Deep pocketed Alexandria Morton’s multi organizations that she heads do have the backing and capability to media blitz from many directions the farmed salmon industry that she is against.

I haven’t checked lately, but several years back if there was a negative piece about Canadian farmed salmon most of it could be traced back to her network.

No, it's not. Pen-raised Atlantics are given chemicals and hormones. Triploid rainbows are created by exposing the eggs to higher temperatures than normal.

Having raised trips I can tell you they are the most under performing fish I ever raised. Crap really. Now on the hormones and the like. I sure hope your a organic vegetarian because if you consume dairy products, feed lot beef, poultry, or farmed produce then you have em. Now if the thought is this stuff is bad convince the feds across the board as picking on one product due to a philosophical view then your argument will be ignored. Which is why much of this goes on. Best thing is to grow your own food and beef ( grass fed at the least ) or by it local from someone that does. Whatever it takes and many folks do but it can be spendy for urban folks and then you always have those who cannot raise their food due to location or lack of knowledge. Simple solutions to a complex problem seldom exist.

so trips and other hatchery stock arent given chemicals, and medications for things like............... whirling disease?

Amen, Triploids are the worst thing that ever happened to Washington stillwater trout fishing.
Over promise, under deliver.
Complete waste of money by WDFW!
SF

I believe it was your humble yet truly wonderful Legislature that mandated the use of Trips by WDFW. I know they looked into creating some themselves but I don't think it worked very well.

Only thing those trips are even decent for is fertilizer

I don't really care who approved it.
The triploid program sucks.

Can anyone name a lake where they've been planted and actually grown to the size they are supposedly able to reach?
I'm not taking Rocky Ford pond monkeys or Rufus Woods fish.
They planted them in Dry Falls and they were a complete flop.

Most are harvested right after they are planted....see the fiasco that happens every year at Beaver lake when they announce they are going to plant them.
The state doesn't need to provide welfare payments to a private hatchery just for jumbo trout. They can do that themselves with diploids.
Look at some of the past stocking reports. How much does it cost to staff a truck to drive to a lake to plant 10 of the stupid things?

Note to WDFW....there were big carryover trout in our lakes long before triploids became the in thing.
SF

Lake Stevens's big trout population is a good example of fry plants being the better option imo. Those fish are firm in the meat and tasy. Not to mention those fish fight a lot harder than catchable or jumbo triploid planted fish. I hit a 3lb '90s out of Stevens that spooled my ultra light setup twice before I could get it to the net, never had a planter of any size take more 10yds of line on a run.

The leg passed a law about how certain moneys were to be spent. WDFW is supposed to comply with state law.

I know that WDFW would prefer fry plants on lowland lakes. But they work only in trout-only lakes. Add in other species and the fry get eaten so you need legals.

Carryovers are (were) generally rare in western WA because of a tapeworm . The fry would survive the first summer but not the second. So, again, you are lacking the larger fish.

Currently, or at least until recently, WDFW was trying to grow fewer but larger legals. Their information is that, say, 3 10-12" fish was received better than 5 that were 8-10. Hatchery capacity is based on pounds of fish per gallon of water. Raise bigger ones, get fewer.

There is the possibility that, especially with rainbows, you could switch broodstocks to one that spawned in the late summer. Perhaps these fish, with only one summer in the lake, would be larger on the second OD that they were in the lake.

There are lots of options but they take money to study. And, there are probably many license buyers who are happy to go out on OD and limit on trout. Period. They and the kids get a mess of fish. Others might be just as happy to get one or two 14,15, 16" fish and perhaps have a season lasting months. There is, unfortunately, no on-size-fits-all solution.

And don't leave out the impact of avian predation. (I could make some snide comment about not wanting to feed the birds with license money fish but then there is the Cowlitz fiasco so I won't.)

If carryovers are (were) rare in western WA, then we've been fishing different lakes. Not all the lakes receive fry plants though.

I agree that many of the fry will be eaten, but those that do survive are a hell of a nice fish that put triploids to shame as far as fight and tablefare.

If one really wants to see the advantage of fry plants, fish a eastern WA put and take lake three years a rehab. The fish that survive until the third year are studs.
If anyone has seen the picture at Mardon of the 10 lb fry plant bow, you'll know what I'm referring to.

Totally agree with the no one size fits all comment. Just not a fan of the triploid program if you can't already tell.
SF

While avian predation can be a problem, much of the impact was on mixed species lakes. The purely trout lakes didn't bring in the corms. When you have been feeding on spiny rays and somebody suddenly dumps in soft-rayed imbeciles switching diets is easy.

Maybe things have changed but carry-overs were fish that had been in the lake two winters. Planted as fry, hit OD in the 8-10" range and the next OD as quite a bit larger.

I know that WDFW is now stocking a lot of different sizes of fish. Some are pretty scummy broodstock but they are also stocking some fairly large legals, especially as the season extends.

Then, there are a few enhancement groups that hold some rainbow in nice disease-free water and feed them up to (if stories are true and what fisherman would lie-Rivrguy) fish capable of stealing rods from the angler not intently watching things.

I was at a lake a few years ago when they were planting some of those fish. Much nicer quality of fish after being raised in ponds versus concrete tanks.
My buddy asked one of the crew planting them if they were Triploids. He seemed pissed off by the questions and said no they weren't.
Maybe Rivrguy can verify that.
It looks like a nice program based on what I saw at the hatchery.
SF

Was at a Lodge in Costa Rica that raises trout in ponds. You can catch one for dinner or C&R, which I did. The fish were 15-25" long and very pretty. Nice fins, nice color. The jumped quite a bit on a flyrod. While I preferred the wild redbands in the river, these were about as pretty as you could want. Raising fish in dirt ponds and modest numbers gets you really nice looking fish.

Crowding them gets lots of fin erosion. At our trap, we saw some hatchery winter steelhead (scale confirmed) that showed only one or two broken rays in the dorsal. Pretty sure they came from a dirt pond and not a concrete raceway.

Like so many things in resource management, we know how to do quality. Just takes leadership and money.

Melanie and I volunteer to help load and transport diploids that are raised at the Satsop Springs hatchery in the early spring for planting in certain area lakes. These are pond raised, disease-free, and are released after being raised to a 3 to 8 lb. size. They are unbelievable fighters, they def. will take a rod out of a holder if not attended to. Airial acrobatics from fish that size are close to heart stopping on ultra-light gear. They are fairly ignorant fish, though, and don't hold-over from one year to the next (really a shame, one of those with cherry red meat would be the ticket!), but are decent eating as they don't use the same crap the state feeds their hatchery fish. Very oily, usually go in the smoker. We can always use more volunteers, you too can find out where these fish go! Bob R

You called triploids frankenfish, with no mention of hatchery fish in general. It's ok that you didn't know how triploids are produced.

Triploids may be less GMO than the average selectively bred fish. The eggs are "shocked"; no new material is added, no trait is being bred for.
Hatchery fish are more GMO than triploids.