Twilight for Forks Steelhead
Friday, March 30, 2012 at 12:01AM 
Any angler who has recently spent time in the Forks vicinity has seen first hand the dramatic increase in angling pressure on the Peninsula's hallowed steelhead waters. Closures to all the major Puget Sound watersheds due to diminishing wild steelhead returns, combined with media and social network (including this site) pimping of 20 pound chrome, is driving OP angling pressure to heights never seen before. Something is going to have to be done to relieve the hammering these fish are seeing day in and day out. No fishing from the boat would be a good place to start along with eliminating forever the ability to retain wild steelhead.
As Northwest Sportsmen points out in this piece, the trend is not good for anybody, including the fish. The piece also features the perspective of longtime Olympic Peninsula steelheader Dick Wentworth and a reference to a lively discussion surrounding the topic on the Steelhead Nation radio show which I've embedded below, definitely worth a listen.
Reader Comments (19)
How does calling out Drake Magazine differ from you guys posting the slab of the month entries? Both look like pimping to me and I would say you're equally as guilty in all this.
We were over there last weekend, and had a serious discussion about how long it would last... I hadn't seen this yet, but just confirms our fears for the future.
While I like this site, I think Moldy Chum has to go no further then look in the mirror as far as "pimping" the OP.
"combined with media and social network pimping of 20 pound chrome, is driving OP angling pressure to heights never seen before"
Woody
Tightening up guide licenses would also be a good move. Seems like there's more and more dudes coming west during their off season to make a buck and whore out the OP
Slab of the Month...
Wild steelhead are the cool new thing to pimp out and once the OP sucks, no one will give a fuck!
Agree with Adam--Moldy Chum has been as guilty as any media outlet, though I do appreciate the addition of conservation articles like this one.
Beware of the feel-good, political correctness of C&R.
I remember when the average angler used to be fairly well versed in this topic. That was in the 90s, before the internet fishing phenom, before steelhead was the only fish worth chasing, when you had to actually go out and fish to learn. You had to pay your dues and by paying dues learned the reality.
Now people are steelhead fly anglers in a matter of minutes and have little knowledge of the sensitivity of these fisheries and the actual history which are very important to understanding anything let alone your own impacts or what needs to get done to save these fish. As I have stated, the grip and grin culture is not because more people are catch and releasing, it is because of the internet and magazines and industry learned it is getting them sales and attention. This is all putting the fish last. All these new impacts for a fish that was on the ropes for the last 30 years.
If you put the fish first, you will never do half the shit guys who are supposed steelhead veterans do. I am not talking about quitting your steelhead fishing. I am talking about not glamorizing guides who make a living putting people on these fish (it is for $$$$ period) and people who post excessive pic fests on the net. The kind of stuff that makes young bucks actually want to be a steelhead fishing guide. These people are putting themselves first and not the fish.
Real steelhead veterans could give a fuck about pictures and steelhead catching numbers. They simply want to go fishing and are terrified at all the fisheries they lost and thus carefully deal with what is left. This carefulness includes not participating in the grin and grin steelhead "legend" culture which hardly existed before the internet and steelhead became so fabulous. Real steelhead fishermen just want to fish with their friends and maybe hook one. Almost all the steelhead fishermen I met in the mid 90s would have fit this description. Now they are most like trophy hunters weather or not they are killing their fish. A grip and grin is essentially a trophy by the way. They stoke their egos by fishing.
Could say more but am tired........
The ship is sinking! Too few barriers to entry for guides. Archaic harvest of wild fish that are numbered in thousands! Indian netting. It's hard to pick which problem is the biggest. It's not the stupid Spey guys fishing the wrong water and measuring success by having a nice time and throwing a good loop. People used to measure success by numbers of fish caught! The new darling of the fly fishing industry is going to be a short lived phenomenon I'm afraid. Have fun swinging flies for carp, they are the fish of our future.
Just spent a week up there. First trip to the Peninsula. Was constantly fished above, in front of and behind at every stop. Never touched a fish but witnessed more then one taken right in front of me with eggs and other hardware. Saw the retention of wild fish. It's a sad attitude and lack of repect. Probably will not venture back any time soon.
management decisions don't happen on blogs or facebook... if these are your rivers and your fish take some ownership and make your voice heard in agency meetings and public comment periods.
I think the majority of us who look at this blog are all for doing away with the retention of our wild fish. I watched several shiny chromers get bonked last weekend on the lower stretch of a well known OP river, and as many times as I've seen it... it will always make me shake my head.
The suggestion of going to a bank-only fishery seems nothing shy of insane. I'm all for swinging flies and the whole spey-pride movement, I'm a swinging addict myself. However, the drastic increase in pressure this year really seems most noticeable when it comes to this type of angler. The only confrontations I've had while working day in and day out on the OP streams have been with bank anglers as well.
With all due respect for anyone's opinion, that is a pretty bold statement to make. If we went to a "no fishing from the boat" game... there would be nowhere to fish!
I think the Spey pride movement will wane soon. It is a lot of fun but it is hard to believe people will continue to go to the least effective method at catching steelhead, an already rare fish. The fly fishing industry has been pimping Spey and steelhead hard. It is going to end soon. It was a gold rush for them and there are truly only a certain number of people who give a shit about it or I should say have potential to give a shit.
What I am more worried about is all the sports fishermen period. It isn't just an increase in fly swingers. It is an increase in roe fishermen et cetera. Steelhead are getting extra attention and clout and this is boosted by their increasing rarity. Kind of like all the seafood that went from plentiful "garbage" to choice table fair as it was fished to oblivion.
I know I mostly come here to bitch but as for as constructive criticism. I agree with others that the better management of guide licenses would be an easy start to addressing some of this.
I live in Michigan, so I'm not familiar with those waters, but are there sections that are closed during spawning? That might give the wild steel a shot. I know on a few rivers in MI there are sections closed in the fall to allow salmon (introduced as they are) to spawn. That river too is 100% sustained by natural production of salmon (DNR stopped stocking it years ago and it gets one of the more prolific runs in MI).
I realize that might increase pressure in that it will close off parts of the river, but returns might improve.
It's too bad that this is the state of the fishery. I've wanted to fish out West, but not sure it sounds that enjoyable. Plus, you west coasters would look down on all of us Midwest steelheaders :)
How many fish do people really need to catch to have a good day? TIghter restrictions are needed before its all GONE.
Nate- crowds will adjust in time. Many people will vanish immediately. All the gapers who plop down the wad of cash to get you to row their bobber into a steelheads mouth will suddenly have no reason to even wader up. Hell you might not even have a job. Or any of the dozens of other guides who have no business on the OP but to make a buck and row laps. But when the dust settles the guides with jobs will be same ones who earned it by putting years and years on the river. The real deal. And there are plenty of them fly and gear who are staples on these rivers and will adapt to rule changes as they adapt everytime parkline shuffles.
Think about this: let's say for the sake of easy math there are 25 guides on the OP (fly and gear combined doesn't matter). Let's say each guide on a given day hooks and plays 5 steelhead. Thats extremely low ballin since I rarely see a guide with less than 2 anglers and while some days you might only find a couple fish there are many many 10 plus and even some 20 plus fish days out there. 25 x 5 is 125.... 125 x 30 days in a month is 3750. To err even further on the side of the guide i will call the season Feb to April (2.5 months). Hot Damn that's almost 10,000 steelhead sore mouthed. That's just guided anglers.
The funny thing about guiding which the world is discovering is that you don't even have to be a steelheader. You can come straight from guiding freestone trout streams, cut off the pats stone and lightning bug, apply the yarnie toss into the trout lies and catch steelhead and with the guidance of a seasoned sensei be an effective force on the river. The angler doesn't have to know the first thing about anything to be catching these amazing fish when the guide is in tune.
And that's becoming the problem. I'm just a weekend warrior. I fish steelhead around the state including my own back yard 12 months of the year. I work 40-90 hours per week, fish every available weekend think about steelhead 24 hours a day. But it seems like my weekend excursions to the coast, a mere 3 your drive from my doorstep is being overrun with trout guys with out of state plates.
I know everyone including the guides loves and cares for these fish. I KNOW they do, but you gotta ask yourself.... When you are on the river everyday, armed with the knowledge and the tactics catching fish after fish, are YOU part of the problem??
How many of those 10,000 guide hookups were fish hooked multiple times? How many died? How many successfully spawned? How many times do you think you released a fish at G and L, another guide released it at minnies, and another guide released it at parkline?
I have nothing against guides in general I find them to be great people but in the last few years I've watched the boom happen and its gotten crazy. It IS making an impact in the fish and its making an impact on all the other everyday Joes like me who just wanna fish. After the end of the season these guys are packing the rig and heading back to wherever they came from. This is my home!
Rant over. My beers gettin warm. See you on the river!
WOW, I always hear a lot of bitching about how everyone else is ruining the river or the fish. I got news for every single one of you assholes, if you’re on the river trying to catch one of these fish, your also part of the problem! I never understood why people spend countless waking hours perusing what seems to be a genuinely threated animal and then turn around and bitch when they see other people doing the same thing... If you all had the respect for these creatures you say you do, why would you even try and catch them, why not just let them be?
WTF- I think you need to spend some time with me and my brother Jonas so we can show you what steelhead fishing is all about. I'll see if my cousin Romulus can get us some pinners and whiskey. You wear fish net stalkings and you catch trouser trout.
WTF - You are clearly an idealist. Based on your logic, you can't complain about anything on earth unless you have given up driving a hydrocarbon fueled car and aren't human. Every one of us is a "part" of the "problem" using your logic. Which is true to an extent.
There are few problems with clear cut actions needed to solve them. This is why they can't be solved and this is why they haven't been solved.
The future of wild steelhead isn't a clear cut thing. I guarantee if we ended all sports fishing right now on all steelhead rivers that they would not rebound. There are much larger slices of the "problem" pie. Giving up sports fishing for these fish does not make it okay to bitch as you seem to imply.
In fact, some of the biggest raving near lunatic fringe environmentalists I know literally do what you say. They give up their real world experience and love and get introverted and bitter by avoiding that which makes them happy. It is not a good way to go. Only an idealist would do such a thing......
I realize there are many issues beyond the reach of any angler. And beyond the grasp of anyone sitting behind their computer screen who doesn't spend enough time on the OP rivers to have a clue what's going on. Crowding for the most part has been a non issue for me personally this season. It's been another high water year which spreads people out. There are many rivers and floats and I do my best to pick water away from the hordes. It's when the rivers drop low enough that the quillayute system is a trickle that everyone gangs up on the lower hoh and you really witness a true clusterfuck (like the link describes). However, water conditions aside, this doesn't change the fact that gear and fly guides have grown exponentially in number and they are extremely effective fish catching machines with a waiting list of noobs ready to get on the river. I see where its going (what some ellensburg outfits have done to the klickitat river) and I'm not afraid to put my neck out because I believe it could be to the benefit of the fish, which is a benefit for everybody. If you don't think C+R mortality at the current scale is an issue I think you are blatantly wrong. There are zero studies and zero data to show how successfully steelhead spawn after being released (once, twice or half a dozen times). They say 10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish. What happens when that 10% is on the river in fleets every single day of the season? We don't know! That's what worries me.
I consider the OP my backyard (and if you live here you should too), just as residents of BC feel the skeena is theirs and fight to protect it. Why not limit guides to being WA residents? Why not classify the OP rivers just as the fabled skeena system has been classified? Is the hoh, queets, quillayute etc not worthy? Does it deserve to be pummeled until its broken for the financial gain of the minority? Right now it is a free for all, and I think there are some actions that can help restore some sort of order before its too late. And buy us all time while we try to heal some of the other wounds....