Attended the Koenings/WDFW Roundtable in Aberdeen last night.The current Humptulips fiasco was discussed by several in attendance. Opening the river for increased harvest opprtunity on early hatchery silvers was the key issue of concern voiced by no less than three speakers. Keep in mind that over 7000 silvers had already been "surplused" at the hatchery by opening day Oct 16th.

WDFW felt that opening salmon season too early would have a negative impact on wild chinook... basically there would not have been enough surplus kings to support a fishery that opened on Oct 1.

It was suggested that if the harvestable surplus of kings was too small for a full season begining Oct 1 (or even earlier), then why not just allocate that small chinook surplus to C&R mortality and have zero retention on kings.

This would also help to diffuse/disperse angling effort so that every one and their dog would not have to swarm opening day of the only Grays Harbor trib open to retention of chinook. The Hump was the only game in town for the powerboatless river angler to bonk a king.

Although not discussed at the meeting, another option that they had was to curtail the chinook season by taking away a couple weeks on the tail end (Nov 30) to "pay for" an earlier opening on October 1. That would have allowed maximal harvest opportunity on the 7000 early hatchery coho, and still allow for a judicious harvest impact on chinook.
What do you guys think?