Don’t reel up just yet

In Oregon by Nick Chambers

By Bill Herzog   We of the swung fly club have to deal with quite a few of our brethren these days on the river, especially the more popular waters, sections and times. If we aren’t first through the run, then all we can hope for is a moving fish to come into swinging range or the rare one that …

Science Friday: What is introgression?

In Science Friday by Nick Chambers

For this edition of Science Friday, we continue to define terms used in studies that evaluate hatchery steelhead (and often other species of salmon and trout). Last week we defined fitness and discussed how it is measured and why it is important to understanding the biology of steelhead. This week we take another step into the deeper end of the …

Steelhead 101: Defining types of steelhead hatcheries

In Science Friday, Steelhead Files by Nick Chambers

Every steelhead angler is probably somewhat familiar with hatcheries. As we discussed last week, deciphering the jargon associated with hatcheries is important, but can also be difficult. This week’s terminology is more common-place, and many of you may be familiar with it already. But, just in case, let’s look at the terms used to broadly classify hatchery programs: segregated and …

Steelhead 101: Defining native, wild, hatchery and natural-origin

In Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon, Science Friday, Washington by Nick Chambers

In recent posts we covered the basics of defining escapement and run size, and the ways these are measured by resource managers. Today, we turn our focus to the complex terminology used for describing and comparing hatchery and wild steelhead. Steelhead are typically referred to as either being “wild” or “hatchery,” but they may also be defined as being “native” …

Steelhead 101: Estimating steelhead run size

In Oregon, Science Friday by Nick Chambers

Recently we have described the various methods used by biologists and resource managers to estimate steelhead escapement, which is the number of fish that escape and survive fisheries (all forms of angling) to actually spawn in a watershed.   Run size is the total number of steelhead that return to a watershed each year. In order to estimate run size …