I'm not sure which is the "right" way to look at the Deer Creek fish, but I see it this way...

First, Deer Creek is a tributary to the North Fork Stillaguamish River...Deer Creek is totally closed to fishing, and boasts one of the very few significant wild summer steelhead runs in PS.

The N.Fk. Stilly has some, but not many, wild summer runs...it does, however, have a large hatchery summer run.

This is not a CnR fishery, this is a classic example of what WSR is.

You don't fish Deer Creek, because they are all wild. You do fish the Stilly, because it has all the hatchery fish. If you catch a clipped one...BONK! If you catch a wild one, you let it go.

When the water conditions were such that Deer Creek fish were stacking up at the mouth of the creek, but staying in the Stilly, WDFW closed the area surrounding the mouth of the creek to protect those fish.

When a significant group of unethical anglers were targeting ESA listed chinook in the deep holes with weighted flies, WDFW put in a restriction to prohibit weighted flies to help protect those fish.

The Deer Creek fish were intitally pushed to the brink of extinction due to very poor logging practices that ruined its watershed. As that situation has improved, so have the fish runs.

While that was going on, there was still significant fishing opportunity in the Stilly, though fishermen were required to release any wild ones they caught. Besides closing the Stilly around the mouth of Deer Creek, I believe there were times when the river was closed from a ways above Deer Creek all the way to the mouth to protect those fish when even incidental impacts were too much for the fish to handle.

I see that as an example of how WSR allowed fishing opportunity, including harvest opportunity on hatchery fish, while leaving the wild fish to spawn and continue to re-colonize the Deer Creek watershed as the problems caused by habitat destruction improved.

Smalma? In spite of your modesty, you know more about this river and these fish in your little finger than I know total...how accurate is that assessment?

If there's any substantial "truth" to my assessment above, then that is an excellent example of how the use of WSR provided significant fishing opportunity while allowing wild fish to recover along with their habitat.

For the folks who are still having a hard time seeing the difference, that's what a WSR fishery is, and what a CnR fishery is not. If it were CnR, there would be no retention of any fish...the example above is what WSR is, providing harvest opportunity on hatchery fish while requiring the release of wild fish.

Fish on...

Todd