I can see that under many scenarios the bonk the first two would shorten the season and possibly result in a larger kill of wild fish than the current system will. Of course all this is based upon SWAGs of mortality rates, and ratios of wild vs. hatchery. Those SWAGs are then skewed by the fact many fish with an adipose are in fact hatchery origin.

IMHO the mortality rate for coho landed in their first few days in fresh water is very high. I have no solid science to back my opinion, which puts me in the same boat as almost everyone else. But I know on some days a lot of unclipped coho die from the hooking, handling, etc. Which system is worse - who knows? It just hurts to work hard to revive a big beautiful wild coho and then watch it sink out of sight.

I will be curious to see how the Grays Harbor bonk two and go home thing works. My guess is many anglers will make that the worst of both worlds by retaining two wild fish and then C&R for the rest of the day. I hope not, but am skeptical.