Extended Fall Salmon Season on the Columbia River

What's going on out there everybody welcome to another addicted fishing podcast. It's been a while. It's been fall salmon season It's been absolute freakin balls to the wall. So it's first time. I'm even getting in here to get a podcast done And I got my two buddies with me got mr. Nick Taylor full tilt outdoors and mr. James Moore from the more experience Yeah, Moore's guided fishing adventures, whatever. It's more fishing. There's no adventure. Whatever just more fishing It's the more experience. We want we want we want to experience more Well, okay roll it we're rolling with it anyways good times on the Columbia River because you know, September 15th was the last day that we had and We just had the you know, there was compact meeting today and and you know, fortunately for us We all thought that we were going back into the Columbia River on October 1st for the wild coho season That is not the case that was not the case No, they had a meeting today and they popped open the Columbia River for should look starting on the 26th and 27th for any Chinook and While they're at it, they dazzled in a little wild coho action and so I hold a little sprinkled. I'm excited Yeah, so basically I thought I was like, you know, it's so fun today I got the bass boat out went up to the lake caught a few just kind of you know Woke up late chilled did some organizing thought I was gonna have a few days off to go Maybe chase some of them upper Willie coho. No, I said it. No river names. No river names We can we always talk about the Columbia the Willamette. So shut up James check in before you come Yeah, I guess I do have to sign the permissions you do. Okay, or do I get one of these permission slips? I'll be sure to get one of those to you. Are you one? It's an open invitation. It's an open invitation, but I'll get him something But you should it's definitely not good fishing up there. All I can say not good. Don't come. Yep But anyways, I thought there's gonna be a pretty chill week, but now Saturday we got to get back at it Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Pretty cool that they opened it up a lot of angst out there we're gonna that's what we're gonna kind of talk about a little bit in this podcast a little bit of like some of the dynamics that go into the salmon management, but a little angst and Understandably so in some regards and some There's also a very large degree of just complete bedwetting out there But we're gonna talk a little bit about that But the cool thing is is that it's not just for Saturday and Sunday for Chinook But actually instead of opening on Thursday, October 1st, they're just gonna keep wild coho open starting Monday And so pretty much it's the start of roll through. I mean, you know, we can't keep Chinook after the weekend It'll still be fun. But you know, what's crazy to think is it'll be open. We can potentially have 18 dead fish on the deck 21 of you know, you know your math your math ain't your math ain't math enough. It's still only two adult is only two Still only two adults so don't listen to so if you go with more fishing apparently you get a break the law and I'm just What about Jack's? Well, what so what was that? That was the Tennis still the three three of which I thought they I thought they rolled it over and it still has to be an island up It's two salmon of which one can be any Chinook, isn't it down at the coast? You still have to be hatchery coho or the hatchery coho only at the coast. Thank you for telling me the regs Yeah, I just figured you know, you're a guide and everything Yeah, it's really cool, you know this year, you know, the whole wild coho thing was kind of a new new thing No, not not since not since I Mean a long time ago But not I mean, I'll just say not in the last 25 years So like let's just say that and that's crazy It is open for wild coho above the Hood River Bridge always because a lot of the tribes upper click attack area You know, they had they get a lot of you know, unclipped code They do a lot of hatchery coho, but they don't clip them And and they're late returning fish and they get a lot of them So there has been areas that you can retain wild coho also like in the northern Washington area You know, they have some wild seasons in the Oregon Coast, but for Columbia River No, that's the first time they've brought that that wild coho boundary this load It's because a lot of the tribal hatcheries have been really pumping them out and they're kind of inundating in the cat They're inundating the catch and there's a lot of them to kill what it what what makes them decide on Opening it up for so wild kill I think it's just an overall numbers thing And I think they also have a realization that a lot of those fish are hatchery fish There's a percentage of them that are going to be true Inborn wild gravel fish. It's kind of like the upper limit. That's the same thing. Yeah Yeah, once there's a little bit of an abundance we can have some take there not to mention to the commercial fisheries are chipping away At them and stuff like that, too So there's there's a little bit of like if there's fish to be had it's gonna get split up and there will there'll be a sport quota for that But yeah, it is pretty cool I know there's a lot of people excited about it, especially because October's our B run and those late fish are generally big dogs They're big dogs are larger They tend to kind of move in from the ocean. I think pretty quick It seems like when we're fishing there at the you know down that long view right near area I'll just say cuz I don't really care. Come join us. Let's go My my give a my give a rip leap meter is like gone today. So yeah I'll be on Saturday last year was the last day Nick and I are out there was October 30th And we still have limit I was there crow and Jane. Oh more was there and we saw the limits of chrome bright Yeah, how many should not did we release? I think I released five that yeah to like kill our coho It was not and you know what? I'm also gonna say it, too I have it under pretty good authority that we could see some additional Chinook time after this week and kind of all depends So on how many we catch and what gets caught in the commercial and if the dam count plummets off like it's always a very Very dynamic a lot of variables going into the like what they decide and some numbers oriented, but yeah well, yeah, yeah, it's also what shows up because a lot of these seasons even before They start going over the dams and we get counts They're all all our seasons and all our basically our quotas are based on a forecast And so like we we do the first half of the season basically fishing off of imaginary numbers and imaginary Forecasted numbers will call them and then until those fish actually show themselves at Bonneville Dam and they're counted The pit tags are registered and the coated wire tags show up in the catch Then they become real like paper fish like these are ones we've actually say actually are accountable Yeah, they're accountable and then they make fine-tune Adjustments. Yeah, so here's the real question up with now. Are you killing all wild coho or you keeping hatchery fish, too? I'm gonna let all the hatchery fish go That's what my plan is It's a hatchery you go back. Yep That's I am Whatever lands kill and it's chrome Except for I did believe it or not. I swear to God last week. I caught a chum at buoy 10 First time I've ever caught one I was a witness anybody who wants to sit there and tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about I only like like Sains chum for fish and wildlife for like five years my life I know the chum looks like and not to mention did it put up a good fight. Do this fish absolutely rolled I Mean it was running it was jumping it ran out to 150 and then when we thought it was done it jumped like four feet Just dog and just dog and so we should be a little bit aware to like if you're going out to Columbia And you catch this big old fish with a real thin jaw and a real big eye and not a spot on the fish Anywhere as in no, no tiger. Let it go. No tiger mark. Yeah, this fish was so chromy You could see where the tiger mark. Yeah, but it was you had to look for him But the key with the chum salmon coming out this weekend or going going into October No spots not a single like chum do not have spots So if you question it let it go if you question it let it go. They won't be clips. That's for sure And they'll probably run you out to about a hundred twenty hundred fifty about every damn time You don't know you'll get them, but those things are gonna be present Though they'll be around but and we catch a handful a year. They're pretty cool fish Yeah, and you know when you hook them cuz they will kick your I'll be doing some coastal stuff to go chum fishing this year In the drift boat or raft. Yeah, right. They don't taste good All I'm saying is I'm gonna go do it cuz I did it last year and it was so much fun Those things fight awesome, and there's some other fish in the river that you can keep so Yeah, nifty. Yeah, and they and they smack the glory to the chums glory. They do to a plug bot on a chum is nuts Yeah, they are. They are. They are mean and aggressive plus. Okay, let's get back to some time Kings and coho So let me ask you this What does the lower river them opening up due to the you know The stuff that's going on in Hanford reach and the big so the big the big Basically I'd love to know your take from it incorrectness slash borderline bedwetting on the Hanford reach It sucks like the bottom line is what's been going on in the Hanford reach has been honestly practically criminal because Obviously a lot of fish are not showing up there. They're you know, we're getting good counts to the river We're getting good counts to Bonneville Dam after that They're gone so Yeah, they're having problems. So and literally yesterday they decided to close. I believe the Hanford reach. Yeah It's hatchery only fish out there hatchery only fish now and there's a couple pieces to that Because of course, you know the east side guys immediately cry foul because Down a little river, you know, they're you know, we can't kill them up here, but we're just gonna kill them all down here and To their point. Yes, some will die down here. That is correct but you have to look at it as From a management standpoint what occurs is like let's just say this. I'm just gonna use some hypothetical numbers here Let's just say Hanford reach only has a quota of a hundred wild Chinook that can be taken out of that fish And this is not these are not numbers. These are not these are just hypotheticals that I'm using for examples if They have a wild Chinook fishery in Hanford reach the first hundred fish that get caught in the Hanford reach that are wild Die and you kill your hundred fish. It's right right on the top day one day one the first half hour If 200 boats go out they kill their hundred fish that it's game on like that's it, right The problem is what these guys don't realize is that when we're fishing in lower Columbia We don't just have Hanford reach fish. We have callous fish Lewis fish Bongo pool brights Bongo pool hatchery. I mean all river all the fish Snake River fish. We have all The fish yeah down here. So those hundred fish are probably present down here in the lower Columbia 100% But we'll just I'm just throwing numbers, but there's also let's say 2,000 of these other fish. So everyone goes fishing and We catch let's say a hundred fish down here The odds of catching those Hanford reach fish is now like five like we'll kill five of them Versus if you have the fishery up there you kill all of them in a matter of minutes The dilution down here is The factor that you can not ignore not to mention too If you have that if you make the fishery up there for those hundred wild fish Yeah You also will put a hundred anglers out there and you will catch the hundred fish and then you're done Like so you get a hundred angler trips if you use those hundred fish down in the lower Columbia now you could have 2,000 anglers go out after those hundred fish and all on maybe only catch five of them You have to understand there's that dilution down here in the in thing not to mention so you get more angler trips and you basically get the bigger bang for the buck because you're not fishing on the concentration of The constrained stock fish is a simple concept not to mention and then throw coho in the mix, right? So you can't look at it as in we're going to catch them off what's occurring above the dam now for those fish and I'm just gonna say it with the netting and With some of the commercial stuff up there That's correct. I mean to me It's borderline criminal and it's very obvious that When we look at dam counts and we see what goes and makes it past us and makes it past Bonneville We see where the fish go missing And yes, I understand that a hundred thousand of those fish are spring creakers and drain Oh fish and stuff like that that aren't gonna go there But it's almost like they're cut by like 70% before they go So it's very obvious where a lot of these fish are going and until they tackle that if they were really concerned but again going back to that dilution they give the also let me let we also still because We still have quota based on What is occurring over Bonneville down here, we're not getting a Additional fish. Nope. And so when they have the season open, they understand like, okay, so many fish have gone over They've made those final adjustments to the run and it's not like it's not like a fishery manager woke up this weekend I went, you know what I woke up today and went, you know, I feel like fishing this weekend I think we're just gonna open And give it a go because I feel like I just want to get the kids out like no, it doesn't work that way No, the truth of the matter is the managers, right? They have to manage inside of These guidelines and the box that Noah and nymphs and all these other all these other fisheries like they can't go outside Of these borders. So we have these meetings and the compact meetings and it's like, oh here we go the all-important No, the managers are only allowed to manage inside this box and if there's fish left over from the sport fishery that we have not caught and They see an opportunity like the numbers are in check like we've caught 98% of them But there's still 2% left and we can have a fishery where we don't kill those last 2% For our lower quota then they open it If they don't they don't and it's funny because to me because like I even saw like some doom and gloom with this meeting That was going to be opened That was that they were having today and I was a little concerned because We do have a wild coho season and even to go wild coho fishing where you don't retain. Did you think they're gonna just close everything? I I kind of thought they could because again if you don't have any Chinook to catch Yeah, you can't even have a coho season because they know inadvertently We will catch a few Chinook and a few will die And so if you have zero if you have a zero tolerance left over in your quota, you don't get that However, the one thing that occurred to me was that okay The timing isn't correct because if they were gonna close the fishery they would have waited another week maybe till like Monday or the following Monday or Tuesday because that week worth of dam counts and that week worth of you know Coded wire tags being recovered from some of the tribal fisheries and like all that like there's still a week's worth of data and in Salmon management land that is a huge. Yeah now so I didn't think so then so then I kind of eliminated the fact that they were going to Close our October wild coho season because they would let things go about another week and really make sure before they did something like that Yeah, and so like I said, so then I was reading about all yell We're gonna have you know, this isn't gonna be that great things are gonna be downward whatever but like but then it's like Chinook season was already closed So they couldn't close it anymore than it already was. I mean by simple logic So we I knew we were gonna get something now whether that something was gonna be an additional Chinook season up here or maybe in A keep in mind. They also have the coho fishery going and maybe they were gonna adjust buoy ten So I was kind of 50-50 on what they were gonna do But the dam counts kind of spiked back up and there was some fish left over and so we got a Chinook season and like You can kind of literally read between the lines on what they're thinking just by the timing of the meeting So With all that said it's all pretty darn like positive and I mean it does suck for those Hanford reach guys Just going back to that, but there's also another piece that Also occurs to us down here that they take an extreme advantage of and that's when it comes to like our summer Chinook in our summer Sockeye seasons because we don't get those. We don't get those down here because they're non-existent stock that they're afraid of Catching too many of When they're present down here run they run, you know 300 miles upriver and then that stock splits off and Then the other stock the hatchery stock goes another way and then it's freaking open season to Chinook limits Yep, you know sockeye whatever down there We don't have to kind of deal with that end of the sword to or that you know So it's kind of like this weird like okay People need to realize that and I mean, I don't like it either like I hate the fact that we don't we have to let You know 45,000 summer Chinook go by and we don't get to touch them But yet they get up there and it's a two hatchery limit in this one area But again, because and they aren't chrome by the time they reach that Well, they'll argue it there But again, so it's just like it's just understand me I understand it So I don't you know bitch about it too much But the other part of it too that kind of drives me crazy is that all these people that are you know? Cry and foul about the east side stuff like that. Come on down. Well a they could come on down But be come on down during a north of Falcon Come on down during the seasons that be active in the meeting everything that's occurring right now Within the management was set back in April like we're not getting a hundred and ten percent of what we were allotted back in April Like that's not occurring. So again, like going on Facebook and bellyaching about it is not gonna do a damn thing It's not wait. My feelings don't matter on your feelings don't matter on Facebook. I Do you think there's something to that though? It's just being more active and if people want to sit there and keyboard warrior it Then how many meetings are you showing up? Right, it's right that's just it like there's a time and place for right like my research that we are getting in the lower Columbia this percentage of quota Percentage of catch was set back in April if the catch if the overall if the overall box grows a little bit Then we get that percentage of catch growth with it It's how it works if they don't understand that it's not the problem and you also have to realize again We're not just gonna catch ham for each fish down here It'll be a very very small percentage with all the other stocks salmon that are can be mixed in I think two of they even didn't give us these two days. There's still a lot of Fruit on the table to go other places Not just a Columbia. They threw us a bone. It's gonna be a fun one. I mean you go southern you go I mean we did some tributary fishing the other day and it was crazy. Yeah Yeah, I mean it is it is tributary season and this is kind of like what to expect in October and honestly like it's Yeah, I mean it is cool that we're getting a couple days I mean the reality is we're getting two days of Chinook and then three extra days a while to go Like that's it. They make it sound like it's we're gonna catch freaking 20,000 extra Chinook down here Probably not gonna just not gonna happen But it'll be nice. It'll be nice to get out there. The rivers been closed for a couple weeks There should be a bunch of fish sitting out there buoy 10, you know was Was red hot for a few days super good down there now. It's kind of picking back up So like there's some and there's opportunities for other fish out there, too Yeah, there's fish in the river. You might have to move a little bit. But yeah, it is what it is. So anyways Yeah, and also that is gonna just mention to you like it's also kind of this This is like almost the exact same setup that we get in the springtime With spring Chinook and every one of those Eastside guys has ran down here and done spring Chinook fishing here and this is literally the exact same situation where You know, they don't let you fish on the Snake River for too many days for wild seal for spring Chinook And that's and but yet they'll will fish 60 days down here because of that dilution, too So it's the same management policies is what's going on then come down and join us, baby That's all I gotta say boots goomba is it is what it is And if I want to go catch summer Chinook, I guess I got a drive that way So hope you guys get out there this weekend Like I said, there should be a bunch of fish around hit any of us up and hit me Nick Taylor James more ups And we'll get you guys Set up because we have to show we got a few days of fishing and yeah Guys got anything else dad Should be fun should be fun should be really come on party. Yeah, so I guys thanks for listening and we'll see on the next one