Reply to an old post:

Richard, I was with some Fish and Game folks earlier this week (10/17/10) I asked about that guy in charge at Powder Mill, he is still there and they are very confident in him. Not sure why the guys at the Hatchery said he was replaced twice since last fall ???

I'll be taking a road trip up there soon meself, hope the little guys are on track for a good stocking size in 2011, I think they will need to be 14" to survive Squam predators, ha,ha( sorry, not realy that funny).

Last springs stocking at Squam is in question, very few, less than 10 that I know of, were caught this entire year, I caught 3 and the last one was in May.

They did get 2 or 3 yearlings in the fall netting (13 and 14 inches) and only a couple of 2 and 3 year olds. If the 2010 year class fails as did the 2008 and 2009, Squam will be in deep doodoo with 3 year class failures in a row.

That's approximatley less than eight 1,2 and 3 year old Salmon with about 115 Salmon netted the first two pulls. Second pull did have 2 or 3 big holes in the nets, Muskrats trying to get out, so how many there could have been is unknown. Maybe the next pull will have allot of surprises.

They gave it quite a stocking this spring, much more than normal as the smelt population is off the scales, but yet they still are not showing up in our catches. We use strictly streamers now and I'm told the yearlings will be more likely to hit a spoon, so maybe they just hid well.

Next spring will tell the future of Squam as a Salmon fishery, with no Lakers it may become strictly a Rainbow fishery, as these do very well going in at 13 to 14 inches.

So the fall netting so far looks pretty bleak, a few big Salmon (4 yr olds, from 2007 stocking) hardly any 1,2 and 3 year old Salmon, but some nice Bows.

Yearling Salmon normally do not show up in the nets at all, so the fact that they did get 2 might show a light at the end of the tunnel ???????????

Time will tell.

Big John

John
I am not sure of the confusion on the "cocky" employee myself? I know the guy I talked to (don't want to divulge more info on him) was not derogatory in any way towards his (former ? ) boss and mentioned that he had two more (newer) bosses since last fall or winter. He was positve about what the hatchery was producing. "Confidence" in their management seems like a "stock" answer for a company or state run outfit. No pun intended on "stock"????? :). Hope all is well at Powder Mill and they put in all quality fish in future stockings.
Richard

Richard, The guy I was referring to as of Monday is still there and still in charge I'm told. When I said "Cocky" I guess it could have been taken in several different contexts and I'm not sure exactly how I wanted it taken. We were talking about stock size when he said, "I'll give them whatever size they (biologists) want", something about the way he said it that hit me and Russ as strange as it has been a huge problem the two previous years without a solution. (the previous guy did an OK job this year however)

Then he went on to say how he was going to introduce some new techniques (new to NH anyhow) extended day (with lights) automatic feeders that would broadcast the feed at different time intervals 24 hours a day, better control on the water temp, etc, etc. Not sure he could get the funds however ????

Bottom line when we left was, if he has good reason to be cocky (a proven track record) it would be a good thing for all of us.

As far as Squam goes it’s been a real mystery “where oh where do the yearlings go”.

In 2007 we could not get away from them that spring for a few weeks but then they disappeared, but they turned out to be the best year class in 30 years I’m told. We caught them each succeding year at a normal Squam rate, slow, but they were there and excellent fish each year right up til this fall. They were about 7 fish to a pound when they went in, this year they were 8/9 to a pound, still maybe not big enough ???)

In 2008 and 2009 they were tiny as we all know, we never caught any yearlings either of those two springs and the following 2 years they hardly showed up either. We caught one 3yr old (no 2’s) this year and that was it, except for the 2007 year class. which were 4yr olds this year, those we caught slowly but on a regular basis.

But on Winni, the 2008, 2009 and 2010 year classes were caught at a normal rate by most anglers each year ????????

Maybe Squam, being much smaller, does not offer as many places to hide, limited deep basins, etc. the Cormorants and Loons have a banquet. Only 1 pair of Eagles, I doubt they could deplete an entire stocking by themselves. And don’t forget, we have nearly zero Lakers, we didn’t even get our usual 1 per year this year, so they aren’t eating them. We do have a few huge pickerel, but again none caught this year either, normal is one a year. As many of you know, I put my time in on that lake, 2 or 3 days a week, 7 to 8 hours a day, usually 4 lines, sometimes 6 and all we caught was 3 yearlings last spring and none since.

We had no high water all year, so we don’t think they went out the river, seeing that they are put in at Sandwich and the river is as far away as you can get from Sandwich.

So “we” that are pretty much stuck on Squam, are getting real nervous after the two year classes failed and a 3rd year class in as many years, looks to be following the same course it seems.

All that said, “that guy better have good reason to seem “cocky”, we need a "bigger stock size", maybe 5 or 6 to a pound, if he can do that, he’ll have every right in the world to act cocky and gain all our respect.

Any comments from anyone would be appreciated, maybe someone else can shed some light on this Squam mystery.

Big John

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

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.

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.

Big John