Bushbear -
While I don't have a horse in this fight - don't fish the lake - I think you bring up a good point regarding the size of the kokanee. One of the oddities of kokanee fishing is that the vast majority of the kokanee caught in the recreation fisheries are maturing fish that if not caught would spawn that fall.

While there doesn't apparent to be much information on what the goal is for the 5 year closure on Sutherland is one can guess. If I was to ventured a guess (and this is the type of question I would ask the agencies if I were supporting the petition) the expectation is that the 5 year clousure would be in place to allow any potential O. nerka smolts produced by the kokanee to leave the lake and hoefully produce sockeye. Those potential smolts would likely be both too small and young to enter in the kokanee fishery. Ergo eliminating the kokanee fishery would have virtually no effect onthose potential smolts - now if the closure was extended for a much longer period (say several kokanee generations) then one might be able to argue that more small O. nerka might be produced and maybe more smolts.

However as Milt points right now neither the agencies or those opposing this closure are presenting much information - certianly nothing based on science. As a result we are each left with our own default positions.

Tight lines
Curt