Lord RG if you had any familiarity with WDF&W's hatchery program you would understand just how far out in the wilderness you are. There are several ways to get the actual release estimates close including electronic counters, which was my favorite. When fish program did away with large overages on the egg take the extra fish being released went away as did the hedging on the book numbers. The extra eggtake had always been about insurance in numbers if something went wrong during rearing to make production goals not boosting adult returns. The mountains of forms and paper work that a hatchery must fill out all feed into each other so other than a little adjustment for math, messing with numbers be it returning adults or releases, just does not happen on a large scale let alone any area where the feds & tribes are involved with ESA.

Never been afraid of kicking the holy crap out of WDF&W as they royally deserve it for making this ugly mess with fish in this state. As a friend says "who was in charge when the SS Washington Salmon ran aground" and it sure as hell was not the citizens then or now. It helps though to make sure one has things correct before blasting away.