Surplus Steelhead Planted in Lakes

https://l.smartnews.com/g3Hwx/IGdRYN
Such BS!

"Regional hotspots). Really? I have fished for these fish for a couple of years. The fish don't bite well and almost all end up dying in the lakes. It has been pretty much a failure. Fish have been observed in very shallow water around the edges of the lake trying to dig redds. Not interested in biting much. Of course WDFW wants the recs to think that the State is providing a real fishing opportunity for them.

You can do it if you get them back on feed and we used a floating pellet. After that what we found is that the fish really do not become aggressive for several months like Sept for winter steelies. Lot more to it but we found you would loose about half to simply not making it.

When we were working traps for steelhead most of the females melted right after spawning. The males more or less believed in "Spawn till you die" and kept looking for ladies. We even had some still in the creek in August having been isolated by the low flows.

The females, on the other hand, turned immediately to feeding. We had a few that, in May/June were plugged with Carpenter Ants. We had an emergence going on. I think most of the females go right to eating but are likely looking for adult bugs on the surface and (probably) fish.

If the female has not spawned or has retained eggs she likely will try to spawn.

If this is to work, at all, I think that only females that are fully spawned should be used. Not fully spawned females and males will have other things on their mind besides eating.

In the lake I fished, I noticed quite a few dead and scabbed up fish within one to two months after being planted. Many seemed to deteriorate pretty fast.The first fish I caught two years ago was a chrome female with loose eggs.

WDFW also plants "used up" trout broodstock in lakes, too.

I avoid those lakes.

Think this is a great idea. I want more opportunity not less. Would love it if they would do this up here in NS. Hey Wallace hatchery put some surplus fish in our lakes.

It should be a special set of lakes. No access to anadromous waters. Can't have a flowing outlet as they might then "kelt out" and come back next year and the males may go find some females.

Sky, the opportunity is there.Hopefully will be in your area. The catching has been a big disappointment so far. This will be the third year planting some of the lakes with steelies. In Grays Harbor lakes the catch has been very poor so far.

Here's the choices. They can sell them to the buyer for (probably) dog food or fertilizer. They can bury them or use them in nutrient enhancement although most of those are done in the fall (spring would would work super). Or, they can plant them in lakes and some will be caught and some of the anglers will be happy.

None of the options are perfect.

I think, as Rivrguy alluded to, that some time pent getting them back to feeding and using females as the primary stocked fish would improve success. That would take some time and some money.

The key thing is to plant or recondition them first you need to get the fish into the reconditioning vessel or planted in the lake as soon as possible after arriving at the hatchery. If you hold them you need to treat for fungus weekly, have very good flows and best if the water depth is around 4 ft. If the hatchery sets on the fish for any length time things go down hill fast. One should remember that the hatchery's main concern is eggtake so it is a balancing act at best.

Shouldn't "they" be able to take a single facility (say Lake Aberdeen) and truck in steelhead for reconditioning? Pick the females, pick the best looking ones, and work on those?

Do you know if they are putting SRCT into lakes?

CM, I knw that lots of the surplus steelies are going to the foodbanks and are not being sold to the buyer or buried. And , of course, some are put in the lakes. BY SRCT do you mean searun cutthroat? If so , the Eels Springs hatchery on the Skokomish have beem planting cutthroat in the lakes for many years. These are broodstock cutts who originally came from Hood Canal searun cutthroat. Not into lakes, of course, but the trout hatchery on the Cowlitz has a cutthroat program but, I might be wrong, but I think they plant them back into the Cowlitz.

Wow that's such a bummer to hear that the stocking in lakes with excess steelhead doesn't provide a very good angler opportunity. I was looking for some silver lining on all the excess fish that will exist this year due to the complete shutdown of the Chehalis...

I’d rather have them recycled down river, but I know that isn’t much of an option nowadays.
SF

It was my understanding that when recycling of winter steelhead was tried that fish often beat the truck back to the hatchery.

PNW, they seem to lose their aggressiveness in the lake environment after they have been planted. Of course, they have other things on their minds. In one lake in Grays Harbor that has a dam, you could see fish ganged up against the dam trying to get out of the lake.