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please be carefull out there guys! I went through today about 2 miles from fort ann beach. luckly was able to shoot right out of the water. the crack was not visable through the snow! I did catch 6 lakers and I lost 3. my buddy gonna send me my pics. ill post them in a bit
I know Ray, but what does knowing him or the Ellsworths have to do with salmon reproduction in LG? I knew them, too. I have spoken with several biologists about LG salmon over the years. I studied biology in college and one of my professors was Carl George, he wrote a book titled: The Fishes of the Lake George Watershed. I also have many papers and articles on the LG fishery, including the Angler Diary Cooperator Summaries going back to 1994.Never heard of the salmon becoming sterile at the hatchery, if that was the case how are the able to get enough salmon to stock? I do believe inbreeding has caused issues with survival of the stocked fish, that's one reason why they started adding Sebago strain; unfortunately since then the salmon have done even worse.I am well aware of them being called landlocked salmon , some got trapped when the glaciers receded, but they were never naturally in LG. Some salmon may have been trapped in LG when the glaciers receded, but they didn't survive or adapt here, probably due to insufficient spawning waters. They didn't "learn" to spawn, fish aren't that smart. They adapted and eventually evolved to spawn, yet they needed flowing water, they don't successfully spawn in lakes. They may go through the motions of spawning in the Fall, that instinct that has evolved into them causes them to attempt spawning. We used to go up to Norowal Marina in November and watch the salmon swimming around right in the deep hole at the boat launch trying to spawn. They were stocked there and naturally imprinted on that spot, and by nature they return to the stream/river where they hatched, in this case the boat launch was the closest thing.According to the DEC: "Atlantics were historically found in Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, and in many of their tributaries", they weren't in many lakes, LG included. In Maine they ended up only in lakes within river systems, again, they need flowing water to spawn: "Prior to 1868, landlocked salmon populations occurred in only four river basins in Maine: the St. Croix, including West Grand Lake in Washington County; the Union, including Green Lake in Hancock County; the Penobscot, including Sebec Lake in Piscataquis County; and the Presumpscot, including Sebago Lake in Cumberland County."(From Maine F&W)That is an interesting story about your grandfather, but not sure is proves much scientifically, it is anecdotal evidence. You stated: "the perch and sunfish moved in immediately after the spawn and ate all the fry they could catch". That doesn't make sense, salmon spawn in gravelly riffle sections of streams and rivers, burying the eggs. The eggs spend the winter and hatch the following Spring, then the fry hatch and swim up out of the gravel. They then become parr and spend a year or more in the stream/river growing into smolts; which will then move to the open water and grow very rapidly. The perch and sunfish may have moved in and eaten the eggs?A few years ago a biologist from the US Fish & Wildlife Service came to LG, they had grant money to improve fish spawning habitat in the LG basin. I accompanied her and the DEC biologist along with people from WC Soil & Conservation to check out the suitability of several LG tributaries, it was determined that they were not suitable for salmon spawning.Here's an article about LG salmon written by a friend of mine: http://www.lgfa.org/articles/landlock-salmon.htm