Oh FF I would not beat yourself up that much. The shut down last year was the most poorly managed thing I have seen in R-6 in many years. We had a huge staging of Coho & Chinook in tidewater that took place over 10 days then just in mass moved upstream just prior to the QIN starting to fish. I was given a video of the Coho moving up the East Fork Satsop like a parade that I provided to staff and fishers. The shut down was about Chinook supposedly stopped / stuck and some folks targeting them for C&R. The Chinook were not stuck due to flows but simply moving and stopping moving and stopping like they always do.

Now it is true that this created a greater inriver C&R oportunity than normal but that is acceptable under the rules. The states share of Chehalis Chinook in 2022 was 2313 and total NT impacts were modeled at 616. Now that the fish moving in mass presented well above normal oportunity and was a draw for many anglers is true. All that said using the models mortalities for C&R for all NT Rec fisheries combined would have to encounter and release nearly every Chinook that returned to the Chehalis basin to exceed the states share of Chehalis Chinook with C&R mortalities! That cannot happen period put a fork in it!

Last years shut down was about the complete lack of understanding by WDFW R-6 of how salmon move in the early fall and freshwater Rec fisheries. Then this the bias in WDFW toward freshwater fisheries is always present. AK & BC take nearly half of returning Gray Harbor Chinook in any given year, the QIN tribal harvest impacts vastly exceeds NT impacts Rec & Commercial combined, and R-6 is concerned about conservation? The Rec freshwater fisher that is the villian?

FF you should not beat yourself up as inriver fishers had every right in the world to come unglued! They got screwed over by the continueing bias in WDFW toward freshwater fishers. That simple that ugly!