Now let's not get too clever here Smalma. The Columbia hatchery run fall chinook are not clipped, as Columbia fall chinook are not ESA listed, only the springs and summers are. None of the Hood Canal hatchery chinook are clipped either - not any returning this year anyway. No hatchery chinook are clipped in Willapa Bay - these are also not ESA listed and are turned over en masse to the non-indian gillnetters anyway. The Grays Harbor system hatchery chinook are also not clipped - not ESA listed either so no one cares that the management isn't fine tuned. I am also not aware of any tribal hatchery clipping fish - maybe you know of some up your way, but the Quinault, Makah, and Elwha sure don't. Finally, WDFW is a long way from 100% mark on chinook even though they are pretty much there with coho and steelhead. That's a lot of non-clipped hatchery chinook in the ocean - perhaps even the majority since again the coastal stocks are not in the trouble that Puget Sound stocks are. So I think it's rather unfair of you to characterize everyone's picture of a fish with an adipose fin as wild - and I take particular exception to this as the fish I posted that my daughter caught on the Columbia last week was not wild for sure as it had a left ventral clip even though the adipose was left on. My nearly 2 cards full of chinook contain adipose clipped fish from the spring and summer Columbia fishery, adipose clipped fish from the selective Sekiu fishery, a few sockeye from LW, clipped coho from B10, and non-clipped most likely hatchery chinook from B10, Hood Canal, and Willapa Bay. The card will get filled up, along with much of my third one, with Grays Harbor chinook and also Grays Harbor wild and hatchery coho, as that is one place where the coho actually have habitat - including some really nice wetlands to rear in on my 80 acres - and can stand some harvest. The habitat up in your region is crap and so are the fish runs - not much fish management can do about that. Since the Grays Harbor coho runs are maintaining themselves just fine during good ocean years I do not feel guilty at all about whacking a few, especially since I do my share to put some back by the way I manage my land. But to get to addressing your point - comparing wild steelhead, which if released bite over and over and provide considerable enjoyment to many anglers, and also do not necessarily die after spawning, to wild salmon, which rarely bite by comparison, lose condition quickly, and always die after spawning, is like comparing apples to oranges. There is a real reason beyond maintaining adequate escapement levels - which is mainly to maintain good fishing - that all wild steelhead should be released. Wild salmon should be released only when necessary to maintain escapement, and the way the fishery is managed today they by and large are, at least as well as can be done with the pittance paid WDFW to do this and the complicated co-management mess with the tribes. I do not whack any wild steelhead, I do not whack any ESA listed chinook, and I do not whack any wild coho unless WDFW says I can, and they are from the Grays Harbor system where I feel I have done my part to put some back.