Quote:
Originally posted by Sparkey:
Quote:
Originally posted by JacobF:
[b] ... now they close the Skykomish which had great hatchery returns. Something doesn't smell right.
They closed the Skykomish due to the prediction of a very poor return of wild fish. This is the 3rd straight year it has been closed early and this closure was expected.

And do not worry, the Indian netting took very few if any wild fish out of the Snohomish this winter. [/b]
But they base their prediction of the wild run on the number of hatchery fish that return. I talked to a biologist on the Green River about the closure and he said that they use info for previous years redds but they put much more importantance on the hatchery return. I would assume that model holds true for other rivers as well. Now, they knew what the redd count was on the Sky 2 or 3 years ago. Not to mention the excelent hatchery return. With that knowledge, they set the season to close March 31. Not only did they get enough hatchery fish to restock the Sky, they got enough in combination with the Snoqualmie, to re-supplement 3 other rivers.What has changed to make them change their prediction?