Salmonbelly,

Those same chinook now entering the river were available to both the ocean recreational and commercial troll fleet. Now in the inside fishery, chinook are open to commercial take but not recreational take. I think that is the imbalance that G2 is refering to.

I don't know, but here's my guess as to WDFW's rationale: Most of the kings are already in the river, and the commercial fishery will be restricted to the harbor, which should result mostly in gillnetted silvers, not kings. And therefore, we sportfishers are whining about not so much. I don't agree with that rationale; it's just my guess as to how WDFW might consider it to be reasonable fisheries management. Several of the terminal area non-treaty commercial net fisheries have been anachronisms that are functionally obsolete (lower quality fish with little market value), but there are laws on the books - as related in a recent thread - that require WDFW to manage for them whether they make sense or not.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.