Nothing wrong with catching hatchery fish. Hell, I love it! The trouble with hatchery fish is that when they escape harvest (some always will), they do what comes naturally, meaning they spawn in the river. Every study conducted to date indicates that hatchery genes mixing with wild reduces the productivity of the wild spawners at an ever-increasing rate. Obviously, that's bad, and that's why many of us tout the "all hatchery fish must die" mantra. Of course, that mantra is shared by those who manage commercial fisheries, and it does a lot to explain why we lose so much opportunity, both wild and hatchery-bred, at the hands of gillnets.

There should be no doubt that hatcheries, hydropower, and habitat (and maybe most of all ocean conditions) are limiting factors in productivity, but the ultimate culprit, in my mind, is the same today as it was when the first "supplemental" hatcheries were built: overharvest, which was, after all, the very reason for the first hatcheries. As Salmo g. said, any fish over the paltry escapement goal is a dollar sign with fins. As long as that's true, no stocks will ever see a meaningful, long-term increase. I guess it's my opinion, but even as a not-so-opinionated person, I can't seem to be convinced of anything else. If fish weren't so remarkably more resilient than land-based wildlife species in the face of constant overharvest, I'm pretty sure they'd all be extinct by now.