Should they stay or should they go?

[brandon4455]

What is your opinion or stocker trout in the McKenzie river? This is not a debate thread,opinions won't be judged or questioned. just sort of curious..wanting to know where people stand on the subject and want to see it from different view points.


Here is a video of a few opinions and basically sums up my opinion as well. Whats yours?

http://www.youtube.com/user/CaddisFlyShop#p/u/309/-6_06y3uC-w




Brandon

 

[Thuggin4Life]

Leave em for the mOnkeys. And it makes the natives cooler when you do catch them.

 

[bigsteel]

hate stocker trout,they are like fighting a wet sock.the mckenzie river does not need trout stocking,as MLW has posted look at the difference a gorgeous hard fighting redband and a standard hatchery turd whos only purpose is to make a crappy angler feel accomplished.

 

[TTFishon]

I say keep them in there to satisfy the needs of, as Thuggin calls em, monkeys.

 

[markasd]

Don't keep stocking it.

 

[Drew9870]

Save the stocking for the local frogwater so the bucket-heads who feel some sort of accomplishment/pride catching them can choose to fish an area in which their Powerbait won't get sucked to the bottom by the current .

It's sad to see people that have fished for quite awhile that still haven't upgraded from hatchery Trout waters, the only reason why I still target them is so I have a good stash of bait for ocean trips.

Stock the frogwater, leave our rivers alone, the last thing we need are the clueless slug people in lawnchairs on our river banks, competition towards native fish, and screwing the genetics.

 

[OnTheDrop]

Save the stocking for the local frogwater so the bucket-heads who feel some sort of accomplishment/pride catching them can choose to fish an area in which their Powerbait won't get sucked to the bottom by the current .

It's sad to see people that have fished for quite awhile that still haven't upgraded from hatchery Trout waters, the only reason why I still target them is so I have a good stash of bait for ocean trips.

Stock the frogwater, leave our rivers alone, the last thing we need are the clueless slug people in lawnchairs on our river banks, competition towards native fish, and screwing the genetics.

Well said man. Leave em outttttt!

 

[PNW Sam]

Save the stocking for the local frogwater so the bucket-heads who feel some sort of accomplishment/pride catching them can choose to fish an area in which their Powerbait won't get sucked to the bottom by the current .

It's sad to see people that have fished for quite awhile that still haven't upgraded from hatchery Trout waters, the only reason why I still target them is so I have a good stash of bait for ocean trips.

Stock the frogwater, leave our rivers alone, the last thing we need are the clueless slug people in lawnchairs on our river banks, competition towards native fish, and screwing the genetics.

What Drew said! Stock the ponds for people who want to go have a lazy day and catch a few fish (or people that think that's the only way to fish I guess), and leave the rivers for fishing. The best trout fishing out there is in streams catching wild fish.

 

[chrisohm]

Save the stocking for the local frogwater so the bucket-heads who feel some sort of accomplishment/pride catching them can choose to fish an area in which their Powerbait won't get sucked to the bottom by the current .

It's sad to see people that have fished for quite awhile that still haven't upgraded from hatchery Trout waters, the only reason why I still target them is so I have a good stash of bait for ocean trips.

Stock the frogwater, leave our rivers alone, the last thing we need are the clueless slug people in lawnchairs on our river banks, competition towards native fish, and screwing the genetics.

I am not trying to pick a fight here but you would be calling myself and my son bucket-heads. I can't take a 6 year old trout fishing on a river. If you have ever been to the Salmon river by the 101 bridge then you would witness your slug people trying for those precious salmon. Not to mention you have also called yourself a bucket-head since you fish for them as well, bait or not you called yourself a bucket-head.

Leave the names to your grade school cafeteria or your political podiums. If you want a clean respectful forum then act that way. Opinions can be respected but name calling should be beyond all of you.

One more point to make, if you are upset that ODFW is stocking trout in your local river then voice your concerns to them. Otherwise you are just preaching to the choir. At least ODFW is making some sort of effort to get fish out there. I would rather see them use native brooders than your prepackaged trout but we don't have that kind of money or power. There are illegal alternatives you could try in your backyard by breeding natives and releasing them into the river. I will say that I have heard of and seen worse.

 

[Drew9870]

I am not trying to pick a fight here but you would be calling myself and my son bucket-heads. I can't take a 6 year old trout fishing on a river. If you have ever been to the Salmon river by the 101 bridge then you would witness your slug people trying for those precious salmon. Not to mention you have also called yourself a bucket-head since you fish for them as well, bait or not you called yourself a bucket-head.

:lol:

In no way did I call myself a bucket-head, it (to me) is a term for the non-sportsmen who go out for a meal each and everytime they go, the last thing a bucket-head wants to do is catch something they cannot keep, thus forcing them to watch the horrific sight of letting the catch go. Where did you get the idea I called myself a bucket-head :lol:, you won't see me packing but a fly rod and a zip-up case for my gear storage, I'll stick the fish in a plastic bag and throw them in my gear storage, see if I carried a bucket with me, it would be easier just for me to cut eye-holes out and stick it on my head.

Those are indeed a bunch of slugs at the 101 bridge, actually, mostly flossing slugs plunking a line in hopes the fish will mouth it (notice, I said line, not bait/lure), this is another crowd that needs to open up to new rivers and methods, or better yet, stick to the stocker ponds, the corky plunkers will keep the fish in any given hole spooked for life pretty much, nothing but harrassment.

Regarding you taking your son out to the ponds, that is one of the good things about hatchery fish, they 'can' provide a 'somewhat easy' oppurtunity to put a smile on the youngsters faces and get them into fishing, nothing wrong with that at all, but wouldn't you rather see less of the older folks (this excludes seniors and people with limited mobility) battling it out for some food, when people could be out there teaching the young ones, I have a lot more respect for the 15% of people out there with the young ones (and letting them reel in the majority of the fish) than the other 85% out there just to catch fish.

Having that said, I and others respect the fact that you are taking the youngster to get into some fish, when you are young, a fish is a fish. I'll take a picture of Walter Wirth Lake here around my place next week when it recieves regular planters, the 101 bridge at the Salmon River ain't got crap on Wirth after being stocked.

P.S. Apologies for Hi-Jack.

 

[bigsteel]

I am not trying to pick a fight here but you would be calling myself and my son bucket-heads. I can't take a 6 year old trout fishing on a river. If you have ever been to the Salmon river by the 101 bridge then you would witness your slug people trying for those precious salmon. Not to mention you have also called yourself a bucket-head since you fish for them as well, bait or not you called yourself a bucket-head.

Leave the names to your grade school cafeteria or your political podiums. If you want a clean respectful forum then act that way. Opinions can be respected but name calling should be beyond all of you.

One more point to make, if you are upset that ODFW is stocking trout in your local river then voice your concerns to them. Otherwise you are just preaching to the choir. At least ODFW is making some sort of effort to get fish out there. I would rather see them use native brooders than your prepackaged trout but we don't have that kind of money or power. There are illegal alternatives you could try in your backyard by breeding natives and releasing them into the river. I will say that I have heard of and seen worse.

which is why a lot of us are members of trout unlimited and native fish society,seems a lot of opinions odfw recieves from individuals falls on deaf ears.
breeding natives in your back yard?thats the dumbest comment ive read in a while,thanks for the laugh

 

[brandon4455]

I am not trying to pick a fight here but you would be calling myself and my son bucket-heads. I can't take a 6 year old trout fishing on a river. If you have ever been to the Salmon river by the 101 bridge then you would witness your slug people trying for those precious salmon. Not to mention you have also called yourself a bucket-head since you fish for them as well, bait or not you called yourself a bucket-head.

Leave the names to your grade school cafeteria or your political podiums. If you want a clean respectful forum then act that way. Opinions can be respected but name calling should be beyond all of you.

One more point to make, if you are upset that ODFW is stocking trout in your local river then voice your concerns to them. Otherwise you are just preaching to the choir. At least ODFW is making some sort of effort to get fish out there. I would rather see them use native brooders than your prepackaged trout but we don't have that kind of money or power. There are illegal alternatives you could try in your backyard by breeding natives and releasing them into the river. I will say that I have heard of and seen worse.

im pretty sure i said post your opinion not get bent out of shape and cause an argument because drew called you a bucket head. if you are not here to post what you think about stockers in the McKenzie then you have no buisness being on this thread



anyways..back on subject, they don't bother me at all in lakes and ponds or rivers that can't support native fish populations and i have no problem with people fishing to food or catching stockers for fun, as long as it's stockers thats what they are there for and thats what your tax dollars pay for,but after stocking a lot of the trout die in the McKenzie because they cannot handle the cool fast water. so basically your tax dollars are paying for a 20% return of hatchery trout to fisherman out of the thousands they stock, plus the negative effect on the native population as well, there could be an alternative where they take fish elshwere such as a local pond or reservoir and you could see over 70% returns of fish,this would benefit tax payers,people who fish for stocked trout and native fish in the McKenzie. look at the Metolius river.. a fine example of a native trout stream. they use to stock it and it was **** then they stopped stocking it and restricted the river to catch and release. it got time to recover and now it's loaded with bull trout,brown trout and redsides along with some whitefish.if they stopped stocking in the mac imagine what it would be like. it could happen if odfw decided to pull their heads out of their asses...but it still hasnt happend even with the amount of supporters there are for a wild McKenzie

 

[fishyden]

I think if they should continue..instead of cross breeding trout to make them more resilient they should only use the native trout from the river they plan to release them in. Still remove the adipose fins to separate the natives and lower the bag limit to two fish.
Or get rid of it all together make us purchase special tags to harvest the native trout maybe 20 per year 1 per day between 14&18inches and you cannot buy more tags. Use the extra money saved from the trout hatcheries and the tags to actually have a dedicated fish and game law enforcement in this state instead of relying on already busy local police and sherrifs to uphold the game laws.

 

[mlw]

There are lots of 'management' options, once there is a consensus about how to manage - Montana is a good example. Things like slot limits (can only harvest fish between, say, 12-15 inches, etc. This discussion, I assume from the original post, is about the Mckenzie - each river should be discussed on its own merits. The Mckenzie can and has supported a healthy (large, if not plentiful) native population, now depressed by the fact that it is the most heavily planted river in Oregon. I would think the guides associations, etc would support managing the Mckenzie for natives, as it is bound to raise its profile and make a more attractive destination and experience for those who stay at a Bed&Breakfast, hire a guide, and generally spend money - I have to think, and I believe there are plenty of examples (Metolius, etc) - but they seem stuck on frying a lunch of 8" stockers rather than letting their clients catch(and probably release) a couple beautiful 16" Redsides. Evidence is clear you can't have it both ways. Show me someone who would prefer catching the hatchery trout. I think the guides groups are gradually coming around (or dying off . The "where do I take my six year old" is both a tired and weak argument , particularly regarding the Mckenzie, which is notoriously hard to bank fish.
The key I think is keeping the debate to specific rivers and what would work best for that river, rather than generalizing and jumping to erroneous conclusions that all opportunities to harvest fish there or everywhere will go away - that is just not true. What is, is that we could be managing the Mckenzie much better for all concerned, but need public education on the issue to persuade ODFW. While Individuals at ODFW are certainly aware of the science and would love to make decisions in the best interest of the river and its fish, as an organization they are rather sensitive to public opinion, as expressed through license sales, public hearings, etc - as unfortunately their budget is tied to. There are a lot of things competing for folks time and attention today, fishing license sales is not a growth industry. So they need to see and hear from folks who support wild fish on the Mckenzie.

There was a meeting tonite at EWEB of the folks who just finished the 2yr "The McKenzie River Wild Trout study" about the stretch below Hendricks - will be interesting to hear what the results were.

Michael

Michael

 

[the_intimidator03]

I think if they should continue..instead of cross breeding trout to make them more resilient they should only use the native trout from the river they plan to release them in. Still remove the adipose fins to separate the natives and lower the bag limit to two fish.
Or get rid of it all together make us purchase special tags to harvest the native trout maybe 20 per year 1 per day between 14&18inches and you cannot buy more tags. Use the extra money saved from the trout hatcheries and the tags to actually have a dedicated fish and game law enforcement in this state instead of relying on already busy local police and sherrifs to uphold the game laws.

I am curious where the local police department and the sheriff's enforce game laws in oregon? Also, I dont think our state patrol, who enforce the game laws, would want a seperate office for fish and wildlife law enforcement itself. The reason behind this is Oregon's state patrol/game enforcement officers are one of the highest paid in the country.

As for using native trout. I think to keep the genetics in place this is a good idea, however the fish would need to be released as fry instead of 8" stockers. sure they can still be marked as "supplemental fish" If released as fry they should in theory be more apt to behave like a native fish.

As for the topic of the hatchery fish in the mckenzie.... they have many options for hatchery fish in other bodies of water down further in the valley or even places such as blue river reservoir(which is currently stocked) that provides a good bank fishery for those youth anglers. I dont see why the McKenzie needs a stocking of any trout.

 

[bigsteel]

the mckenzie definitely has the potential,I would like to think that river could be a destination fishery to many anglers but unfortunately the mckenzie river guides association and being that the river is around a large city with people who just want to harvest small fish.its gonna take a while

 

[rippin fish lips]

I would love for the Mac to be an all native fishery, catch and realease only!! We don't need stocker trout in that river, put em in the willy haha. I think the Mac mac is way to clean to have stocker trout, and heck they are too easy to catch!! After catching a real close 25" redside and my buddy gettin a 21" redside, with a few more fatty ones along with em, i am so for it!! I heard of a few bull trout caught below the damn to this year and above hendricks. Would love to be catchin them instead of stalker trout. Bring the native salmon back, and keep the hatchery steelhead only!!


"There was a meeting tonite at EWEB of the folks who just finished the 2yr "The McKenzie River Wild Trout study" about the stretch below Hendricks - will be interesting to hear what the results were."

I am curious to I have fished hendricks to bellingers for 3 years now, the 1rst year catching a **** ton of stockers, then the last 2 is was still good for em but slowed down a lot, and i could def see a lack of stockers and more native fish this year and last year.

 

[beaverfan]

I think it's disgusting the way many of you look down upon people who enjoy fishing for and catching stocked trout! Sometimes your opinions are better left unspoken. Just because someone fishes for stocked trout does not make them any less of a fisherman than someone that fishes for natives.

 

[JAFO]

I think it's disgusting the way many of you look down upon people who enjoy fishing for and catching stocked trout! Sometimes your opinions are better left unspoken. Just because someone fishes for stocked trout does not make them any less of a fisherman than someone that fishes for natives.

:clap::clap::clap:

 

[the_intimidator03]

Beaverfan I would have to agree with you. Because in the end a fish is a fish isn't it?