Salmon Migration

[Big Water]

After two years at the O, I'm getting a little sense of how these fish move, but can anyone explain a "typical" migration from the spring through fall? The spring bite is shallow (presumably baitfish spawn driven) and preliminarily in the western basin, but are all of the fish actually on the west side or does this water just warm faster and start the bite earlier there? (seems improbable that they're all in the west, but you should have seen some of the screen shots I had this spring outside of Olcott. Never saw so many BIG fish packed from 30-120' in my life. They had to be there by the thousands or tens of thousands) Once they start moving deeper, is it just a random spread throughout the open waters or are they migrating any particular direction. Just trying to get a feel for the logic behind the movements.

Thanks,

Doug

[rail bird]

Most information on Salmon in Lake Ontario is theoretical but here are a few thoughts. Yes many of the salmon migrate to the west in the spring, probabaly because of the warmer temps and the active pods of bait. Salmon from the US side come from the east end at the hatchery in Pulaski. There seems to be a natural migration to that area toward the fall for many of the Salmon. Some of the salmon stocked in the creeks imprint where they are stocked. This may be more common now with the pen rearing programs. The day to day and week to week changes in the water temp that change over the summer with winds seems to have a great effect upon where a lot of the salmon are. Salmon can travel a great distance in one day. I have read that they can travel 30 miles in 1 day. It seems that each year can be different and that is because of the wind and weather. One thing for certain once it is time to spawn they will go to just about any creek that spits out water.