Not allowing us to fish in December-January (at least in the tribs, where the tiny chance of encountering an upper Chehalis wild steelhead drops to near zero, and when coho are on track to meet escapement) is a head-scratcher. If I remember right, just a few years ago, the justification for shutting us down early was concern for wild, late coho. Early, wild steelhead have not been anything close to abundant for decades, yet they were never part of the conversation while there were lower coho returns to point to.

Curious. Not necessarily nefarious, but certainly curious.