I am not against hatcheries and don't want to get caught up in the WT mess.

A brief history of the most successful hatchery i n history-anywhere (Minter Creek)

Starting in the early 1960s and through the 1970s the Minter Creek hatchery, managed by a fellow whose name I believe was Gallahan, produced Chinook and Coho runs in numbers that were mind boggling. Near perfect water quality and temperature combined with skilled management and good stock were the keys.
These runs created a summer chinook gillnet fishery from Discovery Bay to Tacoma that harvested tremendous numbers of fish.
The coho returns were even more awe inspiring and made for a 4 to 6 day per week commercial fishery from Neah Bay to Tacoma not to mention the ocean troll fishery off the coast of Wa. and British Columbia. Plus the coho were large, 10-12 lbs. average. Sounds great, lots of large fish, right. WRONG, HUGE MISTAKE. Wild stocks that were not nearly as abundant or healthy were being harvested with the same intensity as the abundant Minter Creek fish. I believe that was almost a fatal blow to many wild stocks in Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Before the finger pointing starts,remember that everyone was doing what was then though to be a good thing.

If you think it can't get any worse, along comes Frank Haw, assistant Dir. of fisheries and fishing partner of bulls--t Tony Floor. Frank declares that he will turn Puget Sound into a sport fishing Mecca by converting Minter Creek to a delayed release coho hatchery. Only problem is that the delayed release coho are hugely expensive to feed and require siphoning money from most other programs, plus they prove to be voracious predators of out migrating salmon and steelhead smolts.

I have lost track of what the delayed release program and Minter Creek hatchery are currently producing but it has served as an example of the best of intenions gone wildly awry

Slug: I am aware of the Minter Creek history and you have it right. The Hood Canal coho were just flat wiped out by commercial fishers, in a four year period. I suspect they also did a great deal of harm to the summer chum as well.

Like you I am not totally anti hatchery, but am concerned when we operate hatcheries principlay for benefit of commerciial fishermen.

I beleive the Hoodsport chum hatchery was developed soley to help commercial fishermen of all races get more fish. It is only a happy accident that sportsman learned how to catch them.