Great posts everyone. I too, am in favor of a September 1st jack season. I realize the danger to the fall kings in the river, and that there will be some anglers who will choose to make their impact there. Getting a king to bite eggs in that river is probably the easiest bite to get, next to jacks taking eggs. I really think that education and enforcement is the answer, not the current reduction in seasons.

Here is an example:

There is a hole just upstream from my house about a half mile, and it was fished daily by guide boats last season. What they would do was run up there first and anchor off, then have their sports toss eggs with floats for a couple of hours. Invariably all the people aboard would get to reel in one of the boot kings, and get a hero shot so that the guide could relax and then go after silvers, which as we all know is a much tougher bite, especially with beginners. They did this daily until the water finally rose and the kings could leave. The kings were released, and I never saw any illegal activity (by the books) there. I told my local GW that he could go watch them through the brush, I am not sure if he did or not.

If they do open it early for jacks, I think that 2 days of enforcement on Saturdays could cure the river of a lot of this. Have the GW or sherriffs run up to the big king holes, and just tell everyone, that they better be targeting jacks, and they are being watched.

I think that there could be a further reduction in impacts to the kings, if the river is open for hatchery silvers. Then you will spread a lot of people out to try and get fish on hardware. This would really reduce the boat traffic on the opener. So I would even be in favor of a no-bait fishery on Sept 1. This would reduce nearly all impact to the early fall kings, and allow us access to the hatchery silvers which come in the river in big groups and only bite worth a darn the first 2 or 3 days they are there. If you miss the time that they are fresh, they are not good biters. After that they just piss you off.