Excellent post Todd, and a very astute analysis of why even broodstock programs will not work in WA if the purpose of the program is to produce fish for harvest.

Despite their proponents good intentions, I have been struggling with whether or not these programs really do any good, and your last post has solidified my position. Until tribal nets are out of the equation, any form of "enhancement" with hatchery fish is voodoo.

In coastal OR streams (non-Columbia), these programs have half a chance to prove their worth. But again, it is predicated on whether or not pulling a pair of wild spawners out of the system is truly more productive in bringing back adult progeny than if that original pair of spawners had just been left to do its thing in the wild. That's a question we will NEVER be able to answer in WA's net-infested rivers.
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!