I was fishing on the NF Lewis and caught a steelhead that had a Kalama River hatchery tag on it and was wondering if I need to send the tag into someone. I looked in the fishin regs and didn't see anything about it but I'm stil curious because I know the books are often missing information. Also, if anyone knows what the stray rate for kalama fish is I would be interested in hearing. Thanks

Are you talking about a colored (red, blue, yellow, etc.) spaghetti tag or something else?

Yes, the yellow orange colored speghetti tags, I caught two kalama tagged steelhead in the lewis this summer. Sort of makes you wonder what them steelhead think when they make it all the way to the hatchery and get recycled to tidewater. Sort of like it pi$$es them off and they say the hell with this river we'll try another one!

I turned both fish loose because they had a little color, but I was going to yank the tags out of them and send them into the game department, but hell what more could they tell other than that fish came from the kalama. :p
Keith

A certain percentage of fish will stray away from the stream they were born in. That way if fish from one stream gets wiped out (Tootle River when Mt. St. Helens erupted) the fish population will start up again. Some fish will go up the mouth of a river that isn't their's and turn around and head back out again. I've heard of guy's catching dark fish in the saltwater and this is probably what happened. Also when they net the fish in the rivers they might be netting fish that are endangered from another river.

~ Dr Pepper

Dr. Pepper,
You are correct but these fish actually are fish that made it to the kalama hatchery, got tagged, then were recycled back down to the tidewater area. They only tag the hatchery fish..
Keith

The tag on the fish was one of the yellow spaghetti tags but I'm a little confused. Was this fished not tagged until it reached the Kalama hatchery and then it was trucked back down to the columia or was it tagged as a smolt? The fish was really bright compared to most of the steelhead I've been catching lately and covered with sea lice so I thought it was pretty fresh. Also, the tag was kind of corroded.

Talked with the hatchery man at Kalama Falls and he said they just shoot a new tag into the fish every time they come back to the hatchery, then they truck them back downstream. Colors of the tag don't really mean anything special, he said they shoot whatever color tag into the fish they have in front of them. I'm pretty sure these tags aren't put into smolts, though. Never seen anything like that. In fact it would probably impede their swimming ability. They do however shoot coded wire tags into juvenile salmon and steelhead smolts (go into the nose of fish and are invisible to the naked eye). You probably know about that-the fish checkers carry the wand (man them things are spendy) and scan people's catch to make sure it doesn't have the tags. My dad caught one last year with the coded wire tag and three the year before (spring salmon). Your fish was probably just one of those speeding bullet steelhead that headed up the river once, got tagged and released then headed up again. Still doesn't explain why the tag would be rusty though. Maybe Mr. Fishy snuck down to the Willamette for a visit in the [Bleeeeep!] before coming back up the Kalama.