In the new Fishing & Hunting News page 6; it talks about smolt plants again. This subject leaves me puzzled? I fish the North Fork of the Stilly, the Wallace, and the Sky. Now it says that they put in l46,400 smolts in the Stilly, l9,700 in the Wallace, and l43,600 in the Sky. The last few years the fishing has been real slow for me in these rivers. A fish here and there just enough to keep you coming every week-end. Now on the coast the Calawah received 57,500, the Bogey received 85,000, and the Sol Duc 50,000 smolt. The last couple of years, every time I fished the Bogey, the Calawah or the Duc I either caught fish or lost fish and always seems like several put on the bank. Now with the numbers the way that they are; why does it seem that these rivers have such a better fishery return from their smolts?

on the OP rivers the smolt get right to the ocean alot easier... they dont have the garbage you find in the sound to contend with..

What percentage of those smolt would you say return versus Puget Sound river smolt, anybody have some numbers regarding this?

The percentage of return to the Snohomish system is only about 3%.

hey frank good question,
Just like we thought its attrition, to many preditors along the way.3% that sucks, then why is the sky the #2 river in the state its a shorter run from the n. fork of the stilly, than it is from reiter ponds hatcherto the sound? Lets see how the so called experts answer that.

Without going into the many details, as Smalma can run more off the top of his head than I could come up with in an hour, I'll just say this:

Planting more smolts does not automatically mean more adults will return...in some instances, once you get to a certain level of planting, the reverse is true, e.g., the Skagit River.

Quality of brood, quality of smolt, quality of water (fresh and salt), quality of habitat (fresh and salt), harvest pressures, and competitive pressures between themselves, their wild cousins, and the multitudes of wild and hatchery salmon, not to mention resident fish and predators...all of these are relevant factors that control the plant/adult ratio, and all of them are different for every stream.

Fish on...

Todd

Winter Steelhead


Snohomish

2002/03 423,250 smolts planted, hatchery fish sporty caught 2281+, wild fish sporty caught 75+


Skagit

2002/03 421,213 smolts planted, hatchery fish sporty caught 433+, wild fish sporty caught 35+


Both rivers had 400,000+ fish planted in the previous 3 years. These numbers come from WDFW

If any one wants more numbers on different rivers, PM me you E-Mail address.