Drifted the NF Lewis yesterday and I saw something that I did not understand. Hope someone can put some logic to this. Two sleds come up the river with big rails on front. WDFW boats I figure. Well there is a guy standing up front they would go over the river find some spawning fish harpoon the fish and then whack it in half. Then move on to the next fish. It sure looked like they were killing fish trying to spawn. Now why would they do this. They must have killed over 50 fish as I watched. The other thing that was odd the boats were Or. regestered. Any one know what this was all about??

Killin' spawning hatchery fish???

Did you happen to see what type of fish they were whackin in half? Silvers, humpies?

Looked like silvers and maybe chinook. I say let the hachery fish spawn in the rivers.

I think it's best not to let hatchery fish spawn in the rivers. Just my opinion, definately don't want to start anything .

~ Dr Pepper

The guys from the hatchery have been out each Thursday counting spring chinook carcasses and are starting about now to count fall chinook carcasses. They also spear them and bring them into the boat to take samples. I suspect that is what you were seeing.

Kalamabama

More then likely they were counting spawned out fall chinook or early run coho.

It is common practice for WDFW to harpoon these spawned, or what appears to be spawned out chinook and coho to see how many fish have successfully spawned. They also count how many were wild and how many were hatchery spawned fish. They also look and check each fish with a "won" to see if it is carrying a coded wire tag in their head. The reason why you see them "whacking" the fish almost in half is to keep count. Once they cut the fish into half, they know not to count it again. WDFW have done this on the Cowlitz for at least the last 16 years. Hopes this answers your question.

It's good to see that sport fishermen are keeping a sharp eye out on our rivers.

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????