Fun5Acres -
While I'm not a particularly big fan of the North of Falcon salmon season process it is the process that establishes your salmon seasons. It is not so much about how many fish there are to be caught but rather who gets to catch the fish. In the past and to a large extend today the vast majority of anglers taking part in that process prefer to catch their share of the resource in the salt. As a result the river anglers are left with the left overs. If you wish to see a larger piece of the pie you need to be in the game; otherwise you continue to get only what others can't figure out how to catch.

FishNPhyscian -
The reality of wild fish management is that often surplus (uncaught) hatchery fish will return to the hatchery rack. In many cases the in-river recreational fisheries are limited by either other fisheries all ready taking all the allowable impacts on wild stocks of concern or prior fisheries (sport marine) have all ready caught the sport share.

Regarding Alaska fishery management - one needs to remember that much of the Alaskan chinook harvest occurs in rivers while here in Washington except for the tribal fisheries the majority occurs in the salt. Management would certainly be simplier if we were to shift our harvest to the rivers - anyone for closing the Washingotn Coast Ocean fisheries? That would supply additional fish for nealry all our river fisheries.

I'm afraid that this whole discussion is yet another illustration that at least for salmon most of our anglers are more interested in harvesting as many fish as possible and the heck with the wild resource.

Tight lines
S malma