Some of you may not know, but I have been doing my senior project on salmon. For part of my project I must interview an individual. I came away from the interview with a totally different outlook. This is going to apply to some of the previous posts about salmon, and some of it is going to apply directly to the NF Lewis.

Q) Did the original genetics that were used in these hatcheries, come from the Lewis River or were they imported from somewhere else?

A) The Coho were native to the Lewis River and the winter steelhead stock is native to the Lewis. Spring Chinook were introduced. I’m sure there was always spring Chinook in the Lewis before the dams. After they built the dams, the wild run of spring Chinook went away. So that is an imported stock, and I think it came from the Cowlitz originally. Same thing with the summer steelhead, that’s actually a Skamania stock from the Skamania hatchery off of the Washougal. There is more and more tule Chinook out here, and there probably from Spring Creek or above Bonneville, I would guess. The cutthroat were a native stock, we had a cutthroat program. We cut the program because it was too effective. They came back so strong that they were impacting the wild fish. Over the years, before my time there were other stocks that where introduced and didn’t work. A lot of times, that’s the case, because they’re lost. When you bring in a stock that is not a native to your system they use a little different niche than the native fish do. They do really good for about four or five years and then they use up the resources in that niche that they have. The other fish (native) that are in the watershed, they are basically using a different area, and they’ve done that for a reason. They will find a niche that their successful at and they will stay in it. And, the other stocks fail for that reason.

Q) Have hatcheries stopped transferring fish genetics and populations from foreign rivers?

A) For the most part they really have. It’s gone to what scientists call a locally adaptive broodstock. What that means is that you can’t expect an animal that has adapted over thousands of years to live in this niche. There from someplace else, so they’re totally lost. Again, they will work for a short period of time, but they seem to always fail. It’s unusual that they will survive. In the 70’s we learned a lot about managing these resources. In the 70’s there were fish stocks moved all over the place. Any more of that is a no-no.

Those are just two questions. I would also like to add that they randomly mate fish. It is two males to every female. They do not take a big fish from here and a big fish from there and put them together. They don't do this because of the worries of imbreading. It would probably work for a few years, but after awhile, defects would most likey occure because of imbreading.

Also, any of you that are worried of hurting the "native" chinook salmon or summer steelhead on the Lewis, don't be. It is (I wouldn't say no such thing), very very unlikely that there are any left. If you are one of those "wild" fish lovers, then take it for whatever you do.

I just found this interesting, and it really opened my eyes. Take this for what you want, I'm not here to argue anything or prove any facts. I'm just throwing it out there for information.

Matt

Whatever they are doing on the summer steelhead ---- Hope they don't change a thing!!! Large numbers of ultra-bitey 9-14 pound fighters. Summer steelie fishing just doesn't get any better than that.

Interesting thoughts RipDatLip. I think we would be hard pressed to find the true desendant of the fish that swam our rivers 100 years ago on any of the rivers we fish today.

To bad about the cutthroat program working to well. Sounds like a lot of BONKING was going on before they cut the program off. But there we are protecting the "wild" fish again at the expense of fisherman.

Cool about the summer fish though. Must be a hatchery program working up some nice BONKABLE fish. I am with you Thumper. Lets do that summer thing on all of our rivers. BONK ON!

I think you're missing something here. The majority of the people on this board SUPPORT wild fish cnr, and will do so voluntarily when it's not mandated. You are in the minority on this board, in case you haven't noticed. (It isn't apparent that you have, so I thought I might point that out).

And you don't have to put "bonk" in all caps for us to figure out how serious you are about it. Sheesh. We get it, already.

Skywalker

I never said I wanted to BONK fish with an intact adipose fin, WILD/NATIVE or HATCHERY ( not all of the fish are clipped) I have even released fish that are BONKABLE. The more hatchery clipped fish the better is my feelings. Useing caps for BONK is just plain fun. We should all try and have some, I know I am.