Finclipped Steelhead in the Trask river

Fished the trask river today for silvers and came up with a finclipped steelhead ? I caught the steelhead on a bluefox spinner #4 at Lorens drift. It is my understanding that the trask does not support a steelhead hatchery program and that only native steelhead should be in this river.The steelhead was a beautiful 30"hen w/ a dark red band.I felt it my duty to remove this fish from the river,as it DOES NOT BELONG IN THIS RIVER SYSTEM,but i was too late. The hen was allready spent and on the way back to sea.I was informed by some of the locals who were fishing the hole that this is not uncommen and that every year they see more and more strays in the river.These fish are from the wilson river hatchery program and are gong into the trask instead.The strays are breeding in the trask and mixing w/ the native population.This cannot be good.I believe this has become a real problem in oregon rivers and i have seen it first hand on several occassions.I have had the same thing happen on the Dechutes and the upper John Day river and those rivers DO NOT have steelhead hatcheries.All have been spent hens. I am not an awesome fisherman by any means,so if im catching them,then so are alot of other people. I would love to hear some feedback on this situation.

[Phish_on]

ehhhh ... since when does the Deschutes not have hatchery steelhead ?

Phish-on,If the Deschutes does have a hatchery steelhead program,where is the hatchery located? I was more concerned with the problem of strays in the trask river.

[Phish_on]

I also think that natural spawning by hatchery fish should be minimized. A lot of people will disagree with that - - witness the "salmon clubbing" media event !

You might report your catch to ODFW and see what they say - and let us know!

As for the Big D - (I love the Web):

Oak Springs Fish Hatchery
Rt. 1, Box 443
Maupin, OR 97037
(541) 395-2546

This hatchery raises rainbow trout and summer and winter steelhead. The hatchery egg incubation room is accessible for
viewing October - March. Group tours are available by appointment to view trout spawning during October - November.
The facility also offers a picnic area, fountain, show pond, hiking and Deschutes River access. This river is a premier trout
and steelhead waterway. Good bird watching opportunities are available during spring and fall migration.

Directions: From I-84: Take US Hwy. 197S (Dufur) exit approximately 37 miles through Tigh Valley; continue to top of
grade on 197S; turn left at sign and continue 3 miles into canyon to the hatchery.
-OR-
From US Hwy. 26: Take the Bear Springs/Maupin cutoff (HWY. 216); when it intersects Hwy. 197, turn left; go 3 miles
to sign, turn right and follow road for 3 miles into the canyon to the hatchery.

[BillH]

I'm not so surprised you caught a finclipped steelie in the Trask in early October except that you thought it was a spawn out. I thought summer steelies spawned from mid winter though early spring and there has got to be no way a winter fish would still be in the Trask from last year. Are you sure it wasn't just a skinny summer fish whose spawn was so grossly undeveloped that it appeared spawned out? Stray summer steelhead have been found in the Trask frequently for years! Since there is no natural run of summers in the Trask, what would be the big deal if it did indeed spawn? It most likely belonged in the Wilson or Nestucca.

Straying is very common in salmon and steelhead. It is natures way of repopulating streams which suffer major natural disasters. It also infuses positive gene mixing in natural fish populations. There seems to be a lot of concern these days about mixing wild and hatchery fish. Maybe in some wild populations this is a valid concern but I think this varies with the watershed involved. We see in winter steelhead a number of "wild fish" early in the season. You can't tell me that these are some sort of exclusive pure wild fish that have no hatchery fish in their backgrounds. After decades and decades of early returning hatchery fish, these fish have mixed with the native strains of our coast rivers! Perhaps some hatchery strains are unfit to mix with native fish of some rivers, but I doubt seriously that all hatchery fish are unfit in all watersheds.

In the early '90's, ODFW was planting winter steelhead with variable finclips to identify what rivers returning fish belonged in. On the Necanicum River where I fished intensely, the regulars were finding a predominance of steelies that belonged in the Columbia and Willamette systens through December but as the season progressed, things straigtened out and the numbers caught were those from the North Fork hatchery which were supposed to be there. We did, however, see some oddballs all season long including one which belonged in the Umpqua system!

The bottom line of my thoughts are that I am not so concerned about a little mixing of wild and hatchery stocks as I am about lack of rearing habitat quality for their progeny to rear in before going to sea.