NWMallard, I've given up on fighting the local ideas of the Upper C. management team. When Heather Barlett (WDFW Biologist) stated in a steelehad symposium a few years ago that the state would be planting the Methow with 250K NON-clipped hatchery steelhead, I decided then and there that we're dealing with idiots! She then stated that to open the Wenatchee, we would need an escapement of 7k WILD steelhead before a hatchery season of c&r could be proposed. Now the last 2 years, the biologists have been "breaking their arms" patting themselves on the back because of the great return of WILD steelhead to the Methow. They're crediting they're steelhead recovery actions (limiting irrigation, no seasons the last couple of years, etc) with saving the "wild" fish, yet they're just unclipped hatchery fish! Absolute hogwash!!!