I was wondering the same thing. The WDFW webpage says "quota reached' for both MA 9 and MA 10, but is that accurate, or was it just 'season ended' in MA 10? WDFW reported only half of the quota caught a week prior to the end of the season and I didn't see very many fish being caught in the last week around Jeff Head/Shilshole. I would have preferred an extended MA 10 season over a 2 fish increase in the last week.

Relatedly, if you've ever seen the historical Ballard lock fish counts for Chinook, it's pretty clear that the tribes do a fantastic job of closing down the Chinook season in MA 10 a couple weeks (or earlier if quota met) before the Lake Washington Chinook return to the locks in healthy numbers. Would be nice to see an increased emphasis on carving out effective seasons (as opposed to just 'opportunity') in MA 10 in the coming years. 'Opportunity' is good for tackle stores and boat sellers. Effective seasons are good for families.

"Effective season" setting is the reasoning behind the 10 increase in limit, and then closure, rather than just extending the season. They are worried about incidental encounters with the "imperiled" coho stock....



... what remains to be seen is what our actual coho escapement numbers will look like.

The issue at the heart of this matter is that within the List of Agreed fisheries, MA10 was scheduled to close on that date, regardless of the recreational anglers ability to meet the quota. This year, the MA10 Quota was left on 8/15 at 76% with 1064 of 1395 fish caught.

Thanks for the numbers Sky-Guy. Probably have only myself to blame as I have never seriously considered trying to participate in the NOF process. That said, I think MA-10 gets treated like an after-thought relative to MA-9, and that's not right as the run timing is different. One can only hope that in future years when Coho numbers are back up and we don't have encounter issues, we could stretch the MA-10 hatchery Chinook season by 2 - 4 weeks to provide for better fishing. If necessary, I'd support MA-10 starting a couple weeks after MA-9, if the hatchery Chinook season in MA-10 could then stretch through Labor Day.

Not sure of the actual coho encounter risk but it surely was a factor in setting Chinook seasons. But note that MA 11 will close early -Friday midnight - based upon adult Chinook encounters (as I understand it). Guess everyone wanting to fish "locally" should make the run to south Hood Canal.