Originally Posted By: Abu-Loomis
It's pretty damn obvious whether you've got a hatchery inbred in your hands or a true native steelhead. As far as I can tell I've never had a problem telling the difference anyways...you can usually make a positive ID before you even get the fish to the beach/boat. There ARE wild fish left and there IS a huge difference between wild and hatchery steelhead.


Jake,

I'm well aware of the difference of hatchery/native steelhead... I've chased them for years.... I've even been lucky enough to handle some sizable ones... thumbs

But one thing Freetool stands strong behind is what he reads, he'll keep preaching it and if it's in print it must be real....

Spring Chinook is where I feel there is an error in the belief in "native" fish #'s... Cookie cutter natives just don't make sense to me, not when a large % are identical to hatchery fish in size/dimensions.... Sure their are wild spring chinook left but I think its a bit more of a foggy # than what we're trained to believe...

What ever happened to the big native spring chinook I used to see when I was a kid on the CR? Perhaps they started clipping them??

Perhaps someday Bonneville dam will count hatchery vs wild chinook? I wonder why they don't at this point anyhow? moose

Another great example, the Lewis river coho fishery. It's a joke... Some years you catch very few mis-clips and other years they're 30% of what you catch... rofl

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