted to be added to the line, and in the past hook size limits were put in place as an additional way to discourage targeting Chinook. If the catch of Chinook was in fact limiting the agency's ability to operate the fishery, even more restrictive regulations could be put in place, requiring the use of floating lines, etc., and by doing so, virtually eliminate angler encounters with chinook entirely. Of course, use of gear restrictions to prevent catch of Chinook in the fishery would only be "effective" if the actual goals of management were to simultaneously conserve Chinook as well as preserve the sport fishing seasons for gamefish. As it stands, a fishery with essentially no impacts to Chinook is being indefensibly sacrificed under false pretenses. If you care about this continued assault on recreational gamefish fisheries statewide, contact WDFW leadership in Olympia to let them know how you feel about their failure to advocate for our recreational angling that has no measurable impact to Chinook. These are the people who sell us out:
craig.burley@dfw.wa.gov Fish Management Division Leader (360) 902-2784
ron.warren@dfw.wa.gov Assistant Director (Fish Program lead) (360) 902-2799
jennifer.whitney@dfw.wa.gov, District 13 fish biologist, (425) 775-1311 (ext. 107)
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