Fish Trap on cedar Creek

[O. Nerka]

While I agree with much of what chuckardog posted. I'd argue with a few things. I've volunteered at hatcheries since I was in high-school. I watched the guys bonk every oversized fish while picking a 5 or 6 pounder to breed with a 5 or 6 pounder. Small fish bred to small fish make small fish, genetically speaking. Ever wonder why the Quinault fish hatchery pumps out fish regularly over 20 pounds?
But I digress, we are doomed. With the anti-hatchery folks, tribal fisheries, trawl fisheries, intercept fisheries, cormorants and of course seals, sea lions and WDFW continuously forcing all sports anglers into one stream or another until that streams run collapses we are all but done. I don't know what the fix is. I wish someone has/had a magic bullet.

Man, I've spent 8 years working in hatcheries and I never once saw the attitude of picking the small fish for broodstock. Much more typically it was something along the lines of " look at the size of that guy we can use him 3 or 4 times!!"

[ASHQUACK]

While I agree with much of what chuckardog posted. I'd argue with a few things. I've volunteered at hatcheries since I was in high-school. I watched the guys bonk every oversized fish while picking a 5 or 6 pounder to breed with a 5 or 6 pounder. Small fish bred to small fish make small fish, genetically speaking. Ever wonder why the Quinault fish hatchery pumps out fish regularly over 20 pounds?
But I digress, we are doomed. With the anti-hatchery folks, tribal fisheries, trawl fisheries, intercept fisheries, cormorants and of course seals, sea lions and WDFW continuously forcing all sports anglers into one stream or another until that streams run collapses we are all but done. I don't know what the fix is. I wish someone has/had a magic bullet.

Man, I've spent 8 years working in hatcheries and I never once saw the attitude of picking the small fish for broodstock. Much more typically it was something along the lines of " look at the size of that guy we can use him 3 or 4 times!!"

I don't know, just the two hatcheries I helped at. I asked one of the guys specifically why they were just bonking and tossing the big chinooks into a fish bin. The answer I got was that big fish were more prone to having genetic defects and diseases. I also truly believe that net mesh sizes have a very negative effect on returning fish sizes. Bigger mesh only catches and kills bigger fish. Any way we look at it dead fish don't spawn. Whether they are killed in the hatchery, nets or a wood shampoo on a sporty boat or river bank. Dead is dead and not reproducing.

[chukardogs]

I found a very good article from 1991 debating the hatcheries vs wild fish. It's interesting to read 30 odd years later and think about the things they (the scientist) believed back then that came to fruition and the things that didn't.

  UW experts debate what’s best for fish: wild runs or hatcheries
BY SANDRA HINES | PHOTOS BY GREGORY T. RUGGERONE | DEC. 1991 ISSUE

In the article, Donaldson indicates that to supply the number of fish that the world needs, (yes, it ain't all about us here in the northwest) hatcheries are it! There's no going backwards and it would be nice if certain individuals with dreams of rivers full of wild fish and a landscape covered with wild animals like deer, elk, moose, Wolves, Cougars, Black Bears, Grizzly Bears, Wolverines....etc. understood this. The idea that man can back up time without removing a large plethera of humans at the same time is absurd. Man is here, deal with it!
 Instead of trying to figure out ways to move backwards, how about ya dreamers figure out how man is going to thrive through the next millennium.