Once again we in the recreational community allow ourselves to be divert addressing what is limit the region's wild Chinook abundances and instead focus our discussions on how to better split a dwindling resources.

It is popular to advocate for ending non-treaty commercial fisheries and all will be well. Just for fun I reviewed the 2017 pre-season fishery plan that came out of NOF. I focused on two Puget Sound stocks that have or are likely to limited recreational fisheries; Stillaguamish and Lake Washington.
Of the impacts in Washington Fisheries on the non-treaty side of the ledger 21% of the Stillaguamish and 26% of the Lake Washington impacts occurred in commercial fisheries. Of equal interest is that the majority of the commercial impacts occurred of the coast in troll fisheries.

If we truly want our fishing to improve we most be more effective advocates for habitat restoration. Over the last 3 decades in spite of 75% reduction in total fishing impacts (and yes that includes those northern fisheries) the status of the wild resource continues to decline at an alarming rate. In my opinion the future of any Puget Sound salmon fishing will depend on the tribal and non-tribal fishers (and the policy folks) putting aside this endless debate about what size of piece each gets from a shrinking pie and foraging alliances to work together on behalf of the resource through advocating for effective salmon recovery efforts.

Yes that is not near as much fun as taking part in a debating society and will require real work but from where I'm sitting that appears to be the only path forward if our grand kids are going to have an opportunity to fish!

Curt