In honor of John, I will post a very Campbell-esque 2023 review for Grays Harbor chinook 2023.

"In 2023, The Quinault Indian Nation conducted a fall gillnet fishery harvesting a total of 348 fall Chinook in two separately scheduled areas: the first in the lower Chehalis River and adjacent areas of Grays Harbor, Areas 2D, 2A, and 2A-1, and the second in the lower Humptulips River and adjacent Area 2C of Grays Harbor. The combined Grays Harbor Chinook catch of 348 was lower than the expected catch of 3,306 (10.5 percent of the expected catch).

In 2023, the non-Indian gillnet fishery harvested a total of 9 fall Chinook with an estimate of 7 non-harvest mortalities in two separately scheduled areas: The Humptulips 2C and the Chehalis River 2A and 2D areas. Although non-Indian gillnet fisheries were scheduled in Humptulips commercial Area 2C to fish a 36-hour fishery during week 43 and a 12-hour fishery in week 44, no participation occurred in 2023. It is estimated that 7 unmarked Chinook mortalities occurred during this fishery based on data collected during on-board monitoring, catch accounting, and when applying 31 percent mortality rate with tangle nets and 56 percent mortality rate using 6-inch maximum mesh gill nets of encountered unmarked Chinook."

Moreover my own personal stats showed only 7 kings caught in 13 days of fishing. On a decent year, it's not unusual to catch that many in ONE tide.

Bottom line, it was an EXTREMELY poor year for Grays Harbor chinook, and I suspect it was reflected in the spawner surveys that produce the escapement and forecast numbers going into NOF.