I took a hatchery summer run buck out of the Raging yesterday, a fish obviously from the Snoqualmie since the Raging doesn't have a summer run. I was just wondering if a pair of hatchery summer run fish spawn in a river such as the Raging, will those fish return as summer fish to the Raging, or will they just head for the hatchery of their parents?
Just curious, thanks for any replies..

They would return to the river they were born in, which would be the Raging.

most likely the pair of hatchery steelhead would not successfully spawn on a small tributary to the washougal i do spawning surveys and every winter there are clipped hatchery steelhead spawning together but never an increase in fish over all simple fact is that hatchery fish are very poor at natural reproduction.

I am new to the steelheaddin' thang and I was wondering what the difference is between a "summer run" and a "winter run" fish. If you can catch a summer run fish in December, then it apparently isn't a chronology issue.

Summers enter the rivers in the summer while they are "green" and mature in fresh water. They don't spawn until late winter or early spring. Wild winter-runs are more mature when they enter the rivers and spawn in the spring (Feb - early June). That's why there are both summers and winters in some rivers at the same time (now).

Schlab
There is a slim chance their offspring would survive. Most fish have a genetic makeup that is designed to their specific river system and timing of the system. For example in the fraser river alone they have identified 47 different genetic subspecies of sockeye salmon. That is one of the major causes for our inability to produce more fish than we can catch. Their is a really good book that covers the failure of our hatchery system. "Salmon without Rivers" The book is extremely biased towards the removal of all hatcheries, but it does make a strong case for the removal of our hatcheries. Check it out

Fishguy,

Thanks for the info on the summer run fish. Do the summer run fish have a different appearance than the winter run fish? In other words, how do I know which one I've caught (supposing I ever do actually catch a steelhead! LOL)? Sorry about all these rookie questions, but I gotta learn somehow.

Landlubber,

These are very good questions. Alot of folks think if a fish is very dark (spawning coloration) in December it must be a summer-run, not necessarily so. When I made my earlier reply I mentioned that wild winter-runs spawn later than summers. That is true, but hatchery winters are spawned at the hatcheries before they spawn the summers and therefore winters are often more colored. It is hard to explain in words how to tell one from the other. Generally, summer-runs are shaped like a tube steak since they have been living on fat reserves for 6 to 8 months. The females are not much more than skin and eggs.

Thanks to all, very interesting. Fishguy, I assumed the fish I caught was a summer run because of the coloration (pretty dang dark) and because it was a hatchery fish.