I agree with you Joe...if the ice is safe..lets us fish.Just have a license for the right year(:
That law has only been in effect for a few years and should be changed back.
You can still fish on ponds etc,, but it should be no different on the lakes with salmon as they are off limits anyway.

JoeG
I agree with you on changing the season date. why not let us fish as long as ther is safe ice and go have the proper license. now as far as taking salmon thru the ice hole, the only thing I found in the law book is if you were to catch that salmon or any other type of fish other than a cusk on a cusk line then you can't remove the fish, you must cut your line and immediately release it. there might be something in the big book of laws since the don't give you all the laws in the digest. GOOD Question maybe somebody will give us the answer according to the LAW
good fishing
Forry

This has been fun reading the responses...the opinions... a couple of points:

1. I've jigged up salmon while jigging for lake trout on the bottom in 80+ft of water while ice fishing. On etime I was jigging on the bottom in basin @ Shep Brown's and I hooked a salmon that literally jumped out of the hole onto the ice, what a mess it made of the jigging line, yes I promtly got the fish back in the water before I untangled the line.

2. My dad and his buddies fished just below the ice for lake trout and they caught a lot of lakers.

3. About salmon being fragile,lets not forget about the stress that occurs when we play the fish for a long time on light tackle when the water is warm, from what I've the salmon swim away okay but can go into shook due to lactic acid buidlup in their system. We may feel good about releasing the salmon but it may just end on dead on the bottom of the lake. I have seen this occur on a number of occasions when I've caught salmon fly fishing in rivers during the warmer months.

4. Take a look and the fin clip & netting data both here and ME. You find very few LL salmon reach old age, very few reach (5)lbs.

5. Catch and release of LL salmon, well let's just say I see alot of fish on stringers or dead fish pictures during the open water season. IMO I don't think it matters whether the fish was caught and killed in Jan or caught and killed in June. It is still a dead fish.

Finally: The current personal @ NH F&G have done a tremendous job managing Lake Winni for LL salmon and have sucessfully brought the lake trout back.