I've lived on the water here in the NW on either salt, fresh, or river for most of the last 52 years and currently live on the Sky. I am on, or around the water almost every day and know where and when these chums ( we can limit it to chums for now) spawn. I also see the fish counters fly over, or on the river, if they're reporting higher numbers of fish in the Snohomish system, then there is a big problem in how the data is collected or calculated.
I can tell you for a fact that there were far more fish in the system ten years ago than now, and this year is dismal. There was a push of early chums that are mostly spawned out now and since then very few fish have entered the system. This early push was mixed with the Coho and I assume not targeted by the nets. When I became alarmed at how few fish I was seeing, I checked around and found out how many nets were in the water and how successful they were. That explained the problem, not too hard to figure it out either. At this time of year the Sky should be so full of chums that you should have no problem spotting hundreds in very short amount of time, this year even spotting ten can be difficult. Most years (recent past) catching 20 chums per day on a rod and reel is normal, this year I will most likely catch more steelhead than chums, only not early ones, as they will be in the nets.

TwoDogs, I do thank you for discussing this here, more input and sharing of info is needed.

Is "two dogs" the escapement goal? sorry about that.