On the last few trips I've made we've boated some nice hatchery jack winter runs (about 18"s or so). Has anyone else caught any? Might be a good sign for the upcoming years..
Keith

Ive caught a few steelhead jacks. They have mainly been late returnig wild fish. One thing about those guys is, They re scrappy little buggers!

Yeah, I usually see the wild jacks in feb and march but I'm talking about the hatchery fish. I don't ever recall catching many jack steelhead down here. We've boated 4 in 6 trips and seen a bankie catch another one.
Could this mean things are going to be on the brighter side for returns in the future?
Keith

Jack returns are used to help predict the following years returns for salmon. They probably help predict steelhead returns. Last year was the first time for me to catch jack steelhead. WDFW'S last creel report for southwest washington did show jack returns for a couple rivers. Check it out. http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/fish/regions/reg5/reg5-2.htm
Hopefully fishing continues to be as good as it has been.

I have seen a few jacks caught down at Blue creek too. First time ever. I think there are alot of 2 salt fish this year, alot in the 5-7 pound range. Usually I see alot in the 9-10 lb range. I hope it is a good sign of the future.

I've seen and heard about more steelhead jacks than normal too. Lots of silver jacks during that run too. During F3, Troy caught a scrappy pappy jack in our boat. Shane lost a fast head shaking steelie that could have been one too, but it bent the rod better. Was it a crackerjack or memorex? (Excuse me buddy, I feel like using the word cracker in posts tonight - nothing personal, I just know you won't get mad at me ). And I've heard of some other jacks on the NF. More than other rivers seemingly. This should bode well for next year's run.

I don't think any one truly knows that answer.

Here at the UW, we keep getting back huge numbers of jacks. No one knows why, and it doesn't have anything to do with the health of the run.

I've always heard it's a good indiction of the run health, but I guess I just don't know.

Good plan on targeting those babies Stlhdr1. Leave those bigger fish for us!