I haven't waded through all 46 posts to see if the following points have been raised but I'll put my .02 in here anyway.

The WDFW routinely raises the bag limit on hatchery fish when they can predict far enough in advance that they'll get the hatchery returns they need. As you know, the bag limit for coho the NFL and the Cowlitz have already been increased. I suspect they'll increase it again if the run is anywhere near what they expect. This is just good management.

However, there is a downside. That is, raising the bag limit does not, will not, and won't ever increase the number of fish that you actually catch when you're on the river. In other words, just becuse the bag limit goes up doesn't mean I'll be anymore successful. I can't count how many times I've been fishing on a river where WDFW increased the bag limit but I still got skunked. They could set the bag limit at a million fish a day but if I don't catch any, it doesn't matter.

But raising the bag limit will significantly increase the number of anglers fishing those waters. They're thinking that if WDFW raised the bag limit, there must be more fish, which is probably true. Thus, the hordes of not-very-sophisticated anglers show up, expecting to catch fish. Snagging, trash, fights, etc are the result. The fishing experience is not exactly what most of us seek.

So, raising the bag limit can increase expectations, may not increase the actual number of fish caught, and may significantly decrease the angling experience. In my view, those are good reasons for not doing it.