I used to do spawner surveys on all of the major canal systems back in the early 1980's. Tahuya was one of my favorites - I remember seeing some nice coho crashing in there with the first good rain in October. There was a good hole right by a big barn just up from tidewater. Summer chum were pretty much extinct at that time due to the overlap with intensive coho net fishery. Pinks over on the Hamma Hamma were just about gone too. There was little attention payed to escapement needs for natural production then since it was all managed as a hatchery show - primarily for kings and coho. Purse seines gill nets, you name it. The late chum fisheries were minimal and there wasn't an overlap with the coho fishery, so there were still quite a few of those around. Funny how people never considered targeting them then, and now look at the chum anglers covering every tributary. Over in the Dewatto basin, the only coho I saw were 2-3 lb dinks. Probably all that could get through the nets. Sad because I know people who used to fish for big silvers with flies on top of the water in the bay there every November. Fish near 20 lbs were caught. None of those big fish are left. Lots of poaching was going on for the few fish that did come back - Union River kings were a big target. I found plenty ov chum stripped of their eggs up in the small tributuaries. So it wasn't all tribal and commercial to blame.

Sad to see it all happening right before my eyes. Most people didn't even notice the change.