Didn't you get out and fish with Kevin Lund last year up below Bonneville? If I remember correctly you witnessed an average bite for that time of year as it was still a bit early. Shortly after that we were having 15-25 fish days up there limiting the boat every trip. CR Spring Chinook and Summer Kings are top notch table fare and I sure as [censored] won't be going out and buying mine nor will I be hanging up my gear.... At $15 a pound on the low side times the 12-15 spring and summer kings I put away a year that would be roughly $2200 in fish that I would have to go and buy..... PUFF PUFF PASS.

The CR Springers are easy to catch and as a sportsman group we catch some where around 1 in 8 hatchery fish that return if not a little more than that.... You need to learn to be a little more creative than just pulling a herring out of a pack and trolling it for hours, these aren't the easy saltwater fish you're used to fishing on... I'd suggest starting with brining some herring with the goodies and if you choose to fish the bonneville egg fishery heating the eggs up a bit.... Springers are notorious for staging in the tidewater areas of the Columbia hence the awesome bites we've witnessed around the I5 and I205 bridge over the last few years.

On another note, the lower columbia tribs have met their escapement with wild winter steelhead for the most part over the last 5 years. Myself and close friends have landed dozens of 20+ pound steelhead over the years... We get our early share of 3-salt summer runs whether you beleive it or not but as rivers like the Cowlitz make hatchery cuts you will see less of them.... If you're worried about these Lower Columbia fish then lobby with CCA to push the nets upriver in zones 4-5 like they have been doing as of recent...

I don't suspect the sportfisherman would notice another 2-4000 springers taken from the river by the netters but an additional 20-30,000, that would hurt......

In the perfect world there would be no Gillnets of any sort, I agree... But to push them to be more selective is going to take from all of our tables and I don't know about you but I enjoy eating the CR Spring Chinook Turds you're speaking of and I don't think anyone on this planet would argue that.......

Keith