At least for now, part of the justification for the complete closure is they don't want hooking mortality on the coho while game(steelhead) fishing. As Riverguy said, the wild coho returns are in the $hitter this year.

Keeping it closed til' steelhead egg take is achieved? I don't agree with that all. For one thing, there's nothing to indicate a poor steelhead return at this point. If returns are grim by, say, the end of Feb….then close it. Too keep it closed after the coho are done, when it has a sizable hatchery winter run, and leave neighboring rivers open doesn't make sense………will they re-close all the GH rivers then until egg take is met?