Yeah, Preston, those are the same things I had heard. It makes sense that a fish that had stayed in the river longer, gotten bigger and wiser, would be able to pack on the pounds faster and easier upon hitting the saltchuck. Combine that with a fish that stays out for three or four years instead of two and I suppose you've got a recipe for BIG fish.

Though I'm sure that the "decision" to stay in the river longer is mainly genetic, the environment that those genetics developed in probably had more carcasses in it than the environment does now. I'd think that the current, more sterile, environment would select against fish that spend longer in streams.

That's an aspect of "seeding" rivers with carcasses, or (gasp!) letting more fish spawn and die in the river, that I hadn't thought about before. Smolts in seeded streams are certainly bigger and stronger when they leave, but it seems that such an environment would also encourage mulit-year stream residence prior to out-migration, perhaps resulting in bigger fish.

Hmmm...anyone heard of any research on that one?

Fish on...

Todd.
Fish on...

Todd.