I have been hearing about the great King run that comes into the Skagit this time of year, and for the last few days have been seeing some very nice fish (25 lb.+) rolling in the river close to home.

My "problem" is this. People are essentially targeting these fish...releasing them after catching, yes, but still targeting them.

The regs show "release Chinook"..NOT "catch and release Chinook". To me this means DO NOT FISH FOR THEM.

My thoughts are this: If we let these fish continue to spawn in big numbers, soon enough we will have a very healthy population and a nice fishery as a result...(akin to the Pinks in the Snohomish system now)

Sure, I also understand that in 95% of the cases a CnR fish continues on its merry way and still makes lots of babies...but..we still come back to the issue of no season, and folks targeting these fish...oft times blatantly, bragging about it afterwards.

Am I being to particular here? I WANT a healthy, legal fishery for these big brutes, but if we continue to harass the existing runs it could take longer before the FnG Bio's are satisfied with the numbers enough to set an actual fishery.

Please let them be...don't target them...then you can come back and take one home for the BBQ!

My rant for the month of July.

Mike B