This year I thought that recreational fishers had won the lottery. A Tier 2 Chehalis Chinook fishery should provide enough fish for a limited direct recreational fishery. The commercials would be left with impacts so long as they did not restrict the recreational fishery. Because any gill net impact mortality would reduce the recreational fishery it looked like Tier 2 would dictate no commercial net days in September or October.

WDFW claimed that Tier 2 only dicates recreational start dates and does not define what a limited direct fishery is. Obviously they think it should be limited enough to fuel a significant commercial fishery in 2A/2D.

WDFW sprung a new plan on the meeting that includes a first time use of tangle nets with a 14.7% release mortality and about three times as much netting opportunity. We did not even talk about 2C net days or impacts on Humptulips fish. When they imposed the tangle net plan at least they did not ask for consensus like in past years. Most of the sport group in attendance seemed shell shocked about the outcome.