Wild Salmon on a stringer in the American

[lynnwhite44]

Hey guys, I was fishing the American yesterday down Between Hagen and Gothe park. The were five to six guys fishing this run of abour 50 yards practically shoulder to shoulder. I saw a couple fish on stringers. One was a beautiful adult hatchery steelhead about 30" long. On the other stinger was a wild salmon about the same size :cry: . Is it legal to keep an wild salmon? I was pissed :x but kept my cool, complemented them on thier luck and kept walking. Me and my buddy Dustin were swingin with our spey rods. I got nothin, dustin got a half pounder and another bigger grab. I used a purple string leech, Dustin a black brindle bug. Anyone else have any luck?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I heard Jason Hartwick got a chrome 12 pound King Salmon in the Paradise Beach area on the lower American River swinging with his Spey rod last week.

He thought the King Salmon run was just late this year.

Thank God for the rain.

[wjorg]

People do what they do........

Too bad to keep such rare fish for this year....

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

Please tell me how you tell the difference between a hatchery salmon and a wild salmon?........... Don't worry I'll wait......................

[Scott V]

Please tell me how you tell the difference between a hatchery salmon and a wild salmon?........... Don't worry I'll wait......................

A wild salmon will usually have tattoo's and a mohawk. :lol:

[dryflier]

Please tell me how you tell the difference between a hatchery salmon and a wild salmon?........... Don't worry I'll wait......................

A wild salmon will usually have tattoo's and a mohawk. :lol:

And it stays out late, has premaritial sex, and drinks alcohol and smokes pot.

Now if it was a wild steelhead, I would say call the sheriff, the park ranger, and caltip.

[STEELIES/26c3]

A wild salmon isn't denoted by a clipped adipose fin as is a steelhead so you can't assume that those were "wild" salmon on stringers.

There really is no way to tell a wild from a hatchery-spawned chinook.

Some hatcheries do clip adipose fins but not our local Nimbus hatchery.

M

[lynnwhite44]

Thanks STEELIES/26c3 for not sending a smartaleck response and setting me straight on the wild salmon. I don't understand why the hatchery doesn't clip the fins on the salmon while they do clip the steelheads. I don't hold anything against people who legally kill fish.
[/img]

[slimfishin's]

The hatchery may not ad-clip hatchery salmon for a number of reasons. First of all it is probably cost prohibitive to clip that many smolts going out. You are talking about hiring people to clip MILLIONS of fish. As it is now, if they clip a percentage of the population, they can roughly tell how many are wild and hatchery by the relative proportion coming back - so, for current management objectives, it is not worthwhile to clip everything. Another reason is that fall run chinook are not Federally listed like steelhead, so it is not as critical to distinguish them from hatchery stocks. They day may soon come when CA is mandated to clip all hatchery fish - like many other states do - but as of yet.

SF

[Terry Thomas]

I can tell you that hatcheries certainly used to clip fins because I worked for the DFG on a summer program to check for hatchery fish. My job was to check for commercial and rec. boats coming into port on the south coast. I was based out of Morro Bay. Hatcheries had a combination of fin clips. As an example, hatchery A would clip the right pectoral fin. Hatchery B may clip the right pec. and the left ventral fin. There were many combinations and there was a book that fisheries people used to i.d. the fish. When the hatcheries clipped the adipose fins, they would not regrow. However, pectoral fins and ventral fins do grow back, but they are not fully formed. If you look at lots of salmon a day it became pretty easy to spot the clipped fish. I am sure that Tristan some of our other professional fisheries people will post as to the current practices.
Terry

[STEELIES/26c3]

Hi Terry~

I too have worked for CDF&G (Lewiston and Nimbus Hatcheries). I never stated that hatcheries don't clip Chinook fins... only that Nimbus currently doesn't.

The overlooked obvious reason here is that salmon only return once and then die. Since steelies return multiple seasons, clipping adipose fins insures identification and protection of wild fish.

Whereas, it would be nice to know how many native versus wild salmon return, it isn't practical, cost effective and salmon aren't yet deemed worthy of protected status.

My guess is that if not for the hatchery, Chinook salmon would indeed become threatened and eventually extinct.

1-2 out of each 'wild' hen's 5,000 or so eggs makes it to alevin to fry to parr to smolt to returning/spawning adult.

DAM< I wish there wasn't one...
M

[slimfishin's]

For most hatchery salmon, marking procedures have gone to adipose clips combined with coded wire or PIT tags. This allows good survival (from adipose clips, unlike ventral, pectoral etc...) and a virtually unlimited number of unique groups by tag code on the wire. CWT tagging is cost effective, has very low tag loss rates and doesn't affect survival.

SF

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

Please tell me how you tell the difference between a hatchery salmon and a wild salmon?........... Don't worry I'll wait......................

A wild salmon will usually have tattoo's and a mohawk. :lol:

And it stays out late, has premaritial sex, and drinks alcohol and smokes pot.

Now if it was a wild steelhead, I would say call the sheriff, the park ranger, and caltip.

:lol:

[lynnwhite44]

Still waitin fatboy.........oh sorry meant BigOkieWhiteBoy916 :lol:

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

Still waitin fatboy.........oh sorry meant BigOkieWhiteBoy916 :lol:
:lol:

[Jgoding]

I say a news clip on nimbus (I believe it was nimbus) and they actually have a machine now that clips the fins. The fish were fed through a tube with water and fed through the instrument that would cut the fins. It didn't show exactly how it worked but it was pretty cool. I think it's pretty new though so in the past i guess it was done by hand.