Todd -
The concerning thing about those smaller fish is that so many are mature fish. From scale samples for those 22 to 25 inch fish most were 3 year old fish and a surprising number were 4 year old fish.

As an illustration of the shrinking Puget Sound Chinook for the years 2012 to 2014 in the summer Mark Selective Fisheries for Chinook for Marine areas, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 the port samplers measured 17,188 fish and none of them were more than a meter (40 inches). There were a few plus 40 inch fish checked in 2011 and 2010 (11 out of 10,000 fish). The median size of the fish check for those years was between 28 and 29 inches.

While understandable release those smaller Chinook to harvest larger fish only compounds the problem of the fisheries selecting against those faster growing and older fish.

It has been apparent for sometime that our Chinook have been shrinking and with the advent of the mark selective fisheries the situation with the hatchery Chinook has been highlighted. Of equal concern is that both WDFW and the sport fishers leadership have been unwilling to even discuss potentially addressing that situation. And in fact have gone so far as to propose reducing minimum size limits during winter blackmouth season. To the extent that those fish contribute to hatchery brood stock such a move would compound the selection problem.

The issue with reaching Chinook quotas so quickly is largely driven by the increasing power of the recreational fleet. Today we collectively can catch a quota in a couple weeks that would have taken as much as 4 weeks a few years ago. I agree that part of that is driven by folks rushing to get on the water to get some fish before the seasons close. But in addition todays angler is better equipped (larger boats, better electronics, better downriggers, better information, etc.) than ever before. Again neither WDFW and the salmon angler leadership are anxious to attempt to address that issue.

Curt