Delta salmon plan ....

[OceanSunfish]

We have been discussing all this salmon and steelhead hatchery "stuff" for decades now.

My feelings is that they could take wild fish from the river and spawn them in the hatchery to get high numbers of success, then at a young age let them go at the hatchery into the river and let them be wild from then on.

Raising them in raceways for a long time and feeding them doesn't make for survivors in the wild, as I see it.

Not a biologist so this is just my 'two bits worth'.......

Not to mention the cost to raise/feed a single steelhead smolt for a year.....

Salmon smolt grow fast and are released within months of birth, but still, the cost to feed these smolt if kept for even an extra month in the raceway is nothing to sneeze at.....

At one time, I had the cost of 'fish food' at my fingertips, but lost it..... I had the poundage of food per day and the price per pound for the fish food too..... It was eye openning. I'll have to research again.

[FlyReelFisher]

Hatcheries are welfare. Hatchery fish are destructive to the survival of wild fish. Take time to read the OSU studies. Hatcheries maintain low wild fish populations.


Ban bait so nobody needs to kill a fish for it. Get rid of hatcheries so everyone needs to support wild fish survivability if they want good action.

Hatcheries are welfare for guides and fishing shops.

[Bob Laskodi]

I realize that most fly flingers think hatcheries are the tool of the devil (myself included in many instances). But, in certain situations, hatcheries are the only economical and practical way to restore fish populations. Not all hatcheries are bad.

[OceanSunfish]

Hatcheries are welfare. Hatchery fish are destructive to the survival of wild fish. Take time to read the OSU studies. Hatcheries maintain low wild fish populations.


Ban bait so nobody needs to kill a fish for it. Get rid of hatcheries so everyone needs to support wild fish survivability if they want good action.

Hatcheries are welfare for guides and fishing shops.

This point has been beating to death for years...... please, let us not start this up again!

It's safe to say that those that read the "conservation forum" already know the pros vs. cons of hatcheries, mitigation for dams, the reality of wild fish coexisting in CA with 38 mil people, etc.

[FlyReelFisher]

Meow meow meow.

I still think conservation will be more effective than restorative ecology when it comes to steelhead.

My point is the hatcheries arnt working well, most of them anyway. I know of a few, but they arnt the norm.