I'm becoming very impressed with the Rolled Muddler. They were a reasonably
good match for the smaller of the two groups of baitfish we found, and
probably were as close as anything I've found to the small sculpins that
were mixed in with the 'fry' we found so abundantly near shore (though
probably should have been tied a bit larger). Overall it's just a very
'fishy' looking fly in the water, and I suspect imitates a wide range of the
natural foods commonly found in the littoral zones throughout Puget Sound.
I see great potential for them on the north Puget Sound beaches (like Kayak
Point) over the next couple of months when the cutts move down, since many
of these beaches are crawling with sculpins, blennies, and other smallish
bottom-huggers that are common forage for the cutts and salmon in these
regions.
Regarding the rationale for closing the majority of the inland waters this
time of year, while I had a general understanding that the closures are to
protect the severely depleted wild chinook stocks, I emailed the WDFW to be
sure I had it straight. I received a very complete and to the point
response - just hours later - from Rich Lincoln, a spokesperson with the
North of Falcon group (an interagency group that sets the salmon seasons).
Rich more or less confirmed my understanding of the matter, and elaborated
on it considerably. With Rich's permission, I'm reprinting his response to
my question (which actually dealt more generally with rationales for setting
all of the seasons and suggesting that the WDFW make an effort to
publicize - at least in summary form - the reason for these closures):
>>>>>>>>>
From: NorthofFalcon [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Season Rationales Explained?
Wes,
You have made an excellent point and request and we do plan to post the
rationales for the various regulation strategies that are reflected in the
2001 plan - hopefully by the end of the month. There is a fair amount of
complexity here that deserves the simplest and clearest explanation
possible. It is awfully difficult for folks to comment on seasons unless we
provide some basic information - this was a bit of a concern we had when we
put up the North of Falcon page, especially when realizing we didn't have
the time to package up this kind of information in during North of Falcon.
We have also received a variety of input from folks this year and we'd like
to provide some insight on how we incorporated this input, or in cases where
we didn't or couldn't, why not.
But to give you a taste of a more detailed summary, the biggest driver for
Puget Sound is, of course, Puget Sound chinook listed under ESA as
threatened. We have maximum allowable impact levels established with the
National Marine Fisheries Service that provide the overall limit to our
fisheries. These listed stocks are virtually mixed in small proportions
with hatchery chinook throughout the year and areas in Puget Sound, based on
analyses of coded-wire tag data. A significant portion of the allowable
mortality occurs through hooking mortality in late summer and fall coho
fisheries when chinook release is required. This limits how much blackmouth
opportunity we can provide during the balance of the year. Besides some
stock differences that do occur between different areas, we have also tried
to provide a balance of opportunity across areas. The reason that there is
more blackmouth opportunity in Areas 11 and 13 does generally reflect some
lower impacts per chinook caught in these areas compared to other areas.
The current months chosen for closures reflect past input we've received
from advisors and fishers about preferred fishing times, recignizing that we
need to limit the overall impacts as a bottom line. This is an ongoing
shaping process when you consider the diversity of angler interest mixed
with the requirement to meet our basic conservation needs.
Please check back on the web site around early May and we'll try to provide
some more detailed insights.
Thanks for your excellent suggestion,
Sincerely,
Rich Lincoln
Intergovernmental Policy
WDFW
<<<<<<<<<
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ross 149 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, April 09, 2001 7:13 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: South Sound
>
>
> Good to here that those rolled muddlers actually catch fish. Just out of
> curiosity what is the reasoning behind the coho closure?
> Ross
>
>
> >From: Sean Ransom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Subject: South Sound
> >Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 10:12:03 -0700
> >
> >Decided to give the Narrows one last shot before the coho season closed.
> >Headed down with Wes around 10am and did not even see a fish at the
> >Narrows. Decided to head to Purdy where the action was slow until the
> >tide came up. A nice rip formed about 100 ft out and a school of coho
> >starting working just out of casting range. Both Wes and I had numerous
> >hits and I finally hooked up with a nice 15-16 inch coho on a rolled
> >muddler. Overall a good time and just enough action to make things fun.
> >By far it was the best showing of coho I have seen in the last month .
> >Unfortunately most of them were out of casting range.
> >
> >We also saw a ton of salmon smolts in the water which could point to why
> >the fish we there in the first place.
> >
> >
> >-sean
> >
> >
> >
>
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