Fish Projections Icy At Best

We are all hunkered down right now, waiting out the ice and snow accumulation that is keeping us off the roads. On Friday I was hopeful the weather would be manageable and I could pursue some fish on the local haunt. It was not to be. I am at home with the family (equally enjoyable most days!) throwing snowballs at the dog.

A parallel storyline is playing out in SW Washington. The most recent fish projection for the spring runs on the Cowlitz, Lewis, & Kalama falls well short of our hopes. Every year I have hope that the counts will surpass the previous year, and seemingly every year we are delivered coal in our stocking. Now this is not to say that projections meet actual, or the science is always wrong, etc. It is only the observation that we look to science to give us a concrete, definitive answer that in no way can be definitive or concrete. We will anxiously await this declaration of uncertainty and then either a. complain about fisheries science and global climate change, or b. revel in a 2 fish day that wasn't supposed to happen. Or, the reality of these reports is that they can destroy our expectations if they force a closure of the fishery.

Here's the damage report:

http://www.columbian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081217/SPORTS

The conclusion here is that rarely do results meet expectations. Being snowed in kept me from fishing this weekend, but a report on fishery health can either heighten, or exterminate, any expectation.





http://www.columbian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081217/SPORTS