Salmon country report

[Mikey topaz]

Just got back a little while ago ended up comin home a day earlier then planned few of the boyz are comin home tomorrow still sluggin away at em but i had enough of them dumb things! Chrome was hard to come by this trip i hooked one the whole week blehhhh!!! We searched high and low east west north south u name it we found two creeks where salmon were stacked and played with them being our last resort one creek we took a little ride to we found bunch of stingy browns and some domestic rainbows we got to play with for a little while before the ny dec walked through our hole and electroshocked the pool pretty cool.scotty got his first couple salmon,duck or bleed picked up right where he left off a few ago since he been up.... good trip with some tough fishing as always a blast fishing with the boyz!

[Chrisper4694]

Those fish look like turd rockets!

Nice fish guys!

[NJSquatch]

Great looking fish guys.

i need to make a trip up there one of these years

[FASTEDDIE29]

More Salmonoid country info! Bonfires! Lots of food! Phenom Moonshine! Beers! Good Friends! Good fishing had by all at some other key spots! Salmon River looks like the Dead river with the exception of some Zombie Mudsharks and a handful of Coho way up high on the river. Didn't see any Chrome or Trout for that matter on the SR. Strange year for sure. I went north and west of the grounds and found some big Salmonoids but the Chrome shortage right now really has me wondering. I hope nothings wrong with the stock. We'll see what November will bring! At least everyone got limits of Kings! Great trip overall!

Sure was a fun trip with some of the NJF brothers! Rain, sleet, hail or snow, I'd never miss this trip no matter what! Look forward to doing it again and again until I can't anymore! We did acquire a new member that seemed to only come out at night after a few hits of Moonshine...... Ladies and gents, lets welcome "Coho the Creepy Clown to the NJF family, LMFAO!!! GOOD TIMEZ!!! See you guys soon! TIGHT LINEZ!!!

The last two years have been devastating for steelhead due to the thiaminese / vitamin B deficiency problem biologists attributed to changes cold temperatures in the lake caused with the food chain. The following is an excerpt that spells out the impact:

Lack of Vitamin B1 Killing Great Lakes Fish

LEETOWN, W.Va. — Great Lakes fish in the salmon family that rely on the fish “alewife” as part of their diet face a major obstacle in restoring naturally reproducing populations, according to new U.S. Geological Survey research published in the journal Fish and Shellfish Immunology.

For more than a decade researchers have been trying to unravel the mystery of why Lake Trout and other salmonoid that consume alewife produce spawn that die young. Although researchers have recognized the connection between thiamine and the death of the young fish for a decade, the new study provides an additional clue; fish that survive the initial impact of thiamine deficiency are experiencing changes in immune function that resemble those occurring in humans with inflammatory diseases.

Early Mortality Syndrome, or EMS, results in embryonic mortality in salmon, steelhead trout, brown trout, lake trout, and Chinook salmon. The symptoms of EMS include loss of equilibrium, swimming in a spiral pattern, lethargy, hyper-excitability, hemorrhage and death, which occurs between hatching and first feeding.

“Vitamin B1, or Thiamine, is an essential nutrient that animals must obtain through their diet,” said Chris Ottinger, a USGS immunologist and lead author of the study. “We found that alewives, one of the main diets of many Great Lakes fish, contains an enzyme called “thiaminase” that destroys the thiamine in fish that consume them. The lack of B1 leads to Early Mortality Syndrome as well as the newly reported immune dysfunctions that may be perpetuating infectious diseases in this fish community.”

There were predictions last year the steelhead population in the Salmon River was down by anywhere from 75% - 90% from normal levels, a year after the significant die off of steelhead in the river due to presumably the same problem experienced during the '14 to '15 run. Theory is with the lake iced up during the winters of '13 and '14, alewive populations were concentrated in an area of the lake they're usually not and as a result they became the steelhead's primary forage fish during those winters. The popular belief is because of the change in their diet, the thiaminase contained in alewives caused a vitamin B deficiency in the steelhead population which unfortunately ended up killing many steelhead. It was plain to see for anyone who fished the river in the '14 / '15 season just how many steelhead died in the river that year. It was absolutely unbelieveable! The upper river was lined with dead steelhead worse than you see with salmon at the end of the run. Absolutely sad sight to see so many trophy steelhead lining the river bottom with steelhead floating down river dying all day long. And no one has any idea in addition how many steelhead actually died in the lake before entering the river. It's a sad state of affairs which will probably take years if not more to correct.

I believe the steelhead fry released earlier this year were exposed to a vitamin B supplement in the hatchery in the hopes of counteracting the effect of the thiaminase in the eggs. Hopefully this addresses the problem but if most fish returning each year are three year fish, the impact of this change probably won't be felt until this year's class return during the '18 / '19 season or maybe even the '19 / '20 season.

The cause of all this seems to be Mother Nature and probably to some degree global warming trends which some how translated to unusually cold winters on Lake Ontario. The lake in '13 and '14 froze solid which is supposedly the first time that's happened in quite some time if ever and it's the belief that caused the change in the food chain which almost wiped out the steelhead population. From what I understand the colder temperatures congregated the alewive populations in shallower water during the winter which is where the steelhead are in the winter months. That dynamic exposed steelhead to more alewives as opposed to Gobies and because of the Thiaminase in alewives caused the vitamin B deficiency in steelhead.

I hope the powers to be are wrong but unless something comes out of left field I think the steelhead and brown trout runs over the next few years will resemble the prior two years which were terrible. The stock needs to be rebuilt, hopefully this vitamin B supplement will work or the longer term issue which is probably a more difficult one to address is F&G figuring out a way to replace the growing population of alewives in the lakes with a forage fish that's not toxic when consumed in greater amounts to certain species of salmonoid and trout.

Either way it's not a good sign right now for Lake Ontario's steelhead fishery and if the scientists are correct it could get worse before getting better unfortunately. Hope they're wrong! The only positive in this entire story is the problem doesn't at all appear to be related to pollution in the lakes. In hindsight it's probably the direct result of NYF&G pumping more steelhead into the fishery every year to increase the amount of license revenue the fishery generates. Years ago there were less steellhead but much bigger fish. Now it's all about quantity of fish and selling more licenses which anyone who has spent time on the Salmon River in September or October can attest to. Columbus Day weekend on that river is like a scene out of "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest!" Quantity over quality and all for license fees and revenues associated with the fishery and alewife populations. Another excerpt that sheds light on the money and tax dollars generated from all this:


For those managing Lake Ontario fish, the little prey fish are a dilemma.

“Alewife are an incredibly important baitfish for a very lucrative sport fishery that contributes about $144 million a year to the New York state economy,” said Steve LaPan, a Lake Ontario unit leader for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

There is currently an imbalance between prey, forage fish and Mother Nature occurring in the Great Lakes which needs to be figured out. Unfortunately that imbalance appears to have taken it's toll short term on the steelhead population. I hope and pray they figure it out sooner than later since this is a world class fishery in our back yard. We'll see what the '16 / '17 season holds in store but I'm not optimistic we won't experience more of the recent downturn the last two seasons have produced.

Moral of the story is you can't !%$* with Mother Nature. Nature will always find the path to balance itself out and I believe F&G involvement to increase the alewife population in support of a $144 million industry and the decision to overstock steelhead to support more license fees has in this case been a big reason for the recent demise of the steelhead fishery on Lake Ontario. It certainly appears to be the case.

[shucker]

Quick question.. Hows the meat once these fish turn dark and start to look like zombie salmon? Are they even worth it to keep.