Mature Natural Fish From The West End

[Sweet Caroline]

Just curious if anybody is still catching a large percentage of natural mature fish (with adipose) from any place other than the Salmon River now that most of these fish should have made it back to the Salmon River. Would seem odd if we were catching a lot of wild fish staging off of places like Olcott, the Genny or the Oak where there hasn’t been any documented natural reproduction. Reports from the Salmon River are that the majority of the fish they are catching there have their adipose fins. In places that have little natural reproduction I would expect these to be few and far between. Worthy of a conversation…I think.

Thanks

DR

[Mortigan]

Most of the pictures of pier-caught fish here show they're stocked, only a couple with adipose fin intact.

[Gill-T]

Eighteen mile (Olcott) has very little nat. reprod. due to pollution. Oak Orchard probably puts out naturals. The X-factor is the Niagara. With warm lake Erie water coming down most of the fall, conditions would favor a late run of Kings when water temps are lower in order for nat. reprod. to occur. Sampling the Niagara for smolts would prove very difficult due to the depth and currents. Despite lack of proof.....my bet is on the Niagara.

[Missdemeanor]

I caught 5 yesterday and all of them were clipped......

90 % of the kings we caught this summer and fall were clipped.........

[ReelPower]

Niagara river fisherman would be a good source for data on this question. 50% of kings off Wilson were naturals for my July trip.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Tim Bromund]

In July, a lot of the migrating fish were off the Niagara County shoreline. Those fish moved east towards the Salmon River in August.

[rolmops]

The Gennie has zero natural reproduction. The waterfalls are impossible to pass.

But there are a lot of small creeks in the Greater Rochester area where i have witnessed salmon running up to spawn. King and Coho both mixed in with steelies and browns. Most local fly fisherman will know which creeks I am talking about. Let's leave these these fish in peace to do their thing so we can have better catches in the coming years.

[fisherman21]

I've caught a few naturals casting from the genny piers this year. It's almost 50/50

[ Post made via Android ]

[Sweet Caroline]

Thanks fisherman21. If everybody agrees that the Genny has zero natural reproduction it seems odd that are we seeing fish being caught with their adipose fin intact. Just questioning the validity of the adipose fin in determining natural vs stocked. I'd hate to see future stocking decisions based on this info.

DR

[King Davy]

I've witnessed Chinook fry in Oak Oarchard in significant numbers in the Spring as well as nearby $andy. Not sure polution is as big a factor as decent spawning gravel and cool enough temps. The Genny is producing a significant number of sturgen since the DEC planted a few mature pairs. Unless the falls pool has spawning gravel, I don't think there is much opportunity for natural repo. But in the case of king salmon any trib to Lake Ontario is probably producing some if there is decent gravel, becaue normally water temps will be in the fry's safety range up until they are ready to migrate to open water.

Spent the last three weeks on the Salmon. I've caught a significant number of Chinooks and 99% have been wild fish. This appears to be a very successful year class of wild adults. Not only are there a lot of them, they are huge. We just have to keep an eye on their body make up to see any teltale signs of forage troubles. I've read many threads on this board of Capt's and rec anglers alike stating the abundance of forage fish. I had the pleasure to tour and hang out with the USGS crew of the KAHO II a few weeks ago. Their finding plenty of forage, and more and more legacy critters who seem to be showing up that they haven't seen in abundance in quite some time. They were doing their Lake Trout adult study around Rochester and found a ton of fish and big ones. So many species appear to be doing well.

Word out on the Canada tribs on the North shore...lots ...and lots of wild fish

Salmon are showing up in the Genny and out west now, we'll see what transpires, but I would assume less wild fish by percentage then up east. We shall see.

[dday]

We generally see close to 50/50 split off the Niagara up until early Aug. By the middle of Aug this drops to under 5% natural fish. Who knows these may even be fish that were missed by the clipping machine. I would be surprised if there is much natural reproduction off the Niagara.

However it is encouraging to see how much natural reproduction is going on at Salmon River and along the North Shore.

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Ever since NY abandoned raising Kings at Caledonia hatchery, the runs in the Niagara have been weak comparatively. The Altmar fish just don't imprint well to the western tribs. The pens help somewhat with imprinting, but their main value is with a much higher survival rate of stocked Kings.

I'm sure we'll see some statistics, as the DEC has manpower taking scales and some snouts down there, but before today they were pretty bored. The fish that are being caught are primarily clipped.