New Rule Proposal: Calawah River. Fishing from floating devices is not allowed February 1 through November 30 in the Calawah River from the Highway 101 Bridge to its headwaters. Floating devices may be used for transportation in the area.
Why the change is needed: This is the most important spawning area for mid and late winter run wild steelhead in the Calawah River (McMillan et.al. 2007). Early run wild steelhead rest and slowly pass though this area during the early winter months or stage for a month or more before beginning to spawn sometime in late February with high levels of spawning in early-to-mid-March. Boats can access every possible resting, holding and spawning lie in the entire river, while bank anglers have less access to challenging lies. Wild steelhead are caught-and-released (CnR) in large numbers, often while in their spawning phase. Repeated and high levels of CnR can negatively influence behavior, reproduction, and survival of many fish species, including steelhead. This regulation will continue to allow ample sport fishing opportunity from the bank, including the accessing of bank-fishing opportunities by boat. The rule will also establish a partial reserve for resting and holding steelhead. This proposal will provide
Names of individuals or groups with whom you have discussed this change: Wild Steelhead Coalition, Federation of Fly Fishers Steelhead Committee, The Conservation Angler.
Describe their support and/or concerns:
Support similar or identical proposal
Submitted by: GAYESKI (WILD FISH CONSERVANCY, NICK J — DUVALL, WA
Date submitted: 06/14/2012
WDFW Rule Proposal Recommendation
Not Recommended for further consideration Reference ID: DFW804620
Updated 09/27/2012 UPDATED: The "no fishing from a floating device" regulation to reduce negative effects of catch and release fisheries on wild steelhead is typically not a tool used to address conservation objectives. Currently wild steelhead are meeting escapement in this river. Limiting harvest of wild steelhead to one per year per angler statewide, to be taken only in the lower stretches of rivers that are routinely meeting escapement goals, has reduced the non-treaty harvest of wild steelhead in these rivers by roughly 70 percent. Upper reaches of the north coastal streams under both State and Olympic National Park jurisdiction require selective gear and some are closed during much of the year, further limiting impacts of catch and release fishing. WDFW welcomes discussion of this and other ideas to better manage the wild steelhead stocks of the North Coast, as escapements, and catch and effort trends continue to develop in the future.
Online Public Comments(1 comments)
HOPPLER, WES C January 29, 2013 SEATTLE, WA Comments: Oppose this proposal and others like it for the Hoh, Sol Duc, and Bogachiel.
If there are specific case of vulnerable fish and conservation issues, close the area and protect the fish. Identifying a problem area and then proposing that an angler group should be allowed to target vulnerable fish is really sad.
Eliminate non-resident guides before enacting further restrictions on resident anglers.
Crawling in and out of boats in the Calawah river in the winter is a poor idea.
Bank angling does not necessarily mean quality experience to some of us.
