Just my .02 cents.
First off if you have hatchery fish in a river where I think the problems come in is the fact that when you have one strain hatchery and one wild you then have two different strains. But if you have these fish cross you would create a 3rd strain. hatchery+wild= 3rd strain of DNA coding. But apparently that is not the case.
Look at it this way, if you have a wild fish in a river that is spawning with a hatchery fish, you have big problems there. Consider it a waste because if the two mingle together and produce nothing then you have a wild fish that has wasted her eggs. For instance if that hatchery fish hadn't been there and a wild fish was then you would have had a successful spawning, wild+wild= more wild fish.
But to point the finger at this and only this is a minute problem. One of the big things that makes me sick about SW WA is the fact that the columbia river has been netted for years and years. They had previously started there netting in Feb. and went through may. Now if you have them taking 10-35 pound springers, how is a 12-30 pound winter fish going to make it through the nets. Also, most all of the rivers we have in SW WA are heavily populated with people and houses in the upper reaches of the rivers. I have personally heard of people that snag and fish the wild fish in the upper EF of the Lewis. For instance Rock creek is a tributary that dumps into the upper EF of the lewis. There is a guy that lives on Rock creek that in the years past he would have a derby behind his house where people would fly in from all over the world to catch these wild monsters. The EF has always been known for it's monster winter fish and a majority of them pass right through his backyard. But the only that doesn't have that is the Grays River which still meets it's excapement goal of wild winter steelhead. Another key pointer about that river is it has a seperate creek (west fork) that dumps into the grays where they raise and release the hatchery steelhead. This hatchery being located on the west fork has eliminated the intermingling of the hatchery fish and the wild fish in the upper reaches of the Grays river. Perhaps, this is why this river still does so well. Maybe it's because it is in the lower reaches of the columbia system, which equals less predators man and wild that they have to come into contact with before they can get to the ocean. '
There is too many problems to point one finger but it all will help.
But I really want my hatchery fish back in the EF of the Lewis.

[ 06-11-2001: Message edited by: stlhdr1 ]