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I heard from someone that there used to be a small hatchery steelhead program on the nicola. Is this true? Thanks
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Yes, there is a hatchery on Spius Creek a tributary of the Nicola. It used to produce steelhead but the program was discontinued some time ago. I think the strategy behind the stocking program was to seed the Bonaparte River after the fishway was built.
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If I'm not mistaken, there is a hatchery on the Deadman River, which is a tributary of the Thompson. They used to produce hatchery clipped fish, but I'm not sure what they are doing now. If they still clip them or not. The Bonaparte fish used to be clipped(at least a percentage of them). Dave.
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I don't think the Deadman hatchery ever produced steelhead. Coho and chinook.
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My information comes from a story I read, some years back, in Beautiful British Columbia magazine. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that they did mention steelhead, but maybe they were referring to wild fish. I'll have to refresh my memory by looking up that back issue. Dave.
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Greg, The hatchery technicians (from Spius creek hatchery) took smolts from the Deadman and transplanted them into the Bonaparte...they cliiped them to see what the success ratio was of the planting...(it went very well I am told) So several years ago, when there were some clipped fish around, they were in fact not hatchery fish but transplanted wild ones...some were clubbed, some were not...this year there were two repeat spawners I know of caught...one died...(it was 9 years old I beleive) and the other successfully released...the program is obviously discontinued and was never meant to a harvestable surplus thing...just a method to count the success of the planting... SBM
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