this weekend i fished the south fork of the nooksack (along with everyone and his brother) and found lots of salmon, still bright, with there tails cut off, or nearly cut off. these fish weren't spawned, or didn't looke like they were, There were no belley slits in the hens, just there tails nearly cut off. has anyone ever heard of this, or seen this? was really wierd, at first i thought maybe they were hatchery spawned fish that were dumped back into the river for nutrients, but none of these fish looked like they had spawned or had been spawned (i could be wrong, i didn't look at them real close) i just noticed there tails. I'm sure interested in what people have to say.

I've seen this tail cutting phenomena before, way back in the early 90's when I worked for WDFW out of Montesano on the coast. I was on a crew that walked on the many streams counting redds and live & dead fish. There was another crew however, that worked along side us and they gathered all the biological & genetic info (scales, weight, and length of fish). The fish were netted and bonked and then sampled. The fish then had their tales cut completely off, so that the same fish wasn't sampled twice. This may be the answer to your question.

Interesting, Bobber. So what was the biggest King you saw netted and whacked? And where. And when do we leave...

Bruce:

I should of added that the only fish that got bonked and tails whacked off were the Chums. Boy oh boy though, that S.Willapa use to pump out some kings! Personally, however, I don't think you can beat the Vedder for the size and quantity of big nooks. One problem however, these fish are stinky whites! It's fun to have your arms pulled off after a typical 20 fish October day

I think I'm going to hang up the rod till the winter chromers start to appear, time to smoke the freezer, and shoot some craps in Reno this weekend.

Glad to see you're doing your part to keep money pumping into the economy, Matt. Good luck at the tables. The woman and I will be doing our part in Vegas in a couple weeks...

Bobber, the ODFW cuts the upper heads off coho's already counted so they don't get counted twice. As mentioned, this is likely the same principle you found on a chum run. Now days they properly leave the carcasses in the rivers as nutrients fo the eco-system.

Have fun in Vegas Bruce. You'll love the latest changes. And I dare you to ride on the outside seat on the Stratosphere Tower roller coaster. You look 850 ft. down to the ground, then start your 'ride'. At least you won't lose money on it.

RT