For anyone interested, there is a certain number of hatchery fish that don't get marked for a very good reason. In order to determine the actual fishing season they need to know what he "hooking mortality" is on wild fish. The only way to tell is by NOT marking some of the hatchery fish. They tally the returns to the hatchery of marked fish with a CWT and the unmarked fish with a CWT. If there is a large number of unmarked fish with CWT's they know hooking mortality on wild fish is low. If the ratio of marked to unmarked with CWT's is close, then they know hooking mortality is high and they adjust seasons accordingly. It servers a viable purpose. It's not just meant to "mislead" the public. The idea is if they get the same number of marked/CWT fish returning to the hatchery as unmarked/CWT fish then there is either a huge hooking mortality problem or people are keeping marked fish. Either way, future seasons will be adjusted accordingly.

Hopefully that makes sense and answers a few questions.