Caught a nice hatchery steelie yesterday on the Cowlitz which had a 1/4" hole in the gill plate. Was this done at the hatchery, or was this done by some parasite? Never seen, or heard of this before.
Also, we've been trying this free drifting thing the last 3 weekends on the cow without any success. I have only seen a few fish caught this way while we were there. Why is it so popular. Or, are we all doing it wrong?
Ooh, Todd hope that boot you caught smokes up ok for ya Have a Merry Christmas!!!

[ 12-23-2001: Message edited by: Cyclops ]

A hole in the gill plate is a recycled fish, one that has already been to the hatchery and trucked back down river to hopefully be caught. The hole is one of the ways they keep track of fish that get back to the hatchery multiple times.

[ 12-24-2001: Message edited by: Firedog ]

Your fish is a recycled steelhead from the hatchery, and was taken down river for a second trip, most are in good shape, as of late quite a few late summerruns. A few years ago they even used a small plastic tag with numbers on each, the same type as was used on rockfish in the ocean for tracking movements.

WDFW now punch the fish (steelhead) so they can keep count of how many steelhead really return to the hatchery.

For way to many years, Tacoma had gotten away and taken credit for way to many returning fish, becuase each fish in the past, which was not caught by sport fishermen, was recycled and counted every time it returned to the hatchery (many as ten times!)

That made Tacoma look realy good! But the counts on the Cowlitz were really false in the past. Now, we can see what the trout hatchery is really producing.

Tacoma will never again see these false numbers of returning steelhead adults, that at one time reached over 20,000 in numbers.

Cowlitzfisherman

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

Cy,
surprises me that you didnt pick up anything free drifting, almost all the guides utilize this method. A small shot of eggs and a small weight usually does the trick. I have spent the past three weekends there as well. A variety of methods have worked for us. Let me know how you were free drifting and i will let ya know.
Matt