What I don’t understand is, if these decisions to close or severely curtail sport seasons on the Chehalis are based on data that is already known when the rules are published, why does WDFW even give us a glimmer of hope that we’ll get to fish, then shut everything down? It reeks of a bait and switch to me.

See: 2019, rivers are shot to hell until late January with high water, they drop into shape and sports guys start doing well, then the rivers are shut down “due to low preseason forecasts.” What the hell?