Thanks for posting this info, Rich.
Cohoangler, read it again. The ONP supervisor said "it should be noted that, despite serious problems in some stocks, park rivers support some of the strongest salmon stocks on the West Coast outside of Alaska". What kind of a comparison is this? Wild salmon stocks are crashing all over the northwest. Should we pat ourselves on the back because ONP springers are doing better than Snake River springers? It's an invalid comparison. Why doesn't the supervisor just say that ONP stocks aren't declining as quickly as others? That doesn't sound as good, but it's less misleading.
Goin isn't comparing ONP stocks to Oregon coastal stocks or Snake River stocks or Puget Sound stocks, he is comparing them to how they used to be. And there is cause for alarm when you look at it that way.
StorminN, Goin's main agenda is wild fish recovery. He only flyfishes now but he's caught more fish on gear than most of us will ever see. Flyfishing only regs are a way of reducing wild fish mortality. I think this is what motivated Goin's backing of FF only on the Elwha this summer, rather than some purist reason, as you implied.