Chinook stuff

[Gill-T]

Anybody have figures on what percentage of returning salmon are 4 year olds? As good as last year was.....I think this year will be even better for numbers of big 4 year old kings. Of course if they all spawn at 3 years old then I will be wrong with my prediction.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_ ... lights.pdf

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Great topic, Chad. I was told years ago by a dedicated biologist with a passion for Chinook, that each skein of eggs had certain percentages of eggs "predetermined" at different year intervals for return.

The theory is, mother nature wants to spread out the return of spawning Salmon to different years, allowing that gene pool to endure natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, droughts ect. It is also believed that the percentages are not rigid. If a particular bunch of fry get a slow start and have to "scrounge"(natural repro?), they are more likely to mature in their 4th or even in rare cases, 5th yr. With abundant food and a great start(holding pens?) you will see a greater percentage maturing in their 3rd year, which is always the greatest percentage returning in a healthy population already.

Good representation of mature returning "jacks", or 1st year Chinooks(which are always males) is a good indicator of that year class and it's health.

I am fairly confident that 2013 will give us a good number of monster Chinooks, just based on the ample forage base.

[Tim Bromund]

Chad,

Here is the Lake Ontario Unit's 2011 Annual Report. The 2012 data won't be out for a while yet.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/lorpt11.pdf

check oot Section 9 in particular. in 2011 4 YO kings made up less than 1% of the returns to the hatchery. Table 4 in section 9 shows the historic data. 4YO's never make up a significant portion of the run, it is mostly 2 and 3 YO's. In 2011 it was disproportionately 2YO's as that was the year the shortfall of available kings from the 2007 drought and stocked in spring 2008 would have been 3YO's. Lots of interesting info in this report if you've got some time to sit down and read it. It's a pretty large document.

Tim

[Gill-T]

I am fairly confident that 2013 will give us a good number of monster Chinooks, just based on the ample forage base

I hear you Vince, the blue zone was solid with bait from Niagara County to Orleans County this fall. Is it March yet?

[ifishy]

in the report on the first link the last line under projects there putting a camera in at the hatchery fish ladder? I would love to see that become a web cam one of these days i'm gonna convince my wife to take a weekend trip to see the hatchery and fish the river in the fall.

[Yankee Troller]

one of these days i'm gonna convince my wife to take a weekend trip to see the hatchery and fish the river in the fall.

Definitely worth the trip. I try to go at least once a year, and it never gets old.

[Gill-T]

It will be interesting to hear the breakdown of the year classes that spawned. I wonder how the flood of Oct, 2010 will effect the three year old class this year out in the lake. If more fish bypassed the gauntlet of snatchers then in theory more fish would have made it up to the no-kill zone to spawn.

[panfisher]

Good increases in trout/salmon #s. Really good to see continuous improvement in laker and Atlantic #s....let's hope we and Mother Nature can keep on this course of improvements.