FWIW - The Chinook which WDFW provided to the net pen rearing project at Pt. Defiance from Minter Creek were a couple weeks late in arriving because they were much smaller than the fish provided by the Puyallup Tribe out of the Puyallup River. That size differential was attributed to colder water temps at Minter. Maybe. Or maybe not as much feed.

My point is that if your fish were from the same or similar sources several years ago they could have been so small that either the people or the machines couldn't do a proper job on clipping them.