What makes a salmon tick?

[rolmops]

I am just wondering what triggers the first stirrings of home river desire in King salmon.I am sort of hoping that summer runoff in the rivers with pollen and other green, or summer materials triggers the salmon to start looking for the initial staging areas.

Is there any information on this subject? I would really like to learn more about what makes a salmon or for that matter a steel head tick.

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[motoman]

water temps and flows have alot too do with it!

[salmonboy41]

the light cycles i think have a lot to do with it, i know the salmon run in the niagara river is almost totally ideantical year after year as to when they start coming in, but with pretty much every other water flow into the lake water flow is a big must.

[ray koziatek]

Hmm you dummys they lert it in schools...

[LongLine]

I've never found 2 papers that totally agree on the exact initial signal to start moving to their home stream.

Just about all do agree that they find the home stream with their olfactory sense of chemical makeup. (ie smell the chemicals) Consensus is that their bodies begin to change & in they come. Some researchers have proposed the theory that ocean fish navigate great distances via magnetostictors in their bodies & follow the magnetic field of the earth.

Keating popularized the theory of 2 basic types of Kings. I.e. the home bodies that hug the bottom & really don't travel very far from their home streams and the "nomads" that travel from one end of the lake to the other. You may want to pick up a copy of his book. (He suggests ways to target each) Some guys have proposed what he's talking about are really Naturals vs Stockers.

I do know that the 1st kings come in aound the beginning of August for a quick "sniff" of the streams then go back out to wherever they're holding. Stream temps are way too warm for their metabolism for them to spend much time on the inside.

Good currents are key to their reproductive success as has been found out on the Salmon river, but do currents really give them a signal? I doubt it as in August the rivers are low and at very low flow. Also the general current in the lake (on our side) is from West to East. Why do the fish seem to move in August/Sept from Olcott to Oswego - ie go downstream?

Additionally, we all know the best nearshore/stream fishing in Sept is on those dark & rainny days. They seem to rush the rivers in hordes.

Guess it's all part of nature's plan that we're meant to ponder but not completely figure out. Here's a site that may give you some insight.

http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/ ... arepro.htm

If you figure it all out, please let me know. We could then write a book and become famous & maybe even Ray would buy a copy.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[shorething]

The moon, as well as temps , I think have a great deal to with the salmons urge to procreate. Also ,rising waters might be the spark that triggers a run opstream .

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Tom shared great info. I actually believe it all starts right NOW. After a Spring binge that revs up metabolism, seems like they gather their wits and begin to migrate. Points north and east will begin to see more and more "big boys", and body changes will become more and more profound. ONly in our Lake O do so many Salmon migrate AWAY from a consistent, and ample food source. Seems they know plenty more will be available where they are headed. Great thread. They are amazing creatures. I absolutely love how they are racing against the clock, and always have an agenda.

[Gill-T]

I have had the luxury to fish salmon from Alaska to Chile, and the one common denominator with runs across the world is time of year and rain are the main triggers. Around Lake O, a good NE blow after August 20th when the first lake roll-over occurs will often bring the first silver fish in close, but they don't start running the creeks until the first week in September. What I want to know is why they seemingly feed in 4 hour cycles, and how do all the fish know this and are on the same feeding cycle?

[rolmops]

This Saturday I was lucky enough to be an observer on the "Spoonfed" fishing the Pro-Am derby out of Wilson.The Spoonfed captain is a nice and very experienced fisher man,while captain and crew are a very well organized and highly disciplined team who, together with their very well set up rig, are a very hard act to beat.It reminded me of my naval recon days 40 years ago. As luck would have it they caught their 9 fish but 4 were under sized.Still coming in 6th in a very large field is no mean feat! Thank you Captain and crew for not only allowing me on board,but also for freely giving information and tips.

While fishing, a south-western breeze picked up and became brisk during the morning.While this wind picked up,so did the temperature at the ball,it went up about 6 degrees.Where we were marking fish before,the screen turned empty and I saw some boats, that had earlier fished roughly in the same area ,moving farther eastward.

The captains comment was,that the fish do not like these temperatures and had moved.Then it struck me.We were on the same coordinates,but not in the same water.The water column containing the fish,had been pushed by the western winds and the Niagara river current.Relative to their environment the fish had not moved,instead their environment had moved.

My first thought was. If only Garmin could have it's GPS show us temperature and water movement.Maybe they can.

Could it be that this is how the salmon slowly travels east during the summer months?

I can just see all that food rich water coming out of the big meat grinder, we call the Niagara Falls, attracting the salmon in winter so they congregate around its outflow and in early spring as shallow lake Eerie warms up gathering the fish around the Niagara river mouth even more.Now later on this Eerie water becomes too warm and the salmon stay suspended in their comfort zone with their bait and slowly this comfort zone travels east and thus arrives in the eastern parts.

Maybe this migration is for a large part a water movement,carrying both hunter and prey.Of course the lake warms up at the same time because of the outflow of other much smaller rivers and the sun.

Does this make sense or am I chasing windmills?Captain Vince suggests that instincts pull the fish away from the Niagara to their spawning grounds.

Please add your 2 pennies or if you have it,much more.It will help me understand more.

[LongLine]

Rolmops,

Salmon are very temperature oriented.

Big-O can be hydraulically very active, late May through June as you witnessed. A good stiff wind pushes the surface water, which is being warmed by the sun, around. With the SW wind, what happens is that the water depth farther from shore (towards the NE) actually gets deeper and the near shore water gets shallower with respect to the datum level. Nature makes water seek its own level hence water that was on the bottom (out deeper) begins to flow toward the shallower shoreline. This sets up some very interesting currents and often some pockets of warmer water get pushed by these currents. (when deeper in the middle, the water often moves both N & S)

If you look at what the water gage at Oswego did during this period, you’ll see that it actually got deeper there, then it went back down. (top graph)

This is nature’s way of mixing the water and generally a few of these events precede stratification. It’s what makes fishing this time period so “interesting†to some and “frustrating†to others.

Another thing to remember is that any one boat, on a Saturday, only covers a very small portion of the lake and will experience “local†events such as small moving pockets of warm water.

What the satellite recorded for the whole lake is as follows:

If you look at the overall lake deep water temps, they were not all that affected by the wind event you experienced.

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glc ... pe=N&hr=48

The east end is still warmer than the west end. Historically our colleagues at Fair Haven & Oswego have to fish much deeper than we in the Central or West end do. This temperature gradient shown on the transects, is driven by wind but also by much more than just wind events. I.e. the prevailing westerly’s, the corriolis effect (sp), Lake Basin geometry, St Lawrence outflow, etc

Bottom line: temps change, fish in our area change. They may move; may scatter; may sit on the bottom to adjust to it. If we knew exactly what they did all the time, we’d be called “catchermen†not fishermen.

Tom B.

(LongLine)