For what it's worth, I probably won't be participating in the lower river king thing either. Haven't done since the early 90's, when I used to fish the chum thing in Whatcom creek also....Just hate combat fishing anywhere/uglyness anywhere, even in a salmon choked stream in AK. However, I've never witnessed 100's of kings flood into a "ditch" on a flood tide anywhere south of the border, except the Samish. The drainage has some of the best juvenile habitat around(fish bio's feel free to chime in), and is some of the most diverse water in our neck of the woods. I'd personally be fine if WDFW closed the whole lower river(to I-5) during the migrations, and make the upper catch and release for 4 years and see what happens. Every dead fish in the river feeds the whole system, and since it's just a "ditch"....would be a good candidate for this. There are still native fish in that river, and I'd love to see them survive/flourish..The number of redds on my "family's" property has diminished exponentially in the last few years, and I feel that this is one of the few gem's left in our area to focus on for the future.....I'm fully aware that most of the fish are hatchery, but in area 7, fin is ok, and if I caught a fin toting king in the bay(samish), then I'd have a quandry about keeping it, as it's probably one of the few that's headed home. Why WDFW allow's keeping native's is beyond me....Maybe a fish bio could inform me why this is allowed..