Your question, Larry, is where data is damn necessary.

Conventional wisdom and catch accounting is/was that 9 was composed of Stilly/Snoh, SSound, and Hood Canal. For pinks, Skagit was added to the mix. Once fish got into 8A it was supposed to be all Stilly/Snoh but there is a voice in the back of my head that says Skagit fish were there too and went up the east side of Widbey; all based on tagging.

The big "but", though, is that tagging showed a lot more mixing. For example, Hood Canal fish were found in commercial 10E, the East Kitsap shorelines and inlets rather than pure local fish like run-reconstruction says.

Pinks, by nature, have to stray a lot because that fixed 2-year life cycle would leave lots of streams empty.......

I understand the idea that one likes to out in the salt in their boat and they aren't getting any younger. That is a legitimate concern. Does it trump short-term conservation? I don't know but that is a discussion worth having.

Back in my WDF days we had fixed escapement goals that were, until co-mamnagement, inviolate. That was why, for example, Lake WA sockeye fisheries occurred only when more than 350K returned. The IPSFC, on the other hand, managed Fraser sockeye on more flexible scale. For most stocks, there would be a fishery. At least the most abundant stock that cycle, even if it was below the target optimum goal. They believed that having some annual fishing kept the industry alive. Also meant that rebuilding would take longer. Trade-offs either way.