Fun5Acres -
The Spawner/recruit relationship of a salmonid population is a function of the capacity and productivity of the habitat. As we degrade the habitat the result is the sprawner recruit function flattens out. Meaning both the capacity and MSY escapement levels are greatly reduced. To put in context the summer chinook on the Skykomish MSY escapement level under current habitat and survival conditions has been estimated to be 3,600 fish. If the habitat were restored to what has been called properly functioning (about 80% of historic conditions) the same value would be roughly 30,000 chinook. While past fisheries management has played a role in the decline in the status of our populations those impacts pale to what habitat destruction has done.

REgarding the coho situation on the Snohomish. My comments about the managers failing in harvesting all the potential fish was a tongue in cheek commnet - sorry it it was misunderstood. The recent manage of the system coho runs has intentionally been structured to allow for those larger returns. While you did say what your age is I doubt that you seen many coho larger than those recent returns. In the last 40 years 4 of the 5 largest wild coho escapments in the Snohomish been since 2000.

In that same 40 year period the largest escapement of pinks (humpy) was 280,000 until 2001 when the escapement was over a million fish. The 2003 escapements was also over a million fish. In terms of wild salmon spawning the good old days may be now. Of to achieve those escapements fishing was greatly curtailed. The point of this was to illustrate that it is not universal that our wild salmonids have been managed to the fine edge of MSY.

I think many Snohomish anglers have recent seen what large wild salmon runs may look like.

Tight lines
S malma