SPORTS ANGLERS SCORED quite a few victories at last weekend’s state Fish and Wildlife Commission meetings in Olympia.
First and foremost for many North Olympic Peninsula residents, of course, was the salvaging of Lake Sutherland as a freshwater fishery . . . albeit for only part of the year (instead of continuing to be a year-round lake it will be open, beginning this fall, from the last Saturday in April to Oct. 31).
A couple of other actions regarding Puget Sound crab and Marine Area 4B (western Strait of Juan De Fuca) bottomfishing turned out well as well.
To recap:
• The commission approved new regulations for the 2011 recreational crab season that will expand sport fishing opportunities across much of the Peninsula.
Reflecting a new policy adopted last October, the new regulations will allow crabbers to fish for Dungeness crab five days a week with a five-crab daily limit.
That means the fishery will open Thursdays through Mondays from July through Labor Day in Area 6 (eastern Strait), 9 (Admiralty Inlet) and 12 (Hood Canal).
As in years past, winter crab fishing opportunities will vary depending on the number of crab still available for harvest after summer catch numbers are tallied.
Obviously, since the crab fishery opened just four days a week in recent years, this is a step forward for crabbers.
• The Area 4B bottomfish fishery was spared once again after commissioners voted to make other conservation measures to protect threatened Puget Sound rockfish.
Proposals to close parts or all of Area 4B to sport fishing were denied in favor of reducing the daily limit from 15 to 10 and closing several commercial fisheries in the area.
Other alternatives could have resulted in the closure of all fishing or bottomfishing in popular waters around Tatoosh and Waadah islands.
Outside of maintaining the status quo — a non-starter because of the state of Puget Sound rockfish — the change in daily limit was the best possible outcome for the sport fishing community.
Sutherland stocking?
A surprising note coming out of last weekend’s meeting was the state’s commitment to continue stocking Lake Sutherland with rainbow trout.
The five-year fishing moratorium on the Elwha River watershed approved by the commission is being done to aid stocks of native anadromous fish — salmon and steelhead — before and during dam removal.
Sutherland was to be included in the long-term closure because of its connection to Elwha via Indian Creek and its potential as a sockeye salmon breeding ground.
Thus, even if the state agreed to open Sutherland seasonally — which it did Friday by making it an Opening Day lake — one would think any stocking activities would end.
That’s not likely to be the case, however, according to Fish and Wildlife Regional Fish Program Manager Ron Warren.
“What we don’t want to do is release rainbow trout that if they leave the lake could pose some risk to the recolonization of natural steelhead that are going to return [to the Elwha],” Warren said.
“We may modify the type of rainbow trout we release that would be more of a sterile, non-reproductive rainbow [like triploids] so that if it does leave the lake it doesn’t impede recovery of those steelhead populations.”
There are other arguments that could be made for terminating the stocking plan at Sutherland outside of hurting natural fish reproduction (e.g. competition for food).
It just doesn’t sound like that will stop the state from continuing to stock the lake.
More Sutherland
Perhaps the greatest fear for Sutherland anglers during the public comment period regarding its possible closure was how the state would determine when it would resume sport fishing post-moratorium.
That’s with good reason.
The state has yet to set any sort of concrete numbers for reopening the watershed to fishing once the dams are removed, nor did it do so at Friday’s commission meeting.
Removal of the dams in September and is supposed to be completed by September 2014.
Asked when the Elwha and its tributaries might reopen, Warren wasn’t able to provide any specifics Friday afternoon.
“We haven’t had the discussion of what numbers trigger a fishery back on or keep it off. We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Warren said.
“We’ll continue to monitor the Elwha.
“When we see environmental conditions that allow successful spawning to occur and see those abundant numbers return or numbers that return to what we believe could handle some sort of pressure [the river could reopen].”
Sounds pretty vague.
Just the sort of thing that might have led to Sutherland closing for an extended period of time.
Ask fans of Crocker and Crescent lakes how that worked out for them.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
