I realize I may have offended some folks with my stance about good hatchery fish = dead hatchery fish.
Here's an alternative if you happen to catch a hatchery hen that you do NOT want to retain.
Poke two holes in it's belly cavity with your fillet knife.... one forward, one aft. This will guarantee maximum "ventilation" of the belly cavity with river water. The fish will undoubtedly survive the insult (just look how many survive seal bites in the belly), but her eggs will not. Even if she spawns, the eggs will have already been rendered non-viable. However she will have penetrated deep enough into the drainage where her spent carcass can contribute to the nutrient biomass of the ecosystem.
You will have done the system two favors:
1) Ridding the wild run of a point source of genetic pollution.
2) Contributing another carcass to the nutrient load in the system... and naturally distributing said nutrients in a better location than human hands ever could.
Yeah...... but will she still dig a redd and dump her load? And if she does what if a 23 lb. wild buck wastes some of it's precious milt on those worthless eggs?
I still like Plan A, Seek and Destroy. I'll toss the carcasses back in the river, I promise.
