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Author Topic: jack steelhead  (Read 12764 times)

Dave

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Re: jack steelhead
« Reply #15 on: January 16, 2015, 08:17:13 PM »
Bederko ;D

OK firebird, I’m wondering if the need to produce earlier returning hatchery steelhead to the C-V for anglers might be detrimental to the remaining stocks of early run wild fish.  Are there enough to make this work for the human component and enough to sustain wild, early run fish?
We both know there are no documented answers so I asked Bederko to share his thoughts …
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bederko

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Re: jack steelhead
« Reply #16 on: January 16, 2015, 09:37:19 PM »
Dave I don't want to speculate on this forum but I don't believe that genetics is the only thing determining run timing.
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A river is never quite silent; it can never, of its very nature, be quite still; it is never quite the same from one day to the next. It has its own life and its own beauty, and the creatures it nourishes are alive and beautiful also. Perhaps fishing is only an excuse to be near rivers. - Haig-Brown

CohoJake

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Re: jack steelhead
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2015, 09:13:20 PM »
http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00150/wdfw00150.pdf
This is a link to a lengthy study on various populations of steelhead in Washington State.  A few things stuck out to me:
1. Wild steelhead will migrate to freshwater nearly year round in many systems, meaning the amount of time spent in the ocean varies greatly.
2.  Wild steelhead and wild resident rainbows are more genetically similar to each other than are wild steelhead of two geographically close systems.
3.  Male steelhead, like many salmon, will engage in "precocious parr" behaviour, where they breed before migrating to the ocean to mature.
4.  Wild steelhead and wild resident rainbows do interbreed in at least some systems.


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