WRONG!

While the progeny of that pairing will hatch as gravel-borne wild fish, the story does NOT end there.

Those wild-borne hybrids co-mingle with truly wild fish.... competing for territory and sustenance, consuming resources within a riverine rearing habitat limited by a fixed carrying capacity. But because of their crappy genes, they fail to make it thru the relentless selection pressures presented at each life stage (fry/smolt/marine subadult/returning spawner), and few if any actually survive to reproductive adulthood.... in most cases, that number is statistically indistinguishable from ZERO!

The hatchery lineage is a genetic dead end unto itself. Allowing it to pollute the population of wild fish thru stray H x W pairings effectively squelches the reproductive potential of the wild fish in the pair. Collectively, the overall effect for the entire escapement is diminished adult recruitment from that brood year. The greater the hatchery stray rate onto the spawning grounds, the greater the reproductive loss.

Hence my crusade that ALL hatchery fish MUST die!

Could the above example (with the chambers creek return timing) be the reason that our native stocks are the strongest returning in March/April now, or is that how it always was before the introduction of hatchery fish?

Keith

Steeliedrew,

There are countless threads on this forum that go into a lot of detail on this subject. Some provide citations to scientific papers and reports. The upshot scientific conclusion is that your buddy doesn't know his azz from a hole in the ground regarding hatchery and wild steelhead genetics.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Good point Salmo, and you might add the jackwagons who preach that there are no longer any truly wild fish.
A fishing license and pole makes you a fisherman, it takes something far different in understand fisheries science.

There ARE wild fish left and there IS a huge difference between wild and hatchery steelhead.

Take your red rubber nose back off, clown season's over....

Quit twisting words, I've never stated there aren't any true wild fish left, I've said time and time again there's a lot of jackwagons like yourself that believe if it has an adipose fin it must be a gravel born child...

Take off the blind folds..

Keith

Define Jackwagon?

On a lot of rivers in Oregon canneries wiped out entire runs so on various rivers there are no actual native fish anymore.

On a lot of rivers in Oregon canneries wiped out entire runs so on various rivers there are no actual native fish anymore.

If you have tribs (for example SW WA) that utilize Chambers creek winter steelhead for hatchery fish that return Oct-Jan with a small handful in Feb, how is it those fish are spawning with the true native stock that returns Jan-April??

I know I've heard plenty of stories of "wild" fish returning from November on in the 60's-70's but that was in a time frame that they didn't clip the hatchery fish so everything was assumed to be "wild"...

Could the above example (with the chambers creek return timing) be the reason that our native stocks are the strongest returning in March/April now, or is that how it always was before the introduction of hatchery fish?