Partial And Complete Closure Of Chinook Fishing On The West Coast

[Danoinark]

The Trout Underground Blog:

http://troutunderground.com/2008/03/14/mor...ure-or-oh-crap/

[jdmidwest]

The west coast fishery from Calif to Wash has been bad for years. This will probably put more pressure on the Alaska fish as commercial fisherman move north. I know some of the areas in Alaska had poor runs of silvers last season. Kings have been off too.

[watermen]

jdmidwest,

Problems on west coast have more to do with dams and lowered genetic survivability of hathery fish. 90% of west coast run now consists of hatchery fish. After realizing what dams did to anadromous fish runs the states put in hatcheries below the ddams and spawning streams. Columbia had record run of wild chinooks 3 years ago,Post dam runs!!! The concern with the Klamath,, Smith, and other northern california systems has more to due with water flow from irrigation interests and aluminum industry located in the area. Sport fishing as well as commercial fishing has been shut down due to concern over certain rivers. Sport fishing harvest exceeds commercial on the west coast by 200%. The commercial fishermen can't move to Alaska, this would require a permit which have been fixed in number since 1972. As far as the silvers go last year was poor after several very good years. The cycle of the lakes and rivers that nuture wild fish require that smolt production drop in order for plankton regeneration to occur. These are wild fish with natural constraints placed on them other than when some guy walks by with a can of food to throw at them. Alaska has no dams and no agriculture,however we are having mine problems right now in two areas and I guarantee that in the end the fish and the fishermen will lose.