The Difference is Obvious

A piece on another blog got me thinking, and how often do we compare wild v. hatchery fish on a merely aesthetic basis? Obviously there is ALOT more to it than that but the differences are often stark. Every wild fish is unique, beautiful, locally adapted, however in my experience a hatchery fish which is a decent substitute when considered on a purely aesthetic basis is fairly unusual. Of course this is entirely my opinion, and certainly reflects my natural inclination to dislike hatcheries because of their impacts on our beloved wild salmon and steelhead. Still a side by side comparison is useful in proving my point. Check out these photos.

Two Hatchery Fish

Two Wild Fish From the Same System

Now granted the composition on the photos with wild fish are obviously better, the fish are kept in the water, etc. Still, if you've caught any number of 3-4lb hatchery summer drones in the Columbia system you know far too well how much sweeter their wild counterparts are. I didnt even post any photos of Skamania summer runs here, mostly because I dont catch very many. Hatchery returns in the Puget Sound range from nothing to a shade above nothing meaning many summers I might catch one or two hatchery summers on my local rivers. Wild summer runs in Puget Sound are another story all together. There may not be a sweeter fish in the world, but they're so rare anymore they might as well be ghostly apparitions.