Some questions concerning the low water in the creeks.

[rolmops]

1 Did the Altmar hatchery reach their eggtake goal?

2 Did Altmar increase their eggtake numbers to make up for lower wild spawning numbers?

3 What happens with the two year olds that were getting ready to spawn but could not get up the creeks? Do they just die off or do the colder water temperatures cause them to start feeding again and enable them to stick it out another year?

Edited October 26, 2025 by rolmops

[King Davy]

To my knowledge the hatchery got the number they were looking for. I don’t know what that number is but they always take more than they planned for stocking due to eye up percentages. I know when Tom came in many years ago as the fish culture lead he tested milt for duds and studs to increase successful eye up fertilization of eggs. 
 

DEC has a weir on the black river that is/was holding hundreds of king salmon to do collections from if necessary but I heard from reliable sources they didn’t have to enact that process due to success of the normal hatchery collection effort.

 

To my knowledge If a salmon no matter the age has matured to adult reproduction stage and its body has determined it was going to spawn there is no turning back. I’ve never seen or heard of a pacific salmon that survived spawning rejuvenated like an Atlantic Salmon or Steelhead and returned to the lake. I’ve caught kings that have spawned and or ran very late into the spring (April) in our local streams. Well mended fish that didn’t look like they have spawned coming very late to the party.

Edited October 27, 2025 by King Davy