Appreciate that thoughtful post phishinman, but it is you who are way off base. I have not posted anything recently on my views about C&R coho on this or any other board, so how the **** do you know what my views are? Unless you have some magical ESP powers to read what is in my head, I suggest you keep your mean-spirited presumptious comments within your own narrow mind.

For the record, I have been trying very hard to work "behind the scenes" with the Westport Charterboat Association's director to help reduce the obscene release mortality on wild coho. By my own observations on a charter, I estimate the C&R mortality on those fish is at least 80%. On one trip in 2001, the boat had to sort thru well over 100 coho to put 40 clipped ones in the box. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that far fewer wild coho would have perished had we just gone with a "keep the first two caught" fishery.

My purpose for starting this thread was not to advocate for a selective coho fishery, but instead to expose the hypocrisy of fish mangagers. If they are indeed making this move in the name of saving wild fish because "catch-the-first-two" saves more wild fish, then they ought to say that in their press release. The truth is they won't do that, and can't do that, because it would expose the flawed management of the "selective" fishery for the past 5 or 6 years to "save" wild coho. If you read the entire press release, you will see that the other major ports are still subject to wild coho release. That tells me saving wild coho is NOT the official rationale behind the decision.

We as a group must demand from WDFW the true rationale behind this idiotic ruling. Honestly, I don't know how these guys sleep at night.