Last Friday Area six salmon fishing rules changed from two fin clipped 22-inch or bigger Chinook to just one fish. When the WDFW sent out their press release, they noted that anglers had already reached 71% of allowable “encounters.”

In a nutshell, every time an angler has an encounter with a Chinook, either releasing a wild Chinook or undersized Chinook it counts toward the 2,586 encounters by sports anglers. The state relies heavily on fish counts at local marinas and boat launches. So, every time someone “encounters” a fish checker and brags about their fishing prowess, which may or may not be accurate, each fish verbalized to the checker counts against our Winter Blackmouth season. Honesty then, can hurt or help our Chinook seasons depending on the angler. While not advocating dishonesty about “encounters” I would suggest anglers be more wise while fishing and while at dock, speaking to fish…