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In watching the fish cam and the Bonneville dam it appears there are a large number of jack salmon heading our way. That has got me thinking. Regardless of whether there are a lot coming or only a few, I've never understood something.
It is my understanding that jack salmon are not sexually mature, and thus they are not breeders anyway. Currently you are only allowed to keep a jack if it is a hatchery bred fish. If they are not breeders anyway, why does it matter if it is wild or hatchery? Do you follow my train of thought?
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HnH, Jacks are sexually mature male fish that spend 1 year in the salt. The same gene that makes a fish a jack makes females spend an extra year in the salt resulting in those toad females we see occasionally. The Jacks do breed with regular felames, as well as the larger oversize 3 salt females in the wild.
The F&G has in the past selectivley breed jacks with the 3 salt females, hoping to propogate that gene a little, which may explain why some years we see a bunch of jacks and yet the next year we do not get the big run that was projected, based on the previous years jack numbers. That is one of the biggist indicators of what the next years run will be, jack counts...
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Mojo nailed it. They can and do breed.
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Interesting to have you both say that as it is completely contrary to everything I thought I knew about jacks. I'm sure I'll be wrong again. Thanks for the info.
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Actually the numbers of jacks is quite low.
148 out of 25,000 fish over Bonneville.
link to the counts.
[url "http://www.fpc.org/currentdaily/histfishtwo_7day-ytd_adults.htm"]http://www.fpc.org/currentdaily/histfishtwo_7day-ytd_adults.htm[/url]
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You are correct. I was going off of what I could see in the cams. Then later I looked at the counts.
Based off the cams, it would appear to me that there are a lot of jacks coming, but it's probably because they are not right up next to the glass so they look smaller than they really are. I saw one a while ago that appeared to be near the back of the ladder (far away from the glass) and it was HUGE! I call dib's on that one.
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Anyone going to hit the opener?
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I'll be out monday. There has already been fish in clarkston landed.
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Think I will be hitting it sat. and sun. Got a 50:50 chance the way I see it. Let you know how it is.
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This might be the issue. If your watching the WA side camera, most of the fish that look like jacks are actually adults. The camera angle and distance from the window make the 2 salt (3yr olds) look like jacks. The OR side is almost square to the window and zoomed in so they look more normal sized.
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i had also heard the reason we had huge jack numbers the last 5 years is something to do with a change in the fish food at the hatcheries were they were reared.
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No one has any solid reason why we have had big jack returns. I havent heard anything about it being related to the food. Im more concerned on why the 2 salts havent been coming back in the numbers in relation to the jacks (1 salts)
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So before I threw this question on here, I had already asked fish and game the same question. They also corrected me on another thing that I didn't fully understand, but I got it now. Thought this might be helpful to others, so here is there response.
Question
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Keeping of jack salmon
When fishing for Chinook salmon you are allowed to keep 2 jack salmon (salmon under 24 inches) per day as long as they are hatchery fish as evidence by the heald scar on the adipose fin. Since jack salmon are sexually immature and not considered as breeding fish, why does it matter if the jack is a hatchery fish or a wild fish? It is not a breeder anyway, so why not allow the keeping of wild jack salmon?
Answer
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That's an interesting question - why do jack Chinook salmon get protection similar to what the adult fish get. Part of the reason is that they actually are sexually mature fish. Jacks are males that return to freshwater to spawn after spending only one year in the ocean and they do spawn. As a side note, there are some "jills" or sexually mature females that return each year that have spent only one year in the ocean. But the number of jills in any year is very, very low; typically less than 10 fish in a run of 80,000 total fish. Because the jacks are sexually mature they are important in the life cycle of salmon. In years of low Chinook returns when there are fewer female fish on the spawning grounds, it's good to have more males present to ensure the males can find the female fish and the eggs of each naturally spawning female are fertilized. Also, competition among the 1-ocean, 2-ocean and 3-ocean males to spawn with an individual female is important for maintaining the fitness of the populations. When the salmon populations have recovered to fishable levels, harvest of both jack and adult wild salmon can be allowed. A correction on your interpretation of the daily limits is important so you can keep as many fish as the rules allow you to. For the Snake, Salmon, Little Salmon and South Fork Clearwater rivers the limit isn't 2 jacks per day but rather it is 4 Chinook salmon but not more than 2 may be adult fish. Under that definition of the limit an angler could catch and keep 4 jacks as their daily limit, or they could keep 3 jacks and 1 adult or 2 jacks and 2 adults. If you are fishing and have caught and kept 3 jacks, you can continue to fish for the fourth fish and keep that one whether it is a jack or an adult fish (assuming that the adipose fin has been clipped). If the first two fish you catch and keep are both adult fish, you cannot fish any more that day since you have achieved the adult limit. The reason for writing the rule that way is to provide more flexibility so anglers have greater opportunity to harvest fish. It is impossible for us to forecast how many jacks might return each year. If there are a lot of jacks we won't need as many for brood stock in our hatcheries so more harvest can be allowed. If there are not a lot the limits are still flexible to allow anglers to catch and harvest adult fish.
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