I haven't seen anyone discuss the more basic problem with hatcheries - they don't work that well. In recent years, the effective return from hatcheries has been documented to be as low as .5% of the plants, while wild stock fish in the same river get 3 to 5% returns. The hatchery fish have been bred to be raisable in hatcheries, but the same traits that make them successful in cement ponds chasing liver pellets don't allow them to thrive in the rivers.

This is not so much an indictment of hatcheries per se as it is about hatchery management, and the state of knowledge about fish raising. I suspect that the hatchery managers are trying to improve, but they, like everyone else, can only do so much in the budget situation we have today.

I don't hate hatcheries. I just think they are viewed by the angling public as being a magic solution that will keep the fish coming, when the data show that they are becoming less and less effective as the years go on.