Columbia today

[WheresMyBobber]

Had another good day on the river, 3 steelhead to the boat, all keepers.

But here's what was odd about today:

1) one of the steelhead we caught had it's adipose clipped, it's dorsal clipped, and both of it's pectoral fins clipped! All it had left was it's two ventral fins. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Has anyone else seen this or know who may be clipping fish like this? This fish was missing so many fins it almost seemed cruel.

2) I also caught a flounder on a X4 flatfish! It was only about 7" long, but I didn't even know there were flounder in the Columbia in the Sandy river area. Am I just naive, or is it a fluke to see flounder up that high in the Columbia?

[Krome Brite]

WheresMyBobber, somebody at the hatchery must not have known they were a lightweight at the party the night before? [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I've heard of ventral/adipose clipping but never of all of those fins being clipped together. Maybe they just wore off from bumping into other fish/concrete wall at the hatchery?

Did your flounder swallow the hook? I "landed" one a few weeks ago on the Woodland bar and it just swallowed my 2/0 hook, but didn't manage to get the spin-n-glow in it's mouth. I had to cut the poor thing in half to get the hook out. But he didn't go to waste because some guy wanted to take Mr. Flounder home and fry him up. Nasty! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Snapset]

If it is a Fluke to catch a Flounder upriver on the Columbia, I wonder if it is a Flounder to catch a Fluke upriver on the Connecticut river? [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[WheresMyBobber]

No, all those finns were clipped at the same time at the hatchery. I checked, and double checked, then checked again as I butchered it up. I've seen some odd combinations before too, but nothing like this.

As for the flounder, it had one hook of the treble going up through the bottom of it's mouth and came out one of it's eyes. Unfortunately that eye was sacrificed when I got my hook out. Now it's a one eyed flatfish just like the lure it bit. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Bounty Hunter]

I caught Starry Flounder as high as Rooster Rock while fishing for Squaw-fish this summer. When I asked the fish and game guy about it he said that the early summer is their breeding season and he wasn't sure if they were up that high year round.