I saw a special on Discovery I think about the decline in seals. They were blaming much of the loss on the loss of herring stocks. The did a study feeding captive seals on herring and another group on some kind of cod fish. The herring fed animals grew much faster and larger. Can't remember everything but the herring stocks around the world are in the same trouble as most of the fish stocks. Alot of herring spawning habitat is now sushi wrappers.

Interesting point on the Coho. I believe selectivity on zooplanton is greater in the sound than the Coho's migratory route in the ocean (zooplanton:baitfish) leaving migatory fish which turn to baitfish earlier than our resident coho.

Are you saying that we should not bonk barely legal blackmouth if we would like to catch more larger fish???

...and, myself, was told not to bonk barely legal....ummm...or was that boink???

I'm not so sure that the 24" rule would be a good thing. In November there are so many small ones, you're probably releasing 10 or more shakers for every legal fish. I'm sure the mortality rate varies from angler to angler, but raising the legal limit would lead to more release of shakers and more fish incidentally killed by going for the one you can put on your barbque.

The 24" minimum would meet a lot of resistance.. The first year would be a bit tough to catch a keeper but, subsequent years would actual improve overall catch ratio of legal fish (3 year old fish).

I feel the shaker to keeper ratio would be nearly the same to slightly higher and I imagine mortality rate is in the neighborhood of 8%-12%. Given these numbers, there would still be a substancial amount of keepers...

I am not PRO-24 MIN... but it does deserve a look again.

Now, if we could genetically produce a 5-8 year old BM !!!!

I have fished the North sound for close to thirty years and the blackmouth were very abundant until about eight years ago. They also used to be large on average than what they're today. I believe the decrease in numbers can be directly attributed to a several factors: 1) The number of seals and sea lions has increased twenty fold in the last 6 to 8 years; 2) The increase in the number of anglers fishing for them. Ten to fifteen years ago the number of people fishing for winter blackmouth was probably one/fifth what it is today. I saw this increase start after the Boldt decision and the ensuing decrease in other sound chinook fishing in the summer and fall. I also think this pressure is why the fish are smaller as they are fished much harder; 3) The numbers of blackmouth raised in pens and released is way below what it was ten years ago. The bummer to all of this is that we have paid an enhancement fee for years to raise more blackmouth for harvest in the sound. However, the bulk of these fish still aren't being clipped and thus the numbers raised and released get caught up in the federal regs regarding Puget Sound wild stocks. I'm not totally sure about all the political crap involved but I do know that the funds were paying aren't all being used to raise and release more blackmouth. There's nothing I love more than a cold winter morning on the Sound catching nice fat tasty blackmouth.

It is very seldom that a 22" fish is kept on my boat. 26"+ is when the net comes out. It would be wishful thinking to believe that there would be an increase in larger fish if the limit were raised. When the fish start getting that size they are just about right for the mesh size being used for coho, chum and steelhead. I agree with you hoghunter the enhancement program is a waste of time and money untill we can get the nets out of the sound.