Smalma,

Good topic to start conversation especially for those us at work counting empty offices.

I am going to limit myself to MSY talk as I just dont' see the Department using CC as a viable number plus I have never seen any numbers on what these numbers actually are.

I personally would support WSR on all Rivers Year round no exception. Of your choices and limiting only to your choices I think the first two are good options. I am not sure if allowing fishing at any run size is right but if you say 80% almost all rivers would be closed now starting first of December or so because if you say start at 80% the Sky and stilly don't meet that so they should be closed all together. There may be a different percentage to use. Especially with the fact the mortality rates at winter water temp with artificials is from everything I have read below 5%.

As for how late to fish in the season. Peak spawning timing seems to be a good start. But the departement is making a push for consistency so say maybe April 15th.

Now of course this is only for the wild winter fish. Those wild summer fish probably need protection starting Jan 1 and give them time to spawn unmolested. Dave brought up the thompson. It closes Dec 31st to allow those summer fish to have a chance to spawn unmolested. So not sure how many rivers in the state are managed for wild summer and winter runs.

Dave thank you for bring up the points about the nets. And I did get a chuckle out of the cliff comment as if you think aobut it it is ver true to this situation. We as sport fisherman need to have our house in order before we start pointing fingers at others.

Other things that I personally think would help our steelhead stocks
1) Keep rivers with the wild winter runs closed unitl June 15th to give the Kelts an extra two weeks to get out of the system and back to salt without being caught.
2) Ban bait in June-Sept 15 to limit impact on the wild parr. Mortality rates on parr are very high with bait. Still allowing others to use bait for fall salmon though so it might have to end August 31st.

You know in an ideal world we should be able to have year round fishery on all runs as people would self regulate themselves and we would have to worry about people abusing the resource but I don't see that in the world we live in.

JJ