Lower Sac Hatchery Trout?

[Ryan]

I fished a lower stretch of the L sac the other day (a bit north of Chico), and I all I caught was a load of small hatchery trout (as usual, a bit pale in color with ground down tales). I have NEVER caught a single hatchery trout out of the lower sac, yet this day I couldn't keep them off my line, and they were all I caught. Granted I don't usually fish as low as I was. Has anyone else had any similar experience? If so how far up? Hopefully its just the lower stretches...

[Salvage]

I fished a lower stretch of the L sac the other day (a bit north of Chico), and I all I caught was a load of small hatchery trout (as usual, a bit pale in color with ground down tales). I have NEVER caught a single hatchery trout out of the lower sac, yet this day I couldn't keep them off my line, and they were all I caught. Granted I don't usually fish as low as I was. Has anyone else had any similar experience? If so how far up? Hopefully its just the lower stretches...

Probably hatchery juvenile steelhead released from Coleman Hatchery...

[Ryan]

I could be wrong because I didn't look too hard. But I'm pretty sure none had their fins clipped. They really looked like standard resident hatchery trout. Id like to think I would have noticed clipped fins if they were. Also from my experience hatchery steelhead still have sharp pointy tails usually, these fish had extremely ground down tails (from the cement tanks.) Maybe their tails grow back by the time they go back upriver after the ocean?

[B Kane]

They just released juvenile salmon, big article in the record searchlight about how not many would survive because of low water this year. Are you sure they were trout?

[Ryan]

I'm sure they weren't juvenile salmon. I'm pretty sure they were planted resident trout. However if they were planted steelhead that would kind of make sense, I guess I would have just missed seeing clipped fins on them. I've just never caught hatchery steelhead with tails ground down like that (however I've caught hundreds of hatchery trout as a child with tails like that), so I immediately assumed they were hatchery resident trout. Should have checked for a clipped fin. Defiantly weren't salmon though.