Todd,

The regulation defines soak time as the time when the first mesh hits the water until the time the last mesh leaves the water. 45 minutes is a pretty short soak for 150 or 175 fathoms. It will be hard to comply if a net picks up much debris. I've seen 3 hour pick ups out in the San Juans when the net picks up a bunch of dogfish or ratfish on a reef. Ugly work! I'm not sure what debris and bycatch occurs on the CR, tho.

The saddest thing about this fishery is that WDFW actually seems to think there is a need for it. There isn't. No public interest is served that cannot be alternatively served with reduced impact to listed fish. Changed my mind. It's not sad. It's stupid.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.