This may be stupid question time, but....
I was wondering if when hatchery fish return do they always go to the hatchery to spawn? Do some of the hatchery fish spawn in the river? And if they do, are the offspring now considerd wild fish? just wondering

<img border="0" alt="[eat]" title="" src="graemlins/eat.gif" />

Well, Desert Rat, you can probably blame me for you not receiving a prompt answer to your question.....I think I tired everybody out by asking similar questions not long ago. I'm sure some of the ol' timers here are doing this...

The brief answer, as I understand it, is:
By definition alone you are correct, however a truly WILD fish is spawned by wild fish. The offspring will contain the genetic footprint of its' ancestry, and will be river specific.

To further clarify, WILD fish spawned by man, technically become hatchery fish by definition when clipped and released, even though its genetics are purely WILD, except for the learned behaviors of early hatchery survival.

What it boils down to is:

There are no lifeguards to the gene pool......except you.

Happy Fishing!

Thanks for the info. Im new to the board so I didn't read your earlier posts. But that makes perfect sense to me. Thanks again!