Is JoJo a guide? When we used to be able to catch and release the Sky natives in March and April I used to see him a lot. He is probably the only drift boat that actually rowed AROUND me when I was bank fishing by myself in a drift, never even touching the water....and he did it every time I saw him. Thanks JoJo, I wish other fisherman had 1/100th of your fishing etiquette. He was always in a Wild Hair.....one of your old boats Bob?

I've always said if you wanted an answer to a question regarding WA fishing, this is where you ask it.

What are the cons (negatives) of a state-wide broodstock program for WA steelhead? Reading the Mr. Gibbons' statements he does not seem to support it much.

It seems to me the way it should be. Can't a wild fish be ripened and spawned in a hatchery facility without killing them nowadays? (So the 10-12% of hens and 1% of bucks may come back again and spawn?) So you clip the babies fins, release them after two years, and they come back as "hatchery" a couple of years later. If the "hatchery" fish figure out how to spawn naturally, their offspring come back as "wild" fish, and can compete "naturally" for spawning areas themselves with no harm done.

God knows the hatchery program around here could use some new blood. For 30 years now the Reiter/Tokul facility has been taking the eggs and sperm from fish that 1) can make it through the small holes in nets, and 2) do not bite anything once they reach their terminal. What do you get after 30 years? A 4-5 pound fish that won't bite.

I know, Smalma, that the state is worried about losing the "earliness" of the Chambers Creek stock, striving for a Nov/Dec hatchery return. But what about this year when the stupid things appear to have fallen off the edge of the earth, and almost NONE make it back? On the heels of last years best return in many, many years? The natives in the Sky system seem to have found their way OK home before the rivers closed.

Why no bag the winter Chambers Creek stock and go with a broodstock program on the Sky system so we could have good fishing in Jan, Feb, March, and April, keeping fish (big, strong fish) without adipose fins and releasing those with adipose fins? Anything could be better than this year around here, anything.....

Your thoughts?

Ike