Willamette Salmon

[DShock]

Bad News;http://www.katu.com/news/15497641.html
Doug

[Eric-WD]

The answer is obvious to me, even the salmon can't stomach Eugene.

(Just kidding)
Eric

[JohnScott]

Doug -

Is that picture of people fishing on the Columbia real ??? Tell me its staged - please !!!

John

Let's hope the Willamette thing is just the low point of a cycle, and not something more telling.

[Chuck S]

Now's a great time for a comparative stat study on the Salmon rivers of Wash and Oregon. My bet is still that the real reason for any salmon declines other than totally blocking dams, or river specific problems such as too polluted can be summed up with this one bit, "The so-called ?bread and butter species? of the sport and commercial fisheries is in serious decline." But first you have to narrow that down a bit and for get about the sport fishing as they buy their licenses and take a few. Until the Commercials are successfully controlled the Salmon are in bad straits. They haven't been controlled yet.

A good stat study would eliminate the many false herrings that the Commercials and their allies keep using to distract the folks who really care. For instance are the runs that head up the Columbia in as much, more or less trouble than their counterparts headed up the Snake. Why or why not?

[ELKHUNTER]

JohnScott that picture is not staged. If you travel the Northern Oregon coast in the fall you will see a scene like that in most of the bays. I have seen them lined up side by side so close together you could almost walk from one side of the river to the other. When you hook a fish you pull your anchor and float downstream away from the other boats to play your fish. I have seen the Rogue River on the Southern Oregon coast about as bad. My Uncle use to call it combat fishing on the Rogue. He finally gave up that kind of fishing after almost getting involved in two fist fights one season there.

Rocky

[DShock]

Doug -

Is that picture of people fishing on the Columbia real ??? Tell me its staged - please !!!

John

Let's hope the Willamette thing is just the low point of a cycle, and not something more telling.

John,
That's a minor example of what it used to be like on the Willamette River! We called them "Hog Lines" and the boats at times would be actually touching each other, in long lines of maybe ten boats. Each boat has a Float that attaches to their anchor rope and when they hook a fish, they throw the Float and drift downstream to land their Salmon, then retreat back to the Hog Line and reattach the anchor rope to their bow. Now the old timers are gone and it is a free for all out on the Willamette. It's a sad, unorganized and sometimes disrespectful fiasco. A lot of those new breed have no experience handling a boat and their only qualifications are that they were dumb enough to pay 35 thousand for a boat that sits in their driveway 11 1/2 months out of the year.
Doug

[JohnScott]

No doubt that if I were a salmon, I'd be headed somewhere else, too.

[Atlantic Man]

Ny's doing just fine with their runs, but is it because of major stocking?

[DShock]

Willamette Salmon= Wild & Hatchery. Wild Salmon & Steelhead must be released.
Doug