Recap of Tues Nights TU Meeting with Bill Arden

[Thorny]

Hi Guys
Its always nice to get invitation to attend one of TU's meetings at Gander Mtn in Plattsburgh. Thanks for the invite Mick! Any one who can ever attend one of these meetings should because they are very informative. Bill Arden, Senior Fisheries Biologist on the US Fish and Wildlife's Lake Champlain Team gave a presentation on the history and current status of the Atlantic Salmon Fishery in Champlain and Lake Ontario. He discussed many of the challenges in restoring the populations of the Atlantic Salmon in both fisheries. He touched on stocking programs, baitfish populations, Lamprey control, invasives and some of the new genetic tagging. Genetic tagging will allow us to have a better understanding of stocking programs and how well they are working. We are hoping to put together a angler cooperation program. Fisherman may be able to provide scale samples of fish with a specific fin clip and through cooperation with fish and game find out when, where and how big it was when stocked. This maybe very important going forward.

The best part of the meeting was after Bill's presentation. Open forum of question, answer and information share. As the group shared information about things we observed on our trips. Most importantly changes in what we see in the lake fishery in size of fish, lamprey predation and some very interesting conversations about baitfish and the lack of Native varieties of shiners that some of the river fisherman say have almost disappeared this spring and fall where they have always seen them. As well as a lack of Salmon feeding on the where they normally would.

I want to share what I thought was a very interesting hypothesis on the what happens to stocked Salmon based on the size they are when stocked. First understand that Fingerlings are 2 to 3 inch fish when stocked and Smolts whitch are 7 to 9 inches. When Fingerlings are stocked in streams they have a very good chance of Impregnating the stream and returning to spawn when mature. Because they are so young and small they spend much longer in the streams to establish roots. Smolts on the other hand are much larger and have a better survival rate. But they spend very little time in the streams and may not return to spawn. This may explain why we sometimes catch large Silver Salmon in the Fall with no signs of maturing.Under standing this may provide a better plan to manage a strong fishery in the lake with smolts and a balance of fingerlings in the streams to maintain a healthy river fishery with the possibility of natural reproduction.
An angler cooperation program with genetic tagging may help to answer some of these questions and help this great team of people better manage this awesome fishery. One thing is for sure. Be prepared for more changes as Lake Champlain continues to adjust to some wild weather and invasives!

My sincerest thanks to Bill Arden, Micky Maynard and the membership of TU for holding this meeting and committing to the continued success of the Champlain fishery.
Thorny

[Sleepswithdafishes]

Very good stuff !!! We can always be learning new stuff when are ears are open!!!! Thorny thanks for sharing!! Sleeps

[Surprise]

Thanks for the report and review.

I know we are all looking forward to more positive changes to the fishery that we all call home and love so much. Fish On!, Randy

[fishhuntadventure]

I wonder how the lower cost of fingerlings compared to smolts compares. The follow up would be should we "sacrifice" a few years to sow fingerlings at a quantity that they overshadow their attrition rate in a few years. And the follow up to that would be, "is there enough quality spawning habitat that natural spawning will have the chance to contribute enough smolt-stage salmon to make an increase in fingerling stocking worthwhile for sport fishing?"

I don't mean to discount the value of influencing a sustainable natural spawned "wild" atlantics in the champlain watershed but with the Alewife feed base can natural spawning be sustainable? And is alewife predation the reason for the baitfish scarcity mentioned?

These questions have a much more serious and substantial impact potential than spiny water fleas. Then you add the impact on the benthos of zebra mussels and other lower-level food chain invasives and you have a significant conundrum for the biologists to sort out.

Pretty delicate balance when you consider the whole picture and how it may effect our desire for more larger fish in the system. I wish I could have made it.

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

Yhanks Thorny for the heads-up

[raz]

I also wish I could have made it.
Thanks Thorney.

I certainly appreciate the efforts of US Fish and Wildlife, Vermont Fish & Wildlife, and NY DEC. They make up a great team to keep us fishing.

[popster]

Good stuff Rob. Next time I'm in
Thanks for the report
B

[digitroll (ron)]

I am quite a few years away to make that trip on a school night for the kids. Good condensed feed back Rob. The mystery of where these mature silver shoot- out fish come from during the peak of the spawning cycle was a very excellent question to ask. I was very surprised that most of the Hydro one trapped salmon are 3 lb. fish less than 20" with all showing some form of spawning color with no silver fish ones one day last year when they brought up 30 fish. It was an eye opener when I started realizing how many mature silver fish are out in the lake at this time. The shoot-outs have proved this.

Great feedback and thanks for getting back to us here.

[Matt]

Interesting...so in short, the salmon we see in the rivers during the Fall are most likely Fingerlings, and the ones you guys are catching out in the lake during the Shootout are probably Smolt?

[Thorny]

Correct Matt.... if our theory is true.