Fishbreath hit the nail on the head. We had a similar situation on the Skykomish with a reasonably healthy run of summer chinook, many of which are marked hatchery fish. Until we started making noise at the North of Falcon meetings there was no recreational fishery. Our local TU group sent a representative (Sam Ingram) to all the NOF meetings with the specific agenda of getting a recreational fishery on these Skykomish fish. Sam, along with some people from other groups, made enough noise that it finally happened and we had a reasonable fishery this year. Point is when you have a terminal fishery your fish will be allocated to other interest groups "downstream" of you long before your fish even get close to your river. Unless you attend the NOF meetings and stand up for your interests your slice of the pie is going to be on someone else's plate.

Beezer