Received this yesterday (7-28-08) from Rollie Schmitten:
SOCKEYE UPDATE: As of yesterday (7/28) 19,148 sockeye have passed
Tumwater
Dam. The count per day appears to be dropping. Based on the 10 year
average
run timing about 85% of the current run have passed Tumwater Dam. Expanding
the 19,148 for a 85% run timing calculates to a total run size of 22,527
fish, and not enough to open a fishery. Recall, 23,000 are needed for
spawning,
and another 2-4,000 are needed for harvest. However, this years run appears
to be late, given the high water flows in the Wenatchee River. Therefore,
there remains some slight hope that with a late timed run we may still have
enough fish to open. The decision makers are waiting until the end of
the week
to watch the run counts and make the decision. I have cautioned all along
that it will be very close but it is hard not to be optimistic. Rollie
Schmitten Source: WDFWL
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
So, they are saying there are signs of the count slowing huh?!?! Well, that just goes to prove my earlier point!! The people in charge of the fish counting at Tumwater dam are not counting all the fish!! As of 7/28/2008 the difference between Rock Island Dam and Rocky Reach Dam is still holding strong at 32,830!!! Now, folks running the show have said they only need a 23,000 fish escapement and anything above that would be the harvest quota! If the numbers were true it would give us a nearly 10,000 fish quota!! Lets face the fact that the many departments that have there hands in this believe that we are all a bunch of idiots that would never catch on to what they are doing! Those 32,830 fish that have not went over Rocky Reach Dam have no other place to go besides Lake Wenatchee! I guess they don’t think that anyone will really pay attention to the numbers! Even if they do end up opening the season you will see that they don’t give us a quota near what the run is! This is so they can get the money out of people then cut the fishery short. In the last two Sockeye seasons on Lake Wenatchee, there have not been near 10,000 fish caught! I believe in 2004 there were aprox. 7,000 fish harvested in a month long season! So, you watch, we might get a 2,000 to 3,000 fish quota…just long enough to get us through the first weekend and part of a week! That way they will get there money to waste from the westsiders that didn’t get a fishery this year!!
Also, why are we even raising Sockeye salmon for the Lake Wenatchee system??? Is it to feed the Bull Trout population that is endangered everywhere else in the state yet over run in our system??? Or is it to feed the thousands of Squawfish that sit under the net pens waiting of an easy meal!! This lake is filled with salmon destroying populations of fish that the game department is not managing! Maybe this is just to waste money that could be used somewhere else!! Another point to this waste is the Coho salmon run that the Wenatchee river system returned last year! These Coho are all hatchery raised fish that our tax dollars go to raise. Last year there were 12,414 Coho salmon returning to the Wenatchee river system….Why was there no fishery for these fish?!?! Guess the department didn’t realize anyone was watching the counts!
Maybe it is time to show the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that we the public are watching them! And just maybe they need to realize that we the taxpayers are the ones that are paying there checks!!
300mag your DEAD ON. WDFW is a joke that only serves themselves. Between the State and the Fed’s they have closed every fishery in the Valley beside put and take Fish Lake. I grew up fishing the White and Napeequa as well as the Lake in the old Telma and Cougar Inn days. My property is at Tall Timber and we get strong Sockeye returns in Sept, you can watch the Bull Trout and Whitefish stage in pool and eat the eggs just laid in the riffles. The fisheries management is a complete joke.
Another good reason to have someone in the know explain how the counting is done at Tumwater and why it is or isn’t subject to the error suggested by the discrepancy between the dam counts on the Columbia and at Tumwater.
Has anyone ever heard of a catch and release fishing derby???
There was an article in the Wenatchee World tonight that makes things sound more promising. Basically we were at 20,000 fish through 7/29, and the daily rate was around 900-1000 fish per day. Factoring in a general decline to 800, then 600, then 400 fish per day, I think we’re going to get there. WDFW may not be perfect, but they want to see a season happen if there are enough fish.
The people at the dam check EVERY fish that comes thru. They take 15 fish at a time take DNA samples and count them each then release them. They work 7 am til sometimes 11 at night counting. Yes 50,000 sockeye are moving this way, but there are quite a few swimming around below Dryden . Dont be so hard on WDFW. Take a drive up to the dam and see for yourselves.
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