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[Gooey]

A steelhead is a rainbow that travels to sea, a forum member on another thread stated some concern in retaining steelhead smolts :

"Trout fishing, keep in mind that these are steelhead smolts released by the hatchery, in hopes that that will return as large adult steelhead. By killing them early as juveniles you maybe be eliminating that 10-20 pound steelhead that would be returning in the future. Also why do people kill these juvenile trout, your lucky to even get a mouth full after there cooked up, why not let them live and smack one over the head when it returns as a 15 pound bullet? I know some do for what ever reason choose not to return to salt water, and stay in freshwater but this is not always the case. Think about it"

My understanding is that once the ocean migration period has passed, any remaining fish residualize and become PERMANENT residents.  Now this happens on a small scale naturally, but if you dump a ton of smolts in the river and a small percentage of that large hatchery group residualize, then you will have a HUGE influx of residualized rainbows.  In a contained ecosystem like a river/lake, they must have a huge impact in terms of predation one naturally occurring fry.

I assume that DFO sets the regs up in accordance with the timing of the outward migration...once its complete, remove as many residualized hatchery fish as possible (4 per day under 30cm right) so for that reason I would not think twice about retaining these hatchery resident rainbows due to their predation on fry.

[kingpin]

smolts could stay in the river for up to a couple years. I wouldnt even think of taking them home. they wouldnt make much of a meal anyways

[troutbreath]

For all you know those residulized hatchery fish may be why so few Sockeye are returning to Cultus. But the poor old Pikeminnows taken it on the chin as the bad guy, Geebus. 

[Rodney]

It looked like we got another species to cull.

Juvenile steelhead that have not left their natal stream are known as juvenile steelhead, not steelhead smolt. Smoltification takes place in the estuary once the fish leave the stream, so it is incorrect to keep labelling these fish in the river as steelhead smolt. It's not a big deal, but incorrect terminology can lead to misunderstanding in discussions.

The problem with having retention of hatchery juvenile steelhead/rainbow trout permitted is that outgoing migration does not have a set time period, which is a tool that fishery managers tend to use. Migration time may change due to differences in environmental cues (food availability, water temperature, discharge amount) from one year to another. The purpose of having the retention is to ensure clipped juvenile fish that end up staying in the river are removed so they do not compete and predate with other juvenile salmonids. Problems arise when uninformed or ignorant anglers decide to retain unclipped/wild juvenile steelhead that may still be rearing in the river before undergoing smoltification in the estuaries.

[Dave]

Amen Rod.
troutbreath, please explain how juvenile steelhead rearing in the Chilliwack -Vedder impact sockeye fry rearing in Cultus Lake.  Although the Pikeminnow cull in Cultus Lake is controversial it does seem to be serving it's intended purpose as there is evidence showing higher overwintering survival rates for juvenile sockeye.

[clarki]

To build upon what Rod said, it comes down to risk management.

If you allow a fishery for juvenile steelhead you have the risk of harvesting a juvenile steelhead that might eventually smolt and might eventually return, resulting in no "15 pound bullet" to provide an angler with a thrill,  photo op, internet report, and a meal. If you don't allow a fishery, you risk introducing large numbers of hatchery juveniles into a system that will compete with the wild coho and chinook fry and parr for food and affect the viability of large numbers of wild salmon.

The latter risk has the greatest impact so fisheries managers allow a hatchery juvenile steelehad fishery in order to mitigate that risk. There impact of former is less, so fisheries managers mitigate that risk by timing it after the bulk of the outward migration.

Now I'm not naive enough to think that fisheries managers don't make mistakes however I tend to trust their judgement (informed by professional training and experience) rather than the opinion of BF who wants to catch a hatchery 15 pound bullet.

Some might think that they are doing a hatchery adult steelhead, or two, a favour by not harvesting hatchery juvenile steelhead, but this well intentioned, yet misinformed, position does no favours to the wild salmon that are infinitely more valuable.


Save our wild salmon! Kill a hatchery juvenile steelhead!

[Nutterbug]

To build upon what Rod said, it comes down to risk management.

If you allow a fishery for juvenile steelhead you have the risk of harvesting a juvenile steelhead that might eventually smolt and might eventually return, resulting in no "15 pound bullet" to provide an angler with a thrill,  photo op, internet report, and a meal. If you don't allow a fishery, you risk introducing large numbers of hatchery juveniles into a system that will compete with the wild coho and chinook fry and parr for food and affect the viability of large numbers of wild salmon.

The latter risk has the greatest impact so fisheries managers allow a hatchery juvenile steelehad fishery in order to mitigate that risk. There impact of former is less, so fisheries managers mitigate that risk by timing it after the bulk of the outward migration.

I find it odd that they allow the harvest of four rainbows on the Vedder of any size under 50cm, as opposed to just two over 30cm in any other stream.

Why release that many in the first place, if what you say is true and there are so many to go around to set such a generous limit?

[BigFisher]

Since some steelhead juveniles will choose not to become smolts, What about salmon juveniles? Will a small percentage of them too decide to residualize in there birth waters? 

[Dave]

Well, coho residualize in Kawkawa and Cultus Lakes, probably others as well.  My guess is many sockeye tend to stay in freshwater rather than migrate, and conversely, some kokanee probably decide to try the salt water life.  Don't know of chinook, chum, or pinks stocks showing this life history but it is seen in Atlantics.
Probably cutthroat and char too.