I'm still here

I've been on hiatus for quite awhile, but I'm still here.  I got busy through the fall and winter, for a while it was brutal.  Getting off the river after fishing all day in 10-20 degrees make for a tough day, so when I get home I pull the anchor rope out of the boat to dry and then I'm looking for the couch.

Fishing through all of this was very good, great some days.  We have had several years now of some very good steelhead fishing and it helps when it's bitter cold outside.

I just posted the egg collecting report for this spring's steelhead take, awesome numbers.  This is consistent with past years take and we are reaping the benefits out on the river.  I am looking forward to another good year this coming fall.  Only 3 more full moons and we'll be in the peak of the salmon run.

I'll Post soon with local trout fishing report.

Tight lines

DEC asks for your help

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF) requests your help with recovering samples of Coho Salmon caught in Lake Ontario beginning in 2018 and continuing until 2021. Each year, NYSDEC stocks Coho Salmon as fall fingerlings at six sites along the New York shoreline, and as spring yearlings at the Salmon River, and Metro East Anglers in cooperation with OMNRF stock Coho fall fingerlings at the Credit River. As part of a continuing effort to evaluate the effectiveness of stocking programs, we are evaluating Coho Salmon stocking strategies by mass marking and/or tagging all stocked Coho Salmon in 2016-2019.

Some portion of the Coho Salmon caught in Lake Ontario may also come from natural reproduction instead of hatcheries. Although some streams are known to produce wild Coho smolts, the relative contribution of wild and hatchery Coho Salmon to the Lake Ontario fishery is unknown. This information is important for fisheries managers to understand trends in Coho Salmon catch rates. To determine the proportion of wild Coho Salmon in the Lake Ontario fishery, the adipose fin of all Coho Salmon stocked by NYSDEC and OMNRF will be clipped in 2016-2019, including the fall fingerlings stocked by Metro East Anglers at the Credit River. Tags are 1 mm long pieces of coded wire inserted into the snouts of fish prior to stocking, therefore invisible to the naked eye and undetectable without specialized equipment. Recovery of mark and tag data is ongoing until 2022.

To supplement NYSDEC and OMNRF sampling by the Fishing Boat survey and at fishing tournaments, we are asking volunteers to collect Coho Salmon heads from fish harvested in the Lake and tributaries and place them in freezers located at sites from the Niagara River to Oswego (see below). Bags and labels will be available at freezer locations, and instructions for collections are provided below. We would like your help. Please be on the lookout for Coho Salmon when fishing. For all harvested Coho Salmon, please cut off its head, toss it in a bag, label, and put it in a freezer. If you are willing to collect Coho Salmon heads and store them in your personal freezer, we will happily come pick them up. Arrangements can be made by emailing fwfishlo@dec.ny.gov.

DEC Completes Salmon River Hatchery Egg Collection

DEC Salmon River Hatchery staff completed steelhead egg collection on April 4, 2019.  The egg take resulted in 2.47 million eggs from 681 Washington strain steelhead, exceeding the target number od 2.15 million eggs.  Fish hatched from this collection will be raised in the hatchery for approximately one year and then stocked as spring yearlings in 2020.

Staff collected an additional 194,72 eggs from 51 Skamania strain steelhead.  Steehead are stocked every spring in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie tributaries where they contribute to both the tributary fishery and open lake fisheries.  Current Lake Ontario steelhead/rainbow trout stocking include 497,700 Washington stain yearlings, 43,000 Skamania strain yearlings and 75,00 domestic strain rainbow trout yearlings.  Lake Erie stockings include 225,000 Washington strain steelhead and 5000 domestic strain rainbow trout.