FNB I always step back to look at things. How is the Satsop Sept fishing different than salmon fishing the bays South channel odds are you are C&R Chinook as Coho mostly do the North channel. Jack fishing in non jack water with good eggs ? Some jacks yes but mostly adults hooked and jack fishing is an artform that takes skill to be really good. Everyone is a rabid conservationist as long as the other guy takes the hit.

Years back many of the local community worked with the agency on the Satsop thing. At that time the mouth of Decker Ck was the problem and our thoughts? Satsop nursery bridge down open Sept 15 which gets rid of the problem mostly and the rest of the river by flows. Rain early flows up open early no rain wait until the vast majority of the Chinook pass then game on. WDFW has never liked freshwater salmon fisheries because they are difficult. Old game Bob Paulsen and others were avid fisherman and managed things differently hatchery and wild. With the joining of WDF & WDG everything changed and not for the best. Our managers now are not the same. Take thier laptop computers away they are lost, mostly.

Does not make them bad managers but simply number crunchers. Tom Pentt told me years ago WDFW could not set a solid flexible receation freshwater fishery. Now that has not changed! The other thing is people and the freshwater fishers are a very diverse group and very cutthroat about alocation! Bay will screw over upper basin , mainstem fishers will put it to trib fishers and let us not forget the banky vs boat or jet boats vs drift boats. Freshwater fishers are the most dog eat dog bunch as to allocation. I think WDFW just gave up some years back as older staff left the newer staff just lacked the ability to sort through it all.

If you look at opening dates and when the water is fishable and fish are available in numbers on average the from the bay up but at different times the different basin areas have about a 6 week fall salmon season. Simple easy to design and manage keeps enforcement from running around with thier hair on fire makes staffs life much easier.