Looks like nobody fully read the articles. While the Columbia river fall Chinook numbers look good, the Columbia river Steelhead numbers are the second worst in history. Also, the fall Chinook numbers are for the period Aug 1-20 & only represent a very small percentage of the run, which peaks around labor day. We will not know the full story until later in Sept.
BC stops it's commercial troll fishery early to protect the WCVI Chinook. SEAK (South East Alaska) opens it's ocean troll fishery July 1 & their quota is slightly larger than the northern BC quota. I heard SEAK caught over 100,000 chinook in 3 days. Maybe the WCVI Chinook got hammered really bad this year. When you commercial fish open ocean stocks based on the numbers of the strongest runs (Columbia river) disaster for the weaker stocks can happen. The Wild Fish Conservatory thinks these open ocean fisheries need to stop.
http://wildfishconservancy.org/abou...d-fishery-chinook-catch-composition-1999-2010
I think that in general, there were lot's of Chinook to be caught this year, it's just that they were in ocean area's out of range (too deep, too far offshore) for the sportie's to access.
FYI Robertson creek used to be the largest Chinook hatchery in the world, releasing 10 million Chinook per year - what happened?