Salem Fish Planting

[ducksterman]

If we had a "Stillwater" forum I certainly would post this there.

Some of you may find this interesting.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/arti...S/5130327/1034

[MontanaMoose]

I did.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[joe cool]

Raising a fish in a hatchery to that size then releasing it and allowing it to count as the new state record if it's caught seems sketchy to me. Takes a lot of the merit out of catching a record fish in my mind. Interesting article for sure, but it makes me wonder about the future of the sport.

[ducksterman]

Gotta agree with Joe...

[FishnDave]

I agree with it taking some of the merit out, too. One solution would be to disallow triploid fish for State Record status.

But then what to do about the other fertile brood fish that live and are fed for YEARS in the hatchery before being released? Maybe they could be tagged. And if the fish has survived a full year outside the hatchery before being caught, it can be considered "wild" again?

I'm glad they release them. If these giant fish are nearing their life expectancy, it sure would be a SHAME to not give folks a chance at fishing for them.

[levidoug]

I agree too but it would be quite the fight if you got it on
a line. Think of the smiles crossing all them faces.

Doug

[dudley]

During the season that I worked at the state hatchery, one task that I dreaded was loading the broodstock into the truck to be stocked.
Those fish weren't all that excited about being netted out of the raceways. During the chaos you'd get soaked, even in waders and rain gear, and then there was the matter of lifting them up to the tank. They're not exactly light weight.
I suppose at some time there would be a point where fins could be clipped to ID them. Maybe when they were being 'milked' for their biological product. But during the stocking process any time out of the water counted against their survival.
When we were out stocking I'd take mental notes of where they went (the sort of info that I took the job for in the first place ). Unfortunately, the 'thrill' of catching one was greatly diminished by the knowledge that despite their size, they were no different than any other average stocker.