Then my question to you is why aren't the rivers around here filled with skamania fish? As soon as they were no longer planted in the Wind river they completely disapeared. When they slashed the numbers planted in the Washougal the numbers declined drastically! same with the East Lewis river. Why havent they take a strong hold in deer creek on the Stilly? Why haven't they taken hold in the Klickitat and the dozens of other rivers they have been planted in? There is no introgression because when they spawn in the wild they do not reporduce( at least on the west coast) A study done on the Kalama has shown that even though progeny of hatchery fish spawning in the river vastly outnumber wild progeny theunclipped returning adults are almost exclusively of wild decent. It is clear in every study i have seen that hatchery steelhead when spawning in the wild here on the west coast they do not reproduce!
The famed Deschutes river in central Oregon is now in what is called reproductive failure meaning that the fish spawning are not replacing themselves at a sustainable rate. Studies have also shown 70% of spawners in the Deschutes are out of basin hatchery strays. Hatchery steelhead for whatever reason reproduce extremely poor in the wild and Skamanias are a no exclusion. I have an empty river to prove it