Today I stopped by the hatchery on one of my local rivers and got to talking to one of the workers. We were talking about the lack of winter steelhead and how bad the year has been. After going back and forth about what we thought the causes were, we started talking about the spring chinook run on the river. I didn't know anything about it so I started asking questions. The first thing he told me is that they have been getting back 7 to 10 thousand fish a year to the hatchery. And at their capacity, they can only use about 900,000 eggs, so at an average of 5,000 eggs per female, 360 fish(if it was 50/50 male/female) would replenish the run. I asked him what they did with the extra fish and he said some of them (three thousand last year) are put into trucks and taken upstream so they can naturally spawn. The problem with this, he said, was the fish would turn around and come right back to the hatchery. The other extra fish would be caught and killed and then put back into the river for nutrient enhancement.

Why does this sound funny to me? Even if the hatchery needed 500 fish, there would still be a 6,500 to 9,500 fish excess, why can't we fish for these extra fish that eventually are killed just to be put back into the river? The reason I was told this run is closed to fishing is because it is endangered, how are killing thousands of fish helping this run? Is there anything we can do as sportfisherman to make a change here? I just don't understand why it is legal to kill two hatchery steelhead on a river that never got their escapement this year, and last year got under a hundred fish returning. While we can not fish for the thousands of extra spring kings that will eventually go to waste.

Well Im confused
S W J

SWJ I will show you in a couple month that these fish are no where near "endangered" and as a matter of fact I think that they have the strongest run besides silvers. Kinda funny how that works but oh well.
They should open a C&R season on them or a 5 fish per year limit. thats just my thoughts and opions.
That run of fish is goin good all summer long.
but your up there goin after trout I hope lol

PEACE
T

I don't know which run you are talking about, but odds are it is the wild run not the hatchery run that is endangered. And the bottom line is native fish die from hooks and other mishaps while fishing for hatchery fish. Then there are also the morons who like to kill the natives even when illegal because it was the only fish they caught.

It may not be a bad idea to leave a few rivers in this state unmolested for a while. They could use it.

If Drifter is correct and more than likely he is in this case, then one thing that we as "sportsfishermen" can do is to promote "sportsmanship". This might include one or more of the following:
1. abide by the rules
2. learn the facts and help educate rather than incite others (ed. I'm not saying that this is what you intended SWJ but the good information you provided needs more context to be completely understood. Maybe this board can help in that regard, but everyone knows that incomplete information has the potential to be as counterproductive as incorrect information.)
3. get involved with a sportsman group of your choice for the protection and enhancement of any runs or habitats that are in need (especially local)
4. put more back in than you take out
5. network on Bob's Board