North Coast fish stocks

[Wild Chrome]

I'm trying to remember. What stocks do the North Coast spring chinook and summer steelhead hatchery fish come from?

Also, are do the the springers need to be fin clipped to keep?

Thanks

[Dakotan]

The springer DO need to be clipped....at least on the Wilson and Trask. In fact, I don't know of any stream on the North Coast where you can keep wild springers. If it has an adipose, the regs say turn it loose. As far as the strains, if I remember correctly, the winter or summer steelhead are Alsea strain but I'm sure someone will correct or confirm that. Not sure about the springers.

[Lund]

Natives may be on the Siletz, and Umpqua. Every other river is a no no.

[Siwash]

Not sure about the springers, but the north coast summer steel stock originated from the Siletz. Of those, only clipped fish may be kept.

[Wild Chrome]

So, they're not Skamania stock, eh?

[Siwash]

Pretty sure the Skamania stock is limited to the Willy tribs (Santiams & McK definitely, less sure about the Clack).

If you're REALLY dying to know more, ODFW has a PDF of their Hatchery Management Plan(s) posted somewhere on the web. I don't have a link handy, but I found it just by wading through from the home page to their fish info page. It goes basin-by-basin in painstaking detail what stock they use and how many are planted, what the estimated impact/status is on the native run, and whether they plan to modify their strategy in the near future.

[sparkleboy]

North coast summer steelhead are Siletz stock fish. Summer steelhead are not native to the Wilson, Trask, Kilchis, or Nestucca.

[baitslinger]

I have caught a handful of wild summers in the North coast rivers over the years. I think they were true natives, but who knows they could have been offspring of hatchery parents? I am sure some of these larger rivers had small native runs historically, probably 50 -100 fish per year.

[Wild Chrome]

Me too.

Thanks for the info, guys.

[SalmonJeff]

over the last 5 seasons I have seen more and more true wild fish ( summers)on the wislon. they have been in the 18 to 20 inch range and I caught one on tues day that was about 22 no way are these fish siletz roamers there are to many of them I catch 3 or 4 a year over 20 miles up the wison. about 3 years ago I got a wild fish on the wislon that went about 12 pounds.

[Siwash]

There certainly could be some natural reproduction happening these days on the Wilson, Nestucca, or wherever, descended from hatchery plants. I've gotten unclipped summers on the Nestucca myself. The point is just that the original stock ODFW used to plant the Wilson and Nestucca came from the Siletz.

Historically, there may have also been a few odd summer strays in several of the rivers, but according to ODFW the only population that constituted a sustaining run was on the Siletz. Their explanation is that the falls up there created a seasonal migration barrier that was only passable at low flows (apparently the hydraulics must be too strong at typical winter levels), which allowed the summer fish access to spawning areas where they weren't out-competed by the winter runs. Their reasoning is that the winter fish are generally bigger and more numerous, so they will displace summer fish if there isn't something to segregate their spawning areas and/or timing. They figured that putting the ladder in at Siletz falls was one of the contributing factors to the decline of wild summers in the upper Siletz by allowing the winter runs greater access, which is why they put the trap in a few years back so they can sort 'em out.

It's all in ODFW's basin HMP; I'll post it if I can find the link again.

[Wild Chrome]

I don't fish the coast much in summer, but a few years ago, I caught a wild August steelhead in the upper Wilson swinging a fly for Cutthroat with my 5 weight. It was about 23 inches or so. It was far smaller than the hatchery fish I've seen there & I'm inclined to believe it was not Siletz stock origin. The info on the Siletz is interesting, I've heard some of it before. It seems to me that just because a river can harbor native winter steelhead, doesn't mean it cannot harbor native summers. Many western Washington and BC rivers have/had both. Since overall salmon runs are so far down below historical records, I've often wondered if some small (historically insignificant) native runs of summer steelhead may have existed and may still exist on some rivers that ODFW doesn't know about. If so, then with habitat improvement and reformed hatchery practices, we might see them "reappear".