Local CCA Chapter

I have committed myself to become the interim president of the Bellingham chapter for the CCA (Coastal Conservation Association). Our fishery needs our help and we can make a difference in our life time. I will be organizing a meeting for all parties interested during the first two weeks of March. With regulations getting tighter and tighter on sportsmen and nothing changing for commercial fishermen, it is time for us to step up and speak as one powerful voice. If you belong to another organization that is helping our fisheries in different ways, that is fantastic. You need to belong to CCA too! CCA has the proven track record to make change happen. This can only be done with the strength of numbers and the strength of political change.

Gary Loomis raised the hairs on the back of my neck in his speech Friday night. It's not about fixing the small problems, it's about going after all of them, one at a time and starting with the biggest. He put it this way: if a man is dying of cancer, has a broken arm and is lying at the bottom of the pool, what problem do you fix first? Do you try and treat the cancer? No, you get him the hell out of the pool. So, if the salmon and steelhead stocks are being depleted beyond repair, do we go out and plant a bunch of trees along a small salmon stream and hope that the fish will return? No, we go after the reason they are not returning and that is harvest. Harvest numbers are sickening. Am I against the commercial fishing industry, absolutely not! But if these amazing anadromous fish have survived over-harvest for 140 years and there still are some left, don't you think if we at least cut down on the non-selective commercial harvest salmon and steelhead might make a comeback? This is what CCA is going after first and I am jumping on board!

It is time for some of us to stop going fishing (which it looks like we will have to do locally in March and April) and give back to the fisheries that we love. All of you who are doubting CCA need to take a closer look and realize that we must unify and that CCA has the strength to make it happen.

Keep posted on this blog for more information. If you sign up, please be patient because it takes a little while to get your materials. In the mean time, send me your info so we can get organized to make things happen on our rivers and streams and the Puget Sound.

Coastal Conservation Association talk in Mt. Vernon

COME HEAR GARY LOOMIS TALK ABOUT THE DECLINE OF STEELHEAD AND SALMON IN
WASHINGTON AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
FIND out about the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). An
informational meeting on what CCA means to the flyfishing community will
be held on January 18th at 7pm
at the Mt. Vernon P.U.D. building, 1415 Freeway Drive Mount Vernon WA
For more information visit http://www.ccapnw.org

Skagit and Sauk River may close for Catch & Release Season

It has been a sad week for those who look forward every year to the catch and release season on the Sauk and Skagit rivers in Skagit County. While all of Washingtons other Puget Sound rivers close we have taken refuge in peaceful thoughts of the beautiful Sauk and its amazing wild steelhead. The closure is said to be eminent but there has been no direct posting from WDFW. If you care to read about discussions on this topic please visit Washington Fly Fishing and/or Piscatorial Pursuits on the web and search the forums for threads on this closure.

Below is the latest on closures in the Skagit basin. If this information interests you, you can sign up to receive bulletins from WDFW.

Cascade River fishery closes Jan. 17
due to low hatchery steelhead return

OLYMPIA - Low steelhead returns to the Marblemount Hatchery have prompted the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to close a portion of the Cascade River to recreational fishing beginning Jan. 17.

The Cascade will be closed until further notice from the mouth upstream to Rockport-Cascade Road to ensure enough steelhead make it back to the hatchery to meet spawning goals, said Bob Leland, WDFW's steelhead program manager.

"Both hatchery and wild steelhead returns to the Skagit River basin are down this year," said Leland. "This closure will help the Marblemount Hatchery meet its broodstock needs, but additional fishing closures in the basin also are likely this spring to protect wild steelhead."

Catch-and-release fisheries in the Skagit and Sauk rivers are among those fisheries that could close, Leland said.

WDFW will continue to monitor returns of wild steelhead, which are listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, to determine when emergency closures could take effect, said Leland.

North Fork Nooksack Re-opens!

WDFW FISHING RULE CHANGE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov

January 14, 2008

North Fork Nooksack River re-opens to fishing

Action: The section of the North Fork of the Nooksack River previously closed will re-open to fishing for all game fish.

Effective dates: Effective immediately.

Species affected: All gamefish.

Location: The North Fork Nooksack River from the yellow post located at the upstream most corner of the hatchery grounds, approximately 1,000 feet upstream of the mouth of Kendall Creek, downstream to the Mosquito Lake Road Bridge.

Reasons for action: The Kendall Creek Hatchery has met broodstock needs from returning hatchery winter steelhead to meet basin production goals.

Other information: Please see the Sport fishing Rules 2007/2008 pamphlet edition, FISHING IN WASHINGTON, for a complete listing of fishing seasons and regulations.

Information Contact: Brett Barkdull, 360-466-4345 x 270, barkdbcb@dfw.wa.gov .

Hatchery fish: To bonk or not to bonk!

Wild North Fork Hen

That is the question. This discussion can get pretty heated for some people. If you catch a hatchery fish are you going to kill it? I have to say that for me it usually feels better to release a fish. I have kept hatchery fish and I suppose I will do it at some point again on the right healthy river. The Nooksack is obviously having some hatchery issues, thus the closure on the North Fork. New regulations have put the fate of hatcheries in their own fish. For example, the Kendall Creek hatchery can no longer supplement its egg take with eggs from other river basins as it has done for so many years. If people bonk all the hatchery fish the next few years there may not be any more hatchery fish to kill.

What they are hoping to see happen is to have some good genetic traits start to build in the hatchery population. Such genetic traits would increase survival rates of hatchery fish in the Nooksack as they develop and evolve to the environment of the Nooksack Basin. The most successful hatcheries in Washington have been doing this for some time. Don't you want more fish in the Nooksack? I do.

But what about the wild fish? Do we know the negative effect that hatchery fish have on wild fish? Is the wild strain still pure? Would the river be better off without a hatchery? Would the river be closed to steelhead fishing if there weren't a hatchery? These are all questions to think about and discuss. How many wild fish are finding there way into nets and coolers?

The North Fork closure may continue for the next four years if it is successful this season. This is probably a good thing. But I ask everyone, if sport fishing loses a section of river because there aren't enough hatchery returns, why is subsistence gill netting open 6 days a week? I have spoken with the netters and they are definitely getting steelhead.

Has anyone heard of egg boxes that are used in Alaska? Apparently they are extremely successful. I do not know much about them but I plan on doing some research. Recently, my friend signed me up for CCA, Coastal Conservation Association. I have been out on the Nooksack a lot this year and I think our river needs help. It's going to boil down to a major change for everyone or nothing is going to change for our fishery. CCA has joined the fight for Pacific Northwest Salmon and Steelhead. This a powerful, strong and active organization that is coming here to get things done. So if you want to see change, join CCA. I am not saying that our local organizations aren't doing anything, I am just saying that the problem we have here is bigger than any of them can handle on their own. There are so many issues with our fisheries that need to be re-assessed, re-evaluated and simply re-done. CCA can get us there. Please check it out!