No Salmon Smolt to be Released In the River

[Tony Buzolich]

It was just on Channel 3 News that Nimbus hatchery will not be releasing any smolt into the rivers because of the low water flow conditions and the warm water temperatures.

Instead they will be trucking all of the smolt down river and releasing them directly into the bay. Hopefully this will improve survival rate and bypass the pumps that send our water south.

There was no mention of what the other hatcheries will be doing such as the Feather River or Battle Creek . I've seen trucks in years past from the Feather River taking smolt down and dumping them in the bay as well.

Hope it helps, Tony

[Natekursow]

Saw some trucks from the hatchery carrying smolt down to the bay yesterday.

NK

[tcorfey]

Hope they are going in to pens to somewhat acclimate. Otherwise it's like growing up in a clean suburban backyard where you just hang out with your buddies, get fed three meals a day. Then one day you get air lifted and dropped into a dark fog shrouded wilderness where you need to scrounge for food and just about everything you meet is larger than you and it wants to eat you!

[Idadon]

I was witness to a Smolt release years ago off the end of Mare Island Naval Station. It was feeding time for the Stripers!

[pvsprme]

Hope they are going in to pens to somewhat acclimate. Otherwise it's like growing up in a clean suburban backyard where you just hang out with your buddies, get fed three meals a day. Then one day you get air lifted and dropped into a dark fog shrouded wilderness where you need to scrounge for food and just about everything you meet is larger than you and it wants to eat you!

The Mokelumne hatchery has been doing this for a number (?) of years with good success.

[WLREDBAND]

A lot of hatcheries have been doing this for years besides the Moke. This year, they had no choice, the water conditions would have killed them.

The Mokelumne hatchery has been doing this for a number (?) of years with good success.

[Carl Blackledge]

Fish and game will figure a way to screw it up.

Carl

[hwchubb]

I used to run the kid’s fly tying during the old American River Salmon Festival, and we used to keep a tank with salmon and steelhead smelt in the booth during the festival. When closing up one evening, I grabbed a handful of the trout food pellets and threw them in the tank. It took the fish over 30 minutes before one of them figured out it was food, and it’s just a bigger pellet. We dump these same fish into the river, expecting them to then figure out that they are supposed to eat nymphs, worms, etc? I wonder how many starve to death...

[Rossflyguy]

I used to run the kid’s fly tying during the old American River Salmon Festival, and we used to keep a tank with salmon and steelhead smelt in the booth during the festival. When closing up one evening, I grabbed a handful of the trout food pellets and threw them in the tank. It took the fish over 30 minutes before one of them figured out it was food, and it’s just a bigger pellet. We dump these same fish into the river, expecting them to then figure out that they are supposed to eat nymphs, worms, etc? I wonder how many starve to death...

Do they eat anchovies, herring, squid, etc in the river as smolt? It’s called instinct.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Salmon in the rice fields in the winter in Nor Cal......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uflB29mNiCw



*Would be nice if the salmon and steelhead were not raised in a hatchery.

[hwchubb]

Do they eat anchovies, herring, squid, etc in the river as smolt? It’s called instinct.

So “instinct” doesn’t kick in to tell them that the larger pellet is food? They need to survive long enough for instinct to kick in, don’t you think?