No matter what you call it Doc I agree with you 100%. I really have trouble with the "Record" runs we have been having as they in no way mean anything. I would love to see the models adjusted to allow a much higher escapement goal. Even if it means we only get to keep 1 fish instead of 2 or we can only fish x days a week. Perhaps in 2 or 3 cycles of fish we would then see an increase in abundance as you stated.

I have always felt that the "Escapement" numbers were simply an arbitrary number that someone pulled out of a hat to make it sound like they knew what they were doing. After living on the Raging River for the last 5 years I can tell you that there are far to few fish going by my house to have enough fish in the river for good natural selection. The poor fish hardly have enough numbers to find a single possible mate let alone have the choice to help in natural selection of the fittest!