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Picture of the Day
Wild or Hatchery?



Here is an interesting one. A beautiful steelhead from an Oregon river. In Oregon, steelhead of hatchery origin are adipose fin-clipped when they are young, and on most rivers (including the Umpqua!!!) only those fish may be killed. This fish clearly has an intact adipose and beautifully formed pectoral, pelvic, anal, and caudal (tail) fins. But look at the dorsal fin. It's deformed or poorly developed in a way that is common among hatchery fish due to mineral deficiencies in their diet in the hatchery tanks. Perhaps this fish evaded the fin clipping process as a youngster. Perhaps the dorsal fin deformity is natural. So, wild or hatchery? I don't know. Either way, a fish with an adipose fin, no matter how badly deformed or removed any of it's other fins are (I landed a hatchery fish with only 3 fins once, including the tail), must be released.







Edited by Matt
Edited By Matt

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