More wild steelhead lately?

[Wild Chrome]

Is it just me, or are we seeing a higher percentage of wild steelhead this fall/winter?

[First Bite]

Chrome

I'd have to say we're seeing more, especially this time of year.

So...are some of these steelhead miss clipped from the hatchery? I've heard of a few fish with all their fins being caught as early as October on the Wilson. Several more throughout November.

I'd like to think they are all natives. They have really been making a comeback in the past couple years.

Mark

[Wild Chrome]

First Cast,
Funny you mentioned the Wilson. I fished there tuesday for 7 hours and landed 2, both chrome wild steelhead. They had perfect dorsal fins. I don't fish the Wilson much, the last time was early August and I caught a small (4 pound) wild summer run that day. My last 3 trips to the Clack, I've caught 4 fish; 2 wild summer runs, 1 (dark) hatchery summer run and a wild coho. I can't hook a desent hatchery fish this month to save my soul!

[Mad Mikey]

I'm used to it on the Sandy but not the Clack this time of year. Usually the wild fish I get on the Clack are Feb.-April but this last week I've had three chrome unclipped fish to the boat, all three were very hot fish, screaming runs, tail walking and coming upstream on us, much better show than the bigger hatchery fish I've been catching.
One we got yesterday I was d$%# sure it was clipped and netted it, NOT! I felt bad and got the fish on it's way quite quickly but the adipose was funny looking and not full length either. Better not take a chance, there was too much fin there.
Today yielded another hot native on a plug and earlier in the day we caught a "Trout" that I was most sure was an "jack" Winter fish, all fins intact, extremely fat like a Deschutes redside would be but also obviously getting into spawning mode with the white tips on it's fins. It was about 17"-18" long, bit, hit and fought like a steelie.
It's all good, no such thing as "too many wild fish " IMHO.

[fisheromen]

My friend Riverdog and Chuckdog and I don't get out much but between us the fish we've got to the bank this winter have all been hatchery.

[steelymann]

The last two times out I've landed native fish. They were screamer's. A buddy of mine landed his first steelhead on a jig and it was a 14 lb. native hen! Too bad we forgot the camera! Tight lines and enjoy the holidays.

~steelymann~
graemlins/applause.gif graemlins/applause.gif

[Fast Water]

So far this season I have landed 4 winter fish. 2 hatchery and 2 natives. I have seen a fiar amount of native fish being caught.

:smile:

[walkersteelhead]

Lasy year on the Umpqua I spoke with a decent amount of fisherman and only heard of maybe a handful of hatchery fish being caught compared to "wild" fish. Not to stir the pot but Fish and game would make out good with not tagging fish and having us fisherpeople buy tags and not being able to keep much. You can keep Wild fish on the North fork but thats the only tributary on the Umpqua I know of you can. Well theres my 2 cents. Everyone good luck and have a Happy New Year.

[baitslinger]

I've seen more early natives also. Hopefully we'll see more as time goes on. I've heard people at the coast say "there are no true natives in dec/jan, only march" type of thing, but I think that historical catch stats show that many natives were typically caught in these months? They probably just got fished down pretty hard, and now the catch/release along with good survival is helping them rebuild.

[Dragfreedrift]

I landed a chrome wild fish last week too. We may be getting into "more" wild fish simply because there are fewer hatchery fish around.

See my new post on hatchery fish.

Half Canuck

[walkersteelhead]

So what is the new question we deal with. What about the Hatchery fish that have bred with "wild" fish. I have heard from biologists and old timers alike that alot of the true "wild" fish are just interbreeders with each other so where do we go from there.

[Flatfish]

We have landed quite a few nates this fall/winter too. Something to remember, Nates are probably 3-6 times as agressive as hatch brats, and therefore look like a bigger piece of the pie. But when you look at the numbers in many rivers, especially at this time of year, the brats outnumber the Nates be a wide margin. Just goes to show why I don't fish too hard for winters(hatch fish) yet I am on the river every chance I get come Feb.

Mark and the dog.