SeaRunner
Steelhead
My understand is that the fishery is limited by the number of encounters.
It is common to use something like a 5 day a week season to extend the season length. It also provides a built in fishery pause which gives the managers a chance to crunch the number to reduce the chances of over run the allowed encounters. These was what was discussed at the public meeting prior to that first fishery a few years ago.
That said it has long been noted that the distribution of steelhead redds if often different during periods of fishing and non-fishing. the boat traffic seems to push the fish to areas with less traffic (side channels, etc.). it is commonly assumed that steelhead egg survival would be better if the fish are allowed to spawn in their preferred location.
curt
Yes, I understand using a 5 day a week season to extend season length. If that is the reason the WDFW should state that. If WDFW wants a built in pause to crunch numbers they should state that. If the season is 5 days per week because that was all that was on NMFS's table to approve for this year that should be stated.
I don't doubt what you say about steelhead redds. But if that becomes a guiding conservation/management metric then perhaps we should be fishing 5 days per week regardless of run size (or not fishing at all). It may increase steelhead egg survival. 5 days per week also eliminates roughly 3 weeks of opportunity out of a 12 week season that is authorized by a plan which you and several others put a lot of time and effort into getting done. I appreciate the work you've done on that and in my opinion the impact rates in that plan are sufficient conservation measures.