Preston

I read in an interview with Kurt Kramer(Dist. biologist - Puget Sound)that the hatcheries took specific ratios of fish by month concentrating on December/January. Back when they started, hatchery stocks ran from mid-November through April, but they made specific efforts only to collect a small percentage of those late fish. At least thats what he said.

Your right about the selection against early returning natives by netting and C&K fisheries. I doubt this was done deliberately to maintain separation of hatchery and wild stocks, but at least on PS streams with pretty healthy wild runs like the Sky, Snoqualmie, and Green, WDFW won't budge on their early C&K seasons.

Reel Truth

Your right about the Skamania summer-runs. I don't know how they propogated this run, but they do seem more robust than the winter brats, at least comparing the two in Puget Sound streams. Two-salt Skamanias seem to be bigger, and there also appears to be a higher percentage of three-salts from year to year. Its amazing that these fish originated from a single stock and seem to maintain good sport qualities and ocean survivability throughout the range they've been planted. The fish are doing well in the Great Lakes as well.

[This message has been edited by obsessed (edited 06-23-2000).]