Boy this is gonna be a HOT topic Rich.
Not many think of the Chinook on the Penn. Personally chinook fishing is one of my favorites! I pass by Silver action all season in search of these monsters. Ill Fish the West coast down following these fish so I can catch them for more than the couple months in the Fall when there in the rivers. And I do a fair amonunt of it on the West end in Sept, Oct and Nov on the rivers. Ill also add that I rarely ever eat the stuff.
Rich is right though, there are not many hatchery runs up there of fall chinook. The nets get a lot and so do the guides and sporties.
One thing that helps is there has been low water the last couple years and it makes tough duty for the fisherman. (Coarse it makes it easy for the nets) It also puts WAY too much stress on the floatable rivers i.e. the Hoh and Queets. Last Sat or Sun there were probably 30 to 40 boats on the lower river and it was low for the Hoh! With no rain Im sure the chrome fish (Chinooks) were scarce on the river last weekend.
Last year I saw a guy at Barlow with a fish that went easy 45, a trophy by all standards! But it was black and squirting! I bet it diddent get eaten. One more day and those genes would have been in the river instead of the garbage can. I could deal with the change but there are many local and live in Forks guides as well as out of towners that would lose massive amounts of bus this time of year. Im not saying that they are more important than the fish. They arent by any means, its easier to get a job than bring back a true native run. Problem with this state is it waits too long to do something. I dont know what the anwser is but soon something will need to be done. Release all Chinook? Thats gonna be a tough campain! I could deal with it but it will be a heated battle! Plus if the Natives still net then theres still a major likely hood that they will be desimated beyond repair. Still thats no reason to justify doing nothing by anyone!
At least if ALL the DARK fish got released alot more would get by! And playing a BIG dark Chinook for 40 minutes can easily make him lose his sperm even if he swims away strong! Ive seen it before as Im sure you have too! So theres another thing that could be done! Gear up or break dark fish off if your light line fishing for Silvers. Theres alot we can do without the state! Use common sence and think about if your really gonna eat that tire or are you just killing it to please your hunter gatherer instints?

Bob D