With all the money ive spent on steelhead gear, it seems like i could have bought a mansion by now. No amount of money can compare to that sudden take of a steelhead after standing in ice cold water for weeks without a single bite. I would give my GLoomis for that experience everyday. With all the talk about trying to keep hatcheries open vs. wild fish. I think the main goal needs to be: Get fish into the rivers, whether they are wild or hatcheries, and then improve the conditions of the environment and hatchery facilities. Studies have shown that there is little to NO competition between wild and hatchery fish.

People need to stand up for the greatest fish in the world - THE SEA RUN RAINBOW

Well said! The hatchery/wild interaction is way overstated. People should realize that a hatchery fish is not all that different from a wild one.

THERE IS A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!!!

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Tight Lines!!

Bank Walker I'm with you.

There is a difference but there is a place for both Nates and Brats. I always wonder why there are so many that want to have all one way. the my way or nothing is just a little too one sided fo me.

Ron bob, lets take a little more long term view and look at the continuing declines in hachery success it is constantly going down and if many of the folks who have been around awhile are right so is the diversity of the wild gene pool. The reasons for this are myriad but if you really want to gain insight and acquire more than web site info please take the time to read Salmon Without Rivers A history of the Pacific Salmon Crisis by Jim Lichatowich. I have for over 50 years been watching what Jim so eloquently describes and reports on in this book and find nothing in this book that is bogus or self serving, be warned you will probably at times while reading have sudden burst of racial hatred to European Caucasians but that will pass in time.

Atta boy Cam. How was graduation??

Chris

In addition to Lichatowich's book you might take a look at Bruce Brown's Mountain in the Clouds, written almost twenty years earlier. There is no question that hatchery fish are not only detrimental to wild fish populations, but are a lame and ultimately inadequate effort to keep fish in our rivers.

Chris,
graduation went great. Now im working my butt off 5 days a week, but by the end of summer i should have enough saved up for a boat. How'd things go for you?

- CAM

Bankwalker,

What studies are you talking about? I think you may have confused competition between wild and hatchery fish with the genetic consequences of having wild and hatchery fish in the same place. There is little argument that juvenile hatchery fish compete with wild fish for places to eat, places to rest, and places to hide. The hatchery fish usually outcompete the wild fish because they are bigger and more aggressive. Adult hatchery fish may compete with adult wild fish for spawning sites, but I think that the juvenile life stage is considered a bigger problem. Here is a link on the subject if you're interested:
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ODFWhtml/InfoCntrFish/sr2qa.htm

There is, however, a lot of argument about whether or not wild populations have suffered genetically as a result of hatchery introductions. Maybe that is what you were referring to.

I have a question for you: do you practice C&R? If so, why? If you see no difference between wild and hatchery fish, why not just kill off the wild fish and fill the rivers up with finless wonders?

I guess what I'm asking is this: do you see any other value to steelhead and salmon other than providing recreation and food to you? I'm very curious to see what this board has to say about that.

Bank Walker, When I was your age an old timer, who was at the time about 15 years younger than I am now, told me about Canadian author Roderick Haig Brown and suggested that I might enjoy "the read". I went to the local library and checked him out and started reading all the books that he had written. There have been many changes to the fishing in the North west since Brown authored those books but the ideals of sport fishing he wrote about I hope will never change. Please do your self a huge favor and take a little recycled advice, read Fishermans Summer by Roderick Haig Brown.

I C&R all wild fish of course, but i think hatchery/wild fish can co-exist successfully.