Most of us have lived through good times and bad times when it comes to fish runs and fishing.

One thing I have noticed with this management strategy of MSY without actually planting adequate fish is that there are not many fish to catch... Many of my favorite fisheries are now bunk,,, Lyre River, Goodman Creek.

Its noticeable that the fish are gone. You no longer smell dead salmon around Hood Canal between October and January, because most of the salmon are now gone. When I was a kid the pinks were on their way to being gone, I remember the Dungenes pinks, Dose and Duckabush pinks when I was little, rivers were chuck full of pinks in the early 80's, now they are mostly gone... Chums lasted till the early 00's and now those big runs are also gone... I remember catching and releasing coho on the Union, Tahuya and Dewato in the early 90's, eggs and no weight, massive runs of coho mostly due to fry releases,, now those fish are gone.

My point is maybe its time to abandon this idea of recovering wild fish at the expense of having enough fish to eat and catch. The fishing was much better when planting lots of salmon, stealhead and trout was a liberal idea.