NYS Conservationist Magazine, April/May 2025 Issue: "Atlantic Salmon's COME BACK in Lake Ontario"

[GAMBLER]

On 4/12/2025 at 9:31 PM, King Davy said:

That is my wife Lindsay is the angler in the picture. We’ve caught several Atlantic Salmon in the tribs and have been providing data to Mike Connerton at Cape Vincent research station for DEC. And now working with Stacy Furgal with Sea Grant on salmon restoration activities.

 

The Lake Ontario fish the last couple years have come from the Vermont hatchery but according to DEC this is the last year of that supply chain. In a meeting with Hurst last Sept he told our TU group that the Feds price per fish wasn’t in their budget. I may be wrong but up to this point we only achieved 150k smolts when the ultimate target was 200 to 250k. 
 

the Adirondak hatchey had been the primary supplier of Atlantic Salmon to both LO and the finger lakes. They don’t have the capacity to raise the LO stockings to the aforementioned target. As mentioned catch rates are up on both the lake and tribs. But that momentum will fizzle out if we can’t reach target goals.

 

We’ve been working with region 8 to look at successful natural reproduction of both brown trout and steelhead in Irondequoit creek. Last year helping them electro shock several sites in Irondequoit from Penfield to Fishers we found highly sustainable schools of wild brown trout. Stakeholders have been asking DEC to consider Irondequoit as a salmon stocking site again along with south sandy, the salmon river, Sandy in Region 8 and the Oak. While natural repo surely won’t create a sustainable sport fishery we could actually achieve the beginning of wild Atlantic Salmon in a south shore stream since the early 1800’s. 

 

Lots of Atlantic salmon being caught from Oswego to Henderson this spring. Suggesting the Salmon River and South Sandy stockings are starting to have an impact on the lake fishery. But most of that success stems from the increased stockings. Hopefully DEC can find an avenue to maintain the current stocking levels and reach their over all goal of 200k plus.

Dave,

 

Are they doing any kind of tagging (Adipose clip or Coded wire tag) of these wild fish to see if there is any kind of survival rate after they leave the creek?  I would imagine the Ibay predators put a hurting on them.  It would be an interesting study.  

[rolmops]

The I-bay predators are mostly warm water species and, like most predators, they prefer easy prey. It seems to me that browns and atlantics that are not hatchery raised are very weary. (the dumb ones were probably eaten already by the time they made it all the way to the bay). I think that the survival rate of the natural reproduction fish is probably a lot higher than we might expect.

[GAMBLER]

30 minutes ago, rolmops said:

The I-bay predators are mostly warm water species and, like most predators, they prefer easy prey. It seems to me that browns and atlantics that are not hatchery raised are very weary. (the dumb ones were probably eaten already by the time they made it all the way to the bay). I think that the survival rate of the natural reproduction fish is probably a lot higher than we might expect.

Between the pike, bass, perch, walleye and cormorants, it's an uphill battle no matter how smart they are.  Just the cormorants alone are a problem. Although, if Atlantics are raised there, maybe the USGS will kill more cormorants.  Sounds like a win win to me.  

Edited April 14, 2025 by GAMBLER

[LongLine]

Unfortunately. cormorants are still a protected specie, so feds won't go after them. 

[GAMBLER]

26 minutes ago, LongLine said:

Unfortunately. cormorants are still a protected specie, so feds won't go after them. 

They already cull a certain amount on the bay every year.   

[King Davy]

Hey Brian. I’m not aware of any nose tags that the feds did. We clipped the A Salmon up at the ADK hatchery when they were trying to raise them in pens. Mike last year had us on fish diary’s now strictly on collecting scale samples.
 

there are wild brown trout from Ellison all the way to fishers. We electro fished those spots and found lots of fish. The avg fish is in that 6 to 10 inch range with a couple different year classes. Some bigger ones. Easy to tell the wild from stocked.

 

the stream is extremely healthy. Plenty of bugs and small bait fish. Brown trout are the mist aggressive trout species in these higher up

areas. That’s why you don’t introduce browns into streams with brook trout.

 

Anyway I know DEC is happy with how the Atlantic Salmon has started to contribute to the lake and trib fishery.

[rolmops]

 

Davy, you mention these natural reproduction brown trout. Now these brown trout are in fact an introduced invasive species.

Would the atlantic salmon have a better survival chance if the brown trout were removed?

[King Davy]

Brown trout and Atlantic salmon live together in many places especially in Europe. It’s been hundreds of years to where we had a sustainable population of Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario when of course there were no brown trout. At least a large population like we have today. Brown trout are very aggressive but that includes them predating on their own.

 

i think for me anyway, the focus is having a stream like Irondequoit that in 2025 with all the climate issues we’ve seen is pristine enough to host trout to wild stages. There is a fishable population of brown trout in the creek. I have friends who have spectacular days catching these fish 12 months a year.. These folks are excellent anglers and conservationists. They use only barbless hooks handle the fish with care keep them wet and enjoy the fact these fish were born and thrive in this stream. And they are leaders in taking care of the habitat which is key to the fish thriving. 

Nature is doing its thing in this creek as it did 100’s of years ago. Even though it runs through suburban Monroe county.

 

[HB2]

I'm mildly excited about this project 

 

On the doorstep of retirement , I plan on stream fishing more . 

 

This great fishery we have  hopefully will get better and even more diverse than it already is . 

[Sweet Caroline]

I believe there  is a pretty good naturalized run of Chinook in Irondequoit Creek. The creek hasn’t been stocked with Kings in many years, yet every fall I see large numbers of Kings in the upper stretches in Fishers on prime gravel.  Has there been any studies of YOY Chinooks in Irondequoit Creek? My understanding is that Chinooks will out compete Atlantic’s when it comes to natural reproduction. Being that Chinooks have already established themselves in the system how will this impact the success  of establishing Atlantic Salmon? 

Edited May 31, 2025 by Sweet Caroline

[King Davy]

Chinook salmon generally out compete most other trout and salmon species. But King salmon have a very short stay in our rivers as adults and certainly as fry to smolt status. Where Atlantic salmon, steelhead and coho salmon must survive for 12 to 18 months and in some cases a full two years in a river system for Atlantic Salmon. 

 

In my opinion having to survive at least one and possibly two summers in a stream is the much bigger factor on our south shore. However with the electro fishing and angler success we are seeing of wild brown trout in Irondequoit it’s proving that other species besides chinook salmon are having solid success in that stream of natural reproduction and survival.

 

The state to date has not nearly met its stocking goal of 250k atlantics. While we are seeing more and more salar being caught on the lake and I can personally report very successfully targeting and catching them in our rivers they could be another opportunity on our river fishery as well as more diversity on the lake.