One more thing to ponder for those who continue to embrace the "gillnets are better than live capture" mantra.

It's the feds that determine what the white impact is for ESA springers.

It's 2%.

They WILL be expended. PERIOD. Take it or leave it.

It's not the CCA's call.... it's the fed's.

CCA is merely advocating for the highest and best use of that available impact, and to prosecute that fishery in the most responsible way possible.

If it means the commercials get to take more hatchery fish, BFD! There's plenty of those non-biting turds to go around. The commercials will still be constrained by a measurable impact. They CAN'T physically get 'em all.

You'll still be investing your 30-50 rod-hrs trying to get one to bite, regardless. Sporties will still be allocated an impact to consume. We'll probably even have a full season in which to do it, because it's much less likely that the gillnet mortalities would put the commies over their impact and into ours.

And there's nothing written in stone that says the commies automatically cork us off. The fisheries can be structured to allow a priority for a full recreational season BEFORE the net fleet is unleashed to mop up BEHIND us. They would certainly be equipped to fish BALLS OUT to consume their impact, 24/7 if need be, AFTER the sport season is over.

Here's another thing. Even though the white impact on paper fish is "fixed" at 2%, it's more than clear to me that we are actually expending at least an order of magnitude GREATER impact on real live free-swimming fish.... the lion's share of it at the hands of NON-selective gillnets. Who among you does not doubt the horribly understated chinook release mortality of these curtains of death? 40% on chinook mesh and 18% on tangle mesh? YGTBFK right?

What about the dead dropouts? I'm pretty certain they're 100% dead.

What about the sea lion mortality on fish ripped out of the mesh and the weakened releasee's. I'm pretty sure those are damned near 100% dead.

And what about the mortality of repeat capture? De-slimed and de-scaled and stressed from one net to the next.... waiting just a few hundred yards upriver. You got it.... virtually all dead.

Naysayers please take note if the immediate direct benefit to wild ESA springers is still NOT obvious to you.

MORE wild springers will hit the gravel.

LESS hatchery turds will hit the gravel.

Anyone implying that selective live capture is going to be MORE harmful to the resource than gillnets is farting out of their mouth. The only rationale I see these folks putting forth is scare tactics arguing that somehow the sport share of the pie will somehow be diminished. Selective gear is bad because it leaves fewer fish for sports. That's just greed, pure and simple... with ZERO regard for the wild resource. And as I painted in the scenario above for ESA spingers, it is ENTIRELY without basis.

Think outside of the box, folks.... or at least outside of the gillnet. The seasons can be structured to maximize recreational opportunity while extracting as many of the hatchery fish from the river as possible.

Misrepresenting the CCA agenda only harms the cause of the recreational community and the wild resource so many of us advocate for.