Hatchery fish - keep or release?

charles sullivan said:
The eason to kill hatch fish is to assure that they don't unsuccesfully breed with a wild fish. Since the wildx hatch offspring die, you are essentially killing the wild mating partner.

Hatchery genetics invading hte wild gene pool is often a red herring of sorts. The more important issue is not them succesfully passing on thier genes it's them unsuccesfully spawning with a wild fish.
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This.
 
They should try branding, like with cattle.
;)
 
when living coast side, my chest freezer was usually pretty well stocked with vacuum bagged hatchery King's and steelhead during the year.
Our hatchery King's were somewhat of an exception to the norm, however, as there was in place a program in which transport tubes were left bankside in tidewater at the most producing runs, and the locals, whether fly or bait/gear fishermen, after landing a prime wild buck (my biggest landed buck went to the hatchery in a tube) or female would place them in a tube and run them up the road 7 miles to the Cedar Creek hatchery to be milked, which helped maintain the healthy and vibrant hatchery returns.
As the crowds began showing up in force, however, and the small team of key players in the program aged out, the transport tubes had disappeared from the bank by the time I moved off the coast, and the hatchery was relying 100% on seine capture of wild and hatchery mating donors.
The hatchery remains an excellent model of how to do it right.
 
Stonedfish said:
Not steelhead related, but there are a lot of unclipped hatchery fish being released.
You can keep unclipped fish in some marine areas or only during certain times. It may feel good to release a unclipped fish, but if you fish Puget Sound for coho you’ve undoubtedly released unclipped hatchery fish.
I have nothing against hatchery fish. Without them we’d have a lot less opportunities.
I just personally wish all hatchery fish were clipped regardless of what program they are produced from.
SF
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I can't remember , it's either Chinook or Coho, but in CA they only clip 1/4 of the hatchery fish and then extrapolate the data.
 
charles sullivan said:
Hatchery genetics invading hte wild gene pool is often a red herring of sorts. The more important issue is not them succesfully passing on thier genes it's them unsuccesfully spawning with a wild fish.
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Exceptions are granted by use of “often” and “of sorts” language … but it is worth a mention that one-third of naturally produced O.mykiss in Willamette River tribs that have hatchery plants are hybrids
 

SSPey said:
Exceptions are granted by use of “often” and “of sorts” language … but it is worth a mention that one-third of naturally produced O.mykiss in Willamette River tribs that have hatchery plants are hybrids
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Thanks for pointing that out. It lead me to the 2 papers (or portions of) above. It seems like the hatchery fish in that basin are really succesful at spawning.

We don't and have not seen that in the Puget Sound for the most part. I am admittedly Puget-centric when talking about this. I don't know what the major difference is. It goes to show you how unique each situation is.

According to the ODFW Native Fish Spawner Report that I linked, there signifigant numbers of hatchery spawners in the years that they planted the rivers. Some of those rivers were over 50% hatchery fish on the gravel. Damn! That is a lot of hatchery fish! There was hatchery genetic infuence found on the Cascade river on the Skagit. That is where the hatchery is so it makes sense.
 
Keep hatchery steelhead. To me it's not about genetics but the simple
Deleterious affects of hatchery fish spawning with a wild mate. They will produce
Less offspring that survive it's essentially the same as bonking that wild fish.

Im not in favor of laws but i think everyone should keep all the hatchery steelhead they catch.
It should also not be illegal to kill, tag, then leave your unwanted catch in the woods. It is not axwaste.
 
Rob Allen said:
Keep hatchery steelhead. To me it's not about genetics but the simple
Deleterious affects of hatchery fish spawning with a wild mate. They will produce
Less offspring that survive it's essentially the same as bonking that wild fish.

Im not in favor of laws but i think everyone should keep all the hatchery steelhead they catch.
It should also not be illegal to kill, tag, then leave your unwanted catch in the woods. It is not axwaste.
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isn't that genetics?
 
justme2024 said:
isn't that genetics?
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I agree with Rob on this.

It may be genetics, but if I am intererating what Rob is saying correctly, then what he is saying is that the effect of having a hatchery fish spawn with a wild fish is to have less returning adult fish than if that fish were left alone to spawn with a wild steelhead. So there is a genetic component as to why that is the case but the immediate effect is less adults returning and that is more important than adults returning containing hatchery genetics.

I am unsure if the wild x hatch cross is likely to pump out as many fry, smolts or residualized bows but it has been shown repeatedly to create fewer returning adults. In many systems it creates 0 returning adults from the ocean. So, in that case you have essentially killed the wild adult that spawned with the hatchery fish.
 
This may be a gross over simplification, but (as I understand) hatcheries work by removing the natural selective influences that occur from egg to smolt stage. So it seems very unlikely the resulting loss of genetic fitness could have anything but deleterious effects on wild populations where mixed stock spawning occurs.

Hatchery fish exist to be harvested. Eat them, give them away, fertilize your garden with the carcasses - or the river itself. Just keep them off wild redds.
 
During my steelheading days, I usually fished with someone who was more than happy to take a hatchery steelhead home. In the rare times I fished alone, if I caught a hatchery job I'd usually keep it because I knew lots of folks who would take it off my hands.

I figure I paid for the fish so I may as well give it to someone who eats steelhead. The system worked for decades ... or at least as long as I was fishing for steelhead.
 

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