Bank Walker -
Think outside of the box is never a bad idea - howelse do we learn and advance the state or our knowledge!

If the fish were collect in a trib they would have to be reared in that trib for the bulk of their early life (in the case of hatchery steelhead that is a little over 1 year - from the time the eggs hatch until the following May). To accomplsih what you want would require mimi-hatcheries on each of the tribs.

That would be quite a bit more expensive than the current system. Sources of reliable high quality water is always an issue with siting a hatchery. In addition additional $$s would be needed for capitol developement as well as O&M.

The characteristics that make what we call steelhead are controlled by both genetic and envirnomental factors. In your example if winter fish were trapped at say Woods Creek (hatchery or wild) their eggs collected and then reared say at Reiter. The offspring would return as winter steelhead (genetic) but they would return to Reiter (envirnomental).

Tight lines
Curt