Re: reply to an old post and Squam netting and outlook
John
I took the word "cocky" in the same context as you just explained it. I remember his original quote. I can not say exactly when I read it, as I am chronologically challenged. Perhaps we can say he was confident versus "cocky"? I believe the change in water temp was critical to help prevent disease (cooler water). This was resolved when they moved the intake pipe deeper in to Merrymeeting. I was also told that they are cleaning the raceways more often to discourage the same. They have improved or added to their settling (manure) ponds and their manure moving or spreading arsenal to lower man hours and become more efficient. To me, these are all sound decisons to help improve the health of the hatchery fish and therefore the fisheries they are released in.
Good luck with Squam. It can be a big asset to NH's Salmon lakes.
Richard
Re: reply to an old post and Squam netting and outlook
I'm also concerned about Squam's future salmon fishery. I don't put the time in that John does (who does), but 2010 was the first year I got salmon skunked on Squam. That was four and half days of fishing. In past years, John would show me what I was doing wrong at the end of the week and put us on the salmon. Not this year. At least the rainbows were biting.
Hopefully the hatchery guy can back up his bravado? Last year this board was consumed with the decline of Winni. It looks like Winni had a resurgence this year. Hopefully Squam can have a similar resurgence in 2011.
Re: reply to an old post and Squam netting and outlook
MikeF-NH
Do you think predation has taken the 2009 year class? What predators in Squam could do that? Spike in lake trout? Smallmouth? Disease?
I had a average Spring on Winni...maybe less fish but bigger average size. I am going to dedicate myself to identifying year class this coming spring.
I made a new post above responding to some of your questions in detail..
In brief, Squam has virtually no Lake Trout at all, they do not pro-create in Squam and no stockings have been done since the early 90's. If we had a strong Laker population like all the other lakes, who knows what the effect would be ??? Lakers are one problem Squam does not have.
Knowing the age of the fish caught and e mailing that info in a creel survey (fish caught/size/ weight/hours fished/number of lines, etc) to John Viar at Fish and Game would go along way in insuring that we have a decent, if not super fishery. Right now (being generous) they get only 2 or 3 creel surveys a week from all the lakes combined. Many of you keep this data for your own use, why not share it with Fish and Game, they despreatley need your input. I think the Guides should be mandated to turn in this data after each charter, many would have no problem with this, but it's not required.