I don't understand the round of closures slated for March 1st? Why not ammend the regs to single, barbless, C&R only before completely closing the fisheries? I have fished the Puyallup system for a long time and know, like everybody else, that fresh rain brings fresh fish. If we get lucky enough to get rain, fish will enter the river through Mar-Apr. If we don't get rain, things will stay real slow. Either way, if the state goes barbless, C&R, I don't see the downside, execpt for the possiblity of losing a few fish due to poor handling. I steelhead for the love of the hook-up and the great pictures to pass down to my family. Haven't kept a fish in a long time. Why close the whole thing?
Old timers: explain if I am off-base here.

Heavy, I don't know where you've been but a lot of the rivers that are closing March 1 have been selective fishery catch and release, C&R only (no barbs, no trebles, no dead nates). The reason the rivers are closing is simply because the state has rectal cranial inversion and believes that we are not going to meet spawning escapement on the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit systems, etc., etc.

February has been really good considering the fish have been scooting in even with low, low, low water. Makes me wonder if we might be lucky enough to have an emergency opener just like we did on the Snohomish kojos. Doubtful, but I'll see ya at the zoo on the coast next weekend Peace