Hatchery vs Wild fish - A topic that never fails to generate considerable discussion and debate. This thread is no different.

Although I would note that when we start debating the differences in PHoS and PNoB, we've either gone too far over the edge, or the intellectual capacity of the PP clientel has increased to the point where we all need to spend more time fishing, and less time behind the computer......

Having said that.... As RiverGuy mentioned, I'm also concerned that much, if not all, of the research on this topic involves steelhead, but we automatically assume the results appy to Chinook and coho. That's not a fair application of the results. Steelhead are a very different than Chinook or coho. They sorta look alike, but past that, they're a completely different animal.

Perhaps the most striking difference is their reproductive potential. For example, I know of no commercial fisheries that target steelhead on a large scale. I realize the Tribes catch some steelhead and sell them to the fish mongers at Pike Place market, or wherever, but this is not a major fishery. However, both Chinook and coho are pursued wherever they're found by industrial-size commercial fishing outfits. The reason is their reproductive potential is considerably larger (provided we give Chinook and coho a decent chance). We've all seen huge schools of coho, but I've never seen a huge school of steelhead. So given the differences in reproductive potential, we should not be saying that whatever applies to steelhead applies to salmon. Rather, we should be conducting more of the same experiments on Chinook/coho salmon as we do for steelhead.

However, I'm not the first person to make this observation........