As we go through the recent spate of closures and openings remember that this is how in-season management is supposed to work as opposed to auto-pilot management.

I don't know all the data WDFW has, if they really do in-season updates, etc. but you manage with the numbers you have. If the run size is X and a fishery is allowed Y then when the catch data equals Y the fishery is closed. It gets reopened when some new data shows a larger run size. Not the number of jumpers or rollers (These used to actually be used in management) but an actual quantifiable number. This can be rack counts at hatcheries, spawner surveys, etc.

On a creek I was working on we went through a really long freeze-up from November to late January. Creek, and most everything else, froze. Stream temp was 30-31 in the flowing parts. Under a large alder there was a school of 200 coho that waited those 3 months for warmer water. Every week the spawner survey showed those 200. When the weather changed, they boogied upstream or spawned on the riffle between the tree and the trap. Moral of the story is that these were pretty much the only coho in the creek below the trap. Somebody who happened to look into that pool could conclude the creek was plugged with coho.