I finally got out yesterday for a couple of hours for my first look for some summer runs. Just before dark I ran up to a new section of the river I was at. The water was real low, so I tossed on a bobber and jig and covered some ground, to no avail. I was picking everything up to leave and decided to toss on a drift rig and hit one spot that was most likely to hold something. By now it was pretty dark. First cast and what felt like a nice summer run picked it up. It popped off at my feet, so I never saw if it was clipped or not. I immediately baited up, tossed out, and on the first cast got hit agian. This one was much smaller and did not put up much of a fight. I slid it up to find about an 18 inch, unclipped rainbow trout. It was definitely a hatchery fish from it's tore up fin and and blunt nose, was slightly dark, but shaped more like a cutthroat or small summer run. I put it back, made two or three more casts and hooked up into another one that looked the same. There may have been more but by then it was completely dark Does anyone have an idea what they were doing there? When I was a kid the hatchery by my house would dump broodstock from time to time, making for a lot of fun. That is what these fish reminded me of. The river is catch and release other than hatchery steelhead, so I can't imagine why they would have been released.

Might be broodstock from a local lake. WDFW was spreading lots around recently; check their website for what into a lake near you and that might be the source.

I don't really want to say what river, as I don't want any of the anti-hatchery guys to get any ideas, but I don't think there are any hatchery lakes anywhere within 15 miles. I caught these right at the hatchery hole for that stream. No dams on the river or any head water lake that I know of. I

Fish do swim and a ripe fish will look for a place to spawn. We found hatchery-origin fish 3 stream miles from the lake they were stocked into.

Krijack,

Some steelhead smolts residualize and become resident trout in the system, especially if the getting is good in the river (enough flows and good food source).

Maybe those fish you got into decided to stay local?

Take care,

A smelt that stayed in the stream would regrow the fins. Adult hatchery steelhead don't look as ugly as described. That description does fit a resident broodstock fish.