Can anyone be really surprised that we have selectively removed the aggressive fish (biters) from the population.

We fish hard on the maturing coho for months in the ocean (Washington coast, off Vancouver Island, Neah Bay etc.), we then pound them for a month or so as they return to Puget Sound, and then another 6 weeks or so in the rivers. The results is for many decades we have consistently removed 40 to 80% of the biters from the wild populations annually (even higher exploitation rates on many hatchery stocks).

It should also be apparent that aggressive feeding is a real plus for a maturing coho - grows faster, larger which means it will likely be more successful. If we as anglers wish to have better biters we need to rstrict our harvest. Think about it for a second. The same with the concern for small fish - how many of our successful anglers (in the salt or river) on those fun multiple fish days release the smaller fish to select for larger fish - if we keep all the teenage size fish we catch how can be surprised that there are larger fish.

Mike - hope your suggestions are t.i.c.

Tight lines
S malma