So, what is our strongest argument at these meetings to convince the co-managers to avoid another "curtain of death" netting in October. Last year was over-the-top ridiculous and as bad as I've seen in all the years I've lived here.
Chinook aside, with the numbers presented, there's going to be substantial netting again. I've seen nor heard anything from the dept. that convinces me they will shift to a more rec-friendly management scheme and, frankly, don't expect they will short of a court order. So let's just assume there's going to be a lot of netting.
What I see as critical to better upstream opportunity is to break up the net schedule....say max of 4 days a week during peak run timing, both tribal and non-tribal. You've GOT to have more than 1 day a week net-free to let something swim upstream. So how do we get that? Is the lower Chehalis chinook forecast(tier 2) going to achieve that with all those coho and chum swimming around out there?
I realize reduced netting per week on high harvestable numbers will disperse the net schedule out over a longer time but what's worse? That or another October wall of death like last year?