Smalma,

You're right, of course, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun, or informative, if we agreed about everything...

Some additional responses to your responses

1. What's being proposed is not a CnR season, but an additional WSR season with hatchery retention. I would hope not too many folks would complain about that type of fishery, as that's what we have all summer, and all winter except for a few streams.

2. There are broodstock programs in a couple major Chehalis tribs that result in March/April hatchery fish, and a couple of other hatchery programs, big and small, that also have good returns of late hatchery fish. I wouldn't be surprised to find a 50/50 split of hatchery and wild fish through March, probably leaning to more like 75/25 for natives by mid-April. There will be lots of clipped fish to fish for, catch, and harvest.

3. It's hard to argue with you about various levels of skill, or more to the point, care, involved in properly fighting and releasing steelhead. In the context of current impacts, 10% includes a generous margin of error, and it's not necessarily a bad idea to keep it there.

When we're talking about what is possible with good CnR techniques, and where we'll hopefully get through better education, I'll stick with 3% or 4%

I'll further admit that I don't know how many fish will be encountered, wild or hatchery, during a month long season on those rivers. As usual, it'll be a function of effort, weather, and presence of fish. I guess we'll see.

Fish on...

Todd.