Ministry of the Enviroment personnel that I chatted with last week informed me that the run size in the Dean was an improvement over the last few years. Made reference to improved ocean conditions as a mitigaiting factor, however I nailed him down on what was taking place on the Kimsquit chum scene(interception fishery). It appears as though all the Sieners and most of the Gillnetters are up at Prince Rupert Hammering away on the enhanced red run headed up Nass Skeena. Talk about getting a little bad news with the good EH.
Sounds like pinks were spotty in SE Alaska so the south end siene and gillnet boys didn't have as much access as they have the last 10 or so years. So all in all there might be a few fish this fall trickling into some isolated locations where the firewood is dry.

I thought they had a six year moritorium on the heavy Skeena watershed netting to protect the coho stocks that were depleted by the netters targeting sockeye ... was this just a rumor?

Not unless the Ministry of the enviroment personel were lying the words were straight from the horses mouth He did not say how much time the netters were getting and the period he was refering to was the sockeye run and fairly early on in that run. As you are aware the DFO has a different motive than the MOE and agreements on the management of the Skeena seem to always get modified the first time three extra sockeye show up for the enhanced Babine projects. This has always had a detrimental effect on every run of fish including the indegenious sockeyes Just another really good example of why we should never try to increase run size above the natural ability of the rivers production are own Sol Duc may be an example of this time will tell and the lesson will be one of the last to learn.