DEC Announces Actions to Protect Salmon River Fish Populations

[Gill-T]

Eh...I still it makes sense to keep the river catch and release-only from October 15th to November 15th to protect the spawn and promote better behavior by fishermen. This should reduce injury to trout by reducing Salmon snatching rig usage during that time. 

[King Davy]

In all fairness with the extreme drought we had and warm water, my concern wasn’t about could the fish get to the hatchery but how would they do health wise in low warm water. Luckily while we didn’t get the rain we needed, we did get many cool and cold nights that lowered water temps into the 60’s in Sept. and down into the 50’s the past two weeks.

 

Many years they can’t start egg take the week of the Columbus Day because water temps remain above 60 degrees.

 

So we were fortunate to get those cold overnight temps into the 30’s for many days up in the Salmon River watershed.

 

I’ve spent over 20 days on the water the last five weeks and I’m surprised by the number of salmon I’ve seen on local small tribs as well as the Salmon river. I didn’t expect to see the numbers I’ve seen this year after three years of stocking cuts. However with three years 17-19 of high fall and spring water I truly think we have a much greater natural population of fish than I ever imagined.

 

I hope DEC can get to their king clipping program next spring. I think now more than ever we need to truly understand what the impact is of wild fish so the state can understand if we are recovering the forage numbers to return to traditional stocking numbers.

 

There are tons of salmon spawning in the lower salmon river. Way more than I think many of us expected to see. I haven’t been in the upper spawning gravel for a couple weeks, but would figure since so many fish made it to the hatchery it would be loaded as well.

 

Certainly a much bigger run after the lower return last year. Including our local streams.

 

 

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[Lucky13]

On ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2020 at 7:21 PM, King Davy said:

Here’s the unofficial word from the hatchery ( obviously they want to ...have to announce this) but from reliable sources sounds like they met their king salmon egg take in three days. No idea what the goal was (haven’t heard what that number is ) but they are finished

 

Coho’s are next and they have a huge group of coho’s in the hatchery and expect to easily meet their egg take goals.

 

Word from some acquaintances who worked the egg take they sampled some really nice big fish. And from the cohos I’ve caught and have seen caught we have a nice healthy group of fish that many believe are a little larger than usual.

 

So despite the low water and heavy fishing pressure the hatchery experienced a solid run of kings and cohos and will be in the process of raising them for next season.

 

 

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So did they open the fly stretch back up?

[King Davy]

No not till Nov 1. Talked to Fran and they’ve been throwing people out of there every day the last two weeks. They have a sign up saying it opens 11/1.

As you know it’s crazy time up there.


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[Lucky13]

I ask because the hatchery worker I know says they have sufficient cohos in the tanks, and they are done with Kings, so what is the justification for closing now?

[King Davy]

Don’t know Lucky. Maybe just to make it easy from a date perspective. I fished the river today. Steelhead showing down low hanging around the horde of salmon spawning. Fished the upper fly later and lots of spawners up there on gravel.

Upper river not real busy except for Ellis cove. Few cars at trestle and sportsman’s. DSR was busy but this week they lowered the number of anglers by 100. Lots of
room to fish, got schooled by two big dime bright bows. Saw some others caught. Definitely transitioning from the salmon crowd to the serious
Steelheaders.

I do know the hatchery takes early eggs and some later arrival fish eggs, so that might be the reason the LFZ is still closed.