Sky Steelhead

[bhilton]

On it.

 

[Jakob B]

Heard from someone who volunteers at the hatchery that today they just broodstock spawned two “wild” steelhead at reiter. I saw pictures of the fish. They looked like early winter run skamania strain fish without fin rot from the tanks and with intact adipose fins. Definitely not the type of wild steelhead that spawn down near sultan in later winter that people occasionally catch.

 

[bk paige]

Heard from someone who volunteers at the hatchery that today they just broodstock spawned two “wild” steelhead at reiter. I saw pictures of the fish. They looked like early winter run skamania strain fish without fin rot from the tanks and with intact adipose fins. Definitely not the type of wild steelhead that spawn down near sultan in later winter that people occasionally catch.

Early winter Skamainia?
The river is closed in "later winter by sultan"?

 

[Sportsman]

Or below Lewis street bridge. More fish caught in a week than you see all year now days.

More like a weekend. Great beach party and someone always had a fish on.

 

[Jakob B]

Early winter Skamainia?
The river is closed in "later winter by sultan"?

What I was trying to say is basically the wild fish they spawned at the hatchery are hatchery strain fish not true winter runs. I know sometimes the last few days of the season people will catch “true native” (if there is such a thing now) steelhead in the lower river that do not look like the same fish they release at the hatchery. The new wild genetic winter steelhead in the skykomish will become more and more hybrid over time if this broodstock continues that they started today

 

[bk paige]

It is a horrible idea to take native fish out of the population to make hatchery fish.

 

[Smalma]

Sounds the steelhead being spawned at Reiter might be the first step in the conversion of the summer steelhead brood stock at Reiter from the long time domesticate Skamania stock to one using the naturalized summer fish from the South Fork Skykomish Sunset Falls trap. I see on the hatchery escapement report that during 2019 52 "wild" summer-runs from Sunset were transferred to Reiter.

Expect to see them taking eggs from those fish over the next several months.

Curt

 

[Jakob B]

It does sound like they are naturalizing hatchery strain fish as wild fish.

 

[Stonefish]

Sounds the steelhead being spawned at Reiter might be the first step in the conversion of the summer steelhead brood stock at Reiter from the long time domesticate Skamania stock to one using the naturalized summer fish from the South Fork Skykomish Sunset Falls trap. I see on the hatchery escapement report that during 2019 52 "wild" summer-runs from Sunset were transferred to Reiter.

Expect to see them taking eggs from those fish over the next several months.

Curt

Curt,
Wasn’t there talk at one time about using wild Tolt fish as part of a broodstock program somewhere on the Snohomish system?
SF

 

[Smalma]

SF -
Indeed the original thinking on replace the Reiter Skamania summer stock was to use fish from the Tolt. Both the South Fork Sky and Tolt summer steelhead have significant integration of Skamania stock with the Tolt stock at a much lower abundance. To that point the 2019 spawning escapement on the Tolt was 58 summer steelhead. The number of wild fish passed above Sunset Falls in 2018 (spawned in spring of 2019) was 221.

After discussion with users and WFC WDFW decided that all things considered the SF Sky fish were the appropriate stock to collect for a replacement brood stock.

Curt