A few weeks ago I was fishing on the Kalama. I had caught a nice steelie and had it on the bank when on of those State fish checkers came by. She looked my fish over and told me that it was a 2 year old brood stock. She knew because there was an "IT" branded on its side. I have caught numerous fish in the past and always thought that the marks on my fish were from net marks or rocks as they push up river. That was the first time I have heard or seen the state branding fish!!!

Addict,

Branding - freeze branding, that is - is one of many ways of marking groups of fish. Like every method, it has limitations, and it seems to be less often used these days.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I learned this from the fish checker on the Kalama also and was very surprised. She also told me that they brand summer and winter fish differently. The winter fish are branded with the "It" on the right side and the summer fish have an "S" on the left side. Also, winter fish get the white tag and summer fish get a yellow tag. Next time I see her, I hope to remember to ask her about a blue tag I found last year on an unmarked fish. I was about to bonk it, but threw it back because it wasn't clipped.

By the way, she came by yesterday and said they had recycled 1,400 winter fish so far this season and were still getting good numbers of fresh, bright fish up at the hatchery.