What is a native fish?

[GDBrown]

Which Fish are Native?

Do you know when you have a native fish on the line? If not what do you do?

In some areas it is legal to retain a native fish but should you? If it is a salmon some would argue yes because it will die after spawning anyway. ODFW may say yes because they want to eliminate that species from the system to allow better habitat for another species. Any released fish has the opportunity to spawn and replenish the species. Retained fish are removed from the gene pool.

For the purposes of this discussion please use the following definitions!
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Native Fish - A fish that is historically native to the water it is in. (think thousands of years)

Naturalized Fish - A fish that is not native but reproduces naturally in the wild without human aid. (think decades)

Stocked Fish - A fish that is reared in a human controlled environment and placed in a body of water to be caught and retained. (think months)

Hybridized Fish - A fish that is a genetic mutation caused by the inter breeding of two species of fish either in the wild or artificially under human control.

Please use these definitions when discussing this topic. (correction to the definitions will be entertained)

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[OnTheFly]

A naturalized fish. Now that's a great description. Explaining it that way vs. calling it wild would avoid a lot of arguements. I'm going to use that one.

You would need to know the history of the body of water. For instance, East Lake near Bend was void of all fish until 1912 before it was stocked therefore there are No native fish there. Harriet Lake; Brown trout introduced in the 30's but not any more. They have become 'Naturalized'. Deschutes and Crooked rivers; all Natives. But I think that if there was any doubt in a natural water way whether or not the fish is 'Native' it should be released. IMO

 

[GDBrown]

Coho on the Willamette above the falls

Coho on the Willamette above the falls

ODFW wants to reduce the coho numbers above the falls on the Willamette so they don't compete with the Chinook so they allow non-clipped Coho retention. So while both are Native their intent is to improve the Chinook population at the expense of the Coho.

I'm sure there are other areas that are similar to the Willamette. It is just one of the techniques that are used to meet the goals of the Salmon recovery program.

Here is a link to ODFW: List of Native Freshwater Fish

Another helpful link: Native Migratory Fish

GD

 

[troutdude]

ODFW wants to reduce the coho numbers above the falls on the Willamette so they don't compete with the Chinook so they allow non-clipped Coho retention. So while both are Native their intent is to improve the Chinook population at the expense of the Coho.
GD

Is that a wise thing to do? Why does ODFW think that need to "control" nature?

 

[beaverfan]

ODFW doesn't believe that Coho could make it above the falls before there a fish ladder put in there. They say that because the Coho come in the fall that the flows aren't high enough in for them to make it over the falls. They figure the smolts compete with native winter Steelhead that were able to go over the falls when the water comes up in winter.

 

[GDBrown]

Is that a wise thing to do? Why does ODFW think that need to "control" nature?

It has to do with the endangered species act and the Oregon Salmon Recovery Plan.

 

[bigsteel]

Redsides on the deschutes and crooked as jim mentioned are all native,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,its ashame to see cutthroat takin home for dinner,,,,,,,the deschutes has 3200 fish per mile and all native,,,,,,i think odfw could follow how the deschutes is run,and implement that into most rivers then we could cease the whole hatchery fish BS...

 

[GDBrown]

Why are there Hatchery fish?

Why are there Hatchery fish?

..........i think odfw could follow how the deschutes is run,and implement that into most rivers then we could cease the whole hatchery fish BS...

ODFW runs its hatchery program for the soul purpose of giving us fish we can take home. It caters to the urban fisherman who goes out on a Saturday with or without their kids and wants to bring home a fish. Very few fisherman go for the enjoyment of C&R, most want something to take home. Without the hatchery program they would be taking home native or naturalized fish. If we want to protect the native fish population we need everyone to take home the stockers and get them out of the rivers or lakes as soon as possible. I understand that most stocked fish are in lakes but not all remain there. If everyone would be satisfied with take home one fish every ten trips to the river then it may be sustainable without the hatchery fish but I don't see that happening.

Another thought might be to put more stockers in lakes and up the limit a little so fewer angler will want to go to rivers.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

I wont eat stocker trout unless they are holdovers. And I have a hard time picking through stocker trout sometimes after a fresh stocking at a lake or in the river above the lake.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Look at the fin on this guy! sorry double posted picture but its a big fin.

 

[JeannaJigs]

native murderer!

 

[Irishrover]

ODW has for the most part stopped putting hatchery trout in rivers. The McKinzey is one river that is still stocked.

McKenzie River Hatchery Trout Update — Stocking Plan 2010

Back in the early 60 ODFW made a move to switch from stocking rivers to more stocking of lakes. All the major rivers were stocked including the Deschutes, Molalla, Santiam,and so on. The shift was to increase the native fish populations in the rivers. Remember the limit was 10 trout with a six inch minimum size. The idea now is fill the lakes with stockers so folks can fish for them and do more C&R on the rivers. Generally they do not fin clip trout that are put into the lakes. The C&R on the rivers is also suppose to help with the salmon population. Some folks were catching salmon smolts thinking they were trout. Bigsteel has it right with regard to the Deschutes. That river was almost fished out with the 10 fish 6" limit even with a lot of stockers dumped in. Now it has a 2 fish slot limit 10-13 inches. Most folks C&R on that river and now the fish population is way back up.

I like the way it is now set up. I can take the grandkids to a lake and get them fish to take home, or head to a river and plan on catch and release.