Originally Posted By: freespool
You seem to think that there are a large number of unclipped hatchery fish.
Can you supply any data that shows a low ad clip rate?
Or is this just a gut feeling?
All the numbers I've read seem to indicate your wrong in your assumptions, but If you have hard data then let's see it.
Here are the hatchery ad-clip release summaries for the CR uprivier spring stock. Brood years 2004 and 2005 will yield the majority of what we all see out there.

It comes out to about 90%. Maybe just a tad under.

2004

http://www.rmpc.org/reports/AS121444.txt

2005

http://www.rmpc.org/reports/AS121478.txt



Evidence? Depends on how you look at it......

At the age of 35 I've had the chance to meet hundreds of CR fisherman and many who have polaroids as well as pictures from the early times... Ironically a lot of the Spring Chinook that were caught then were significantly bigger on average.... It wasn't uncommon to see pictures from late March and early April of limits of 20+lb fish.. Of course back then, very few if any were clipped so it was hard to distinguish the "true" native fish...

How is it that as time has progressed the "non-clipped or native" fish seem to follow the same trend in size as the hatchery fish???

On a different subject it sure is funny how the winter steelhead hatchery fish have turned to nothing more than 6-8 lb cookie cutters for the most part yet their true native brothers still exist from high teens to 30+lb fish....

Coincidence on the springers hatchery vs. wild? I think so.......

Is it inbreeding? I don't know, but as time has progressed the hatchery fish have shrunk in size....

Here's a question for you... What was the smallest spring chinook run to cross Bonneville dam?

Keith thumbs
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It's time to put the red rubber nose away, clown seasons over.