How do they measure escapement on native fish? They don't have a central point of return like hatchery fish, they don't arrive at the same time frame like hatchery fish, they can trickle in from now through June and spawn anywhere in the river they want. Are you going to tell me that WDFW is capable of finding even half the redds to make an accurate prediction?

Obviously something had to have changed since the time the regs were printed and now. Knowing what the run size would be from whatever the redd count was when they made their prediction, they set the season to close March 31. On top of that they had a great hatchery return and everything I've read on this board and others have stated without a doubt that native rish are more durable than hatchery fish due to "stronger genes".

I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm just trying to get at the information that led the department to make this decision.