The leg passed a law about how certain moneys were to be spent. WDFW is supposed to comply with state law.

I know that WDFW would prefer fry plants on lowland lakes. But they work only in trout-only lakes. Add in other species and the fry get eaten so you need legals.

Carryovers are (were) generally rare in western WA because of a tapeworm . The fry would survive the first summer but not the second. So, again, you are lacking the larger fish.

Currently, or at least until recently, WDFW was trying to grow fewer but larger legals. Their information is that, say, 3 10-12" fish was received better than 5 that were 8-10. Hatchery capacity is based on pounds of fish per gallon of water. Raise bigger ones, get fewer.

There is the possibility that, especially with rainbows, you could switch broodstocks to one that spawned in the late summer. Perhaps these fish, with only one summer in the lake, would be larger on the second OD that they were in the lake.

There are lots of options but they take money to study. And, there are probably many license buyers who are happy to go out on OD and limit on trout. Period. They and the kids get a mess of fish. Others might be just as happy to get one or two 14,15, 16" fish and perhaps have a season lasting months. There is, unfortunately, no on-size-fits-all solution.