Recreational fisheries are about opportunity, not harvest. Time and again, surveys say that recs value most time on the water with friends, the outdoor experience, etc. with actual catch being well down on the list of values.
So, the ideal fishery to the manager (based on what we tell them) is 365 days on the water and no catch.
I could probably re-word their survey questions and end up with a set of responses which would include some reasonable anticipation of harvest as a measure of value. I also believe that the Director received feed-back to that effect during last year's open meetings - at least the one I attended.
I realize I am preaching to the choir here but a reality check would be to ask how many folks would go out all day trolling around with no hook on their lure because the season was closed? If that is "opportunity" for that manager then why were the parking lots empty in September? Guess those stakeholders modified their survey responses by voting to not participate in a hookless endeavor.
Anyone else remember when the then Dept. of Fish & Game had a season for mountain goats in units on the east side of the Olympics where there were absolutely no goats and they knew it? That went on for several years with drawings for tags, etc., before someone blew the whistle putting an end to meaningless opportunity.
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