Some people (people in the know I might add) are very worried about the fishing pressure on Winni, plus the fact that this web site has made allot of so-so fisherman, into catching machines is a big concern for some..

My opinion and I'm by far no expert, I think 80% to 90% of the fish caught go back into the Lake(s)and I'm told they put about 20,000+ Salmon in every year. So using my math, I don't see how the fishery is in any trouble, but there are some (mayeb allot) that will surely dissagree with my opinion. This does not count Rainbows stocked each year, these however are taken out (not released) in allot bigger numbers, through the ice, etc..

As far as Bass fishery, I don't think there's a Lake in NH that has a problem with a Bass fishery, especialy Small Mouth. They are everyhere, they are even occupying Salmon and Trout habitats (water depths) as the bait (smelt) are also very abudant in mosts of the bigger Lakes. Probably closer to 90% (or more) of these Bass are put back.

The difference bewteen Bass and Salmon/Trout fishing (casting or trolling) in like night and day. I guess each type of fishing have thier own passions, you gotta like it and not many that I can see like both.

I will say this, compettive Bass fisherman can be brutal to each other, but not so with this Salmon?Trout group. I have met more nice people and made many new genuine friends in the past 3 years on this web site, than in all my previous 60 years.

John S.

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Replying to:

I have been following the chatter on the board the last couple of weeks and have enjoyed what I have read. Next year, I plan to rig my boat for fishing.

I have a couple of questions. How is the fishery as compared to days gone say...5 or 10 years for instance. How about the bass fishery? Also, do most of the folks here practice catch and release? It seems like a lot of the fish are coming out of the lake based on the pictures. In any event, it certainly seems like there is a healthy fishery. Any feedback would be much appreciated. I look forward to next year and learning from many of the experts that post here.

maybe we could have a slot size limit for salmon like fish over 5# be put back to make this great fishery even better . when I'm fishing I put every fish back and encourage the people fishing with me to do the same, or have them take the small to medium sized ones . take a picture of the fish and release it. they can still make mounts by the picture and weight of the fish .we should also do this for lake trout , it takes years for lake trout to get over 7# that's why their are so many medium sized lakers . just my 2 cents . "reel it in "

How long does it take a Laker to get to 7lbs? I am also a catch and release fisherman, but I understand why folks take the fish and I respect that. However, maybe a few more rules would be better for the fishery. How does Winni compare to 5-10 years ago? Also, I be interested in hearing from the charter captains as to how many of their customers put the fish back. I remember a guide I used on the Upper CT River a number of times. His name was John Marshall and there was no way he would let you take a fish since the fishery was his livlihood.

quote out of the book freshwater gamefish of north america lake trout are slow growing and long lived, sometimes reaching an age of 40 years . in the far north ,it may take 15 years for a laker to reach 2 pounds. typical length (inches) at various ages .age 1 4.0, 3 9.3, 5 13.2, 7 16.7, 9 20.2, 11 24.0, 13 30.1, 15 34.5. typical weight (pounds) at various lengths (inches) 15" 1.2, 20" 2.7, 25" 5.6, 30" 11.9, 35" 17.0, 40" 27.7, 45" 37.5, 50" 47.9 . world record 66 pounds 8 ounces great bear lake, northwest territories in 1991, a 102 pound lake trout was taken in a gill net in lake athabasca ,saskatchewan,in 1961. unquote.

also with the salmon our state record is 18.8 pounds just wondering how old that fish was and a man caught a 8.8 pounder this year off th docks what age was that fish . if we take all the big fish out we'll be catching all small ones. caught alot of salmon this season 18" to 20" but none over 24". world record salmon 22 pounds 11ounces caught in lobstick lake, newfoundland, 1n 1982 .'reel it in"

I don't think you will ever see a Salmon that big again in NH, bilogist say the act of "spawning" takes too much out of them after 5 or 76 years. Not sure why Salmon that spawn for real are not effected that much, but ours are ?????????? I was told don't expect to see Salmon 10+ pounds anymore in Squam or any other area Lake.. There was an un-official 8 pounder caught in Squam this summer, the guy is getting it mounted, I have not seen it yet. But this may be as big as you will ever see them and they are way over the hill by then.

We caught a huge tagged Rainbow on Squam 2 years, about 27", it also had the body of a Pickeral, biologist say the tagging takes a bad effect on the fish ???

So when they say they don't just keep getting bigger when they get over 5 or 6 years old in our Lakes, I believe them. Ontario and Lakes like that are a different story, don't forget these fish are intended to live and grow in the ocean, a little bigger than Winni or Squam, etc.

The 8 pounder that was caught off the docks also had the body of a Pickeral, it was not big and fat. If in super health and growth maybe it would have been way over 10 pounds, who knows ? It had to be a fluke, no recorded fish has come close to that one in Winni this year, 5 pounds is the biggest I heard of.

All my information is only hearsay, but from people that know a little more than most of us.

John S.

salmon in Lake ontario reach 20-40 pounds or more in only 4 years (rarely will one wait 5 years before spawning and may be high 40's-50) and then they spawn and die. they are not old fish at all.

It is totally different out there because when you catch mature 4 year old kings there isn't much sense in putting them back because they are just going to die in a couple months anyways and eat up a ton of food that the smaller 1-2-3- year old fish could be eating and getting bigger. 4 year old fish are ready for harvest.

I don't know how much natural reproduction occurs in Ontario exactly with the salmon but i do know they stock hundreads of thousands of fish every spring all over the lake.

Yo Adrien,

What your saying is similar to the way it was explained to me but of course I never remember the whole story. You refer to Kings, but what about the Atlantic Salmon, similar to our Salmon, ae we talking about the same scenario, maybe not much growth, etc. ???

Our 4 year old Salmon we will say are 5 to 6 pounders
while thier cousins in Lake Ontario are 20 to 40 pounds. These Salmon similar to Ocean Atlantic Salmon, they stay out in the Lake and do not spawn until age 5 or so and die.

Whereas our Salmon come to the streams as 2 and 3 year olds (ages are a guess) and go through the spawning ritual, which I understand is really tough on them. But unlike the Atlantic and Ontario Salmon, ours don't die, but live on to spawn again and again, which is why they do not prosper well after age 5 or so and continue to grow, but rather are over the hill so to speak..and ready for Harvest.

If Adrien or anyone can elaborate more on this subject please do as it might change allot of people thinking about putting back 5 and 6 pounders.

John S.

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Replying to:

salmon in Lake ontario reach 20-40 pounds or more in only 4 years (rarely will one wait 5 years before spawning and may be high 40's-50) and then they spawn and die. they are not old fish at all.

It is totally different out there because when you catch mature 4 year old kings there isn't much sense in putting them back because they are just going to die in a couple months anyways and eat up a ton of food that the smaller 1-2-3- year old fish could be eating and getting bigger. 4 year old fish are ready for harvest.

I don't know how much natural reproduction occurs in Ontario exactly with the salmon but i do know they stock hundreads of thousands of fish every spring all over the lake.

John the salmon that are in lake Ontario are a salmon that have a life cycle of 3 to 4 years then go to where they were put in spawn and die the Atlantic sea run salmon spawn then return to the sea to come back again the next year I don't know there life span but it's longer than the kings.I know that here in Mass every year around december and april they stock breader landlocks that they say after they are spawned for a couple of years are not worth keeping because they don't produce the same quality eggs they did when they were younger so they let them go in the lakes down here.I don't know how old they are but I will check with the fish and game site and see what I can find out.some of the breaders they put in down here are huge fish I can't see them getting that big in the wild.I have no idea but this is a good post to see what other people have to say about this issue.

Erin

I didn't realize they were a different species of Land Locked Salmon. So are they LLS or Kings in Ontario ??????

John S.

Are you talking about only Kings ???

I'm trying to find out why our Salmon don't grow that big and are over the Hill at 5 or 6 (maybe younger ?) Are they in fact different Salmon all together, not same as Atlantic ?????

I need some help here so I can decide if i'm doing the right thing harvesting 5 and 6 pound Salmon.

John S.

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Replying to:

salmon in Lake ontario reach 20-40 pounds or more in only 4 years (rarely will one wait 5 years before spawning and may be high 40's-50) and then they spawn and die. they are not old fish at all.

It is totally different out there because when you catch mature 4 year old kings there isn't much sense in putting them back because they are just going to die in a couple months anyways and eat up a ton of food that the smaller 1-2-3- year old fish could be eating and getting bigger. 4 year old fish are ready for harvest.

I don't know how much natural reproduction occurs in Ontario exactly with the salmon but i do know they stock hundreads of thousands of fish every spring all over the lake.

The food they have available to them decides how big they get and personally i believe that releasing a 5 lb. salmon in Winni is not really helping anything that fish is redy to come out. It is at least 4 years in the lake and more likely 5-6.

I know of lakes in new england that every year yield 8-13 pound salmon 4-7 year olds that feed on smelt. This is very rare for anywhere but if they have the food they grow. This particular lake has jack smelt that i have caught up to 13 inches while using live smelt for bait on tip-ups!

In ontario the fish grow to enormous sizes very quickly because of the food available.

The minimum size to keep a landlocked atlantic salmon (as in the exact fish we have in winni) is 28 inches in Ontario that is the MINIMUM legal size. They get much bigger there.

Yes there is alot of food in winni but the fishing pressure is HUGE and it seems that the food available is small smelt.

Does anybody fish for smelt in the winter and catch dozens and dozens of 7-9 inch ones? i doubt it here but places with huge salmon they do this regularly.

In the last couple years the amount of 4 and 5 year old salmon that are being caught has gone way way way way down. Obviously because of the new enormous amount of pressure and yes it is a direct result of this message board. WAY more people are fishing the lake all year long and catching fish they would have never dreamed of catching in years past.

I bet i only caught a dozen 4 year old fish all season long and most of those in the spring. I can't complain as i have taken plenty of fish from the lake in all ages and i am obviously partially responsible for this. It kind of goes with the territory of chartering i have no right to tell people they can't keep a fish when they just spent hundreads of dollars on a charter and licences and whatever else.

The fish to release if you are trying to grow bigger ones are the fish that were 3-4 pounds this year and 19-21 inches, the 3 year olds. They will spawn this fall and then start the spring skinny again but they will become the 23+ inch 4 plus pound fish next summer.

****, I just wrote a book and lost it, again. I'll write a condensed version.

Thanks Adrien for clearing up some confusion for me, I guess my harvesting 5 pounders (or bigger) is not detrimental to the fishery and I have been doing exactly as you suggested and putting back anything not close to 5, say 4.5 or less.

Now seeing that the Winni fisherman are more apt at catchin fish these days, and it seems this message board is getting the blame, maybe we can as a group do something to insure the future. We could push for longer length limits, but that was tried on Squam and I guess was counter-productive so they went back to 15". Or we could really push for catch and release or as you say, put the 2, 3 and maybe 4 pounders back.
Maybe allow and push for more Lakers to be taken out to leave more food for the Salmon.

I guess what we need is some good direction from Fish and Game as to what is needed from us if in fact the Lake is in trouble or headed in that direction.. I'm sure 90% of people on this web site would do whatever had to be done to insure the future of Winni and any other Salmon Lake in NH for that matter..

John S.

YoAdrien is there a way to put a slot limit on the salmon like they do for laker and like stripers?Wouldn't that be a way to keep the younger fish in the lake? I agree with the fishing pressure is getting bigger.The lake My folks live on in maine had huge salmon in it when we first got the place in 1983 but now your lucky if you see a 4 lber come out of there and that is very rare.I don't have a problem throwing every thing back as long as they swim away on there own.I would hate to see Winn end up like my folks place.Just my 2 cents.

Erin

I am no biologist but i have been told that while slot limits are good tools they are not always effective because of the amount of stress put on fish that are close to the slot limit. when the limit is 2 15" salmon there isn't much question if the fish is legal or not. you can tell before you net it if it is a keeper or not and if you are going to throw it back.

When there is a slot limit, let's say for sake of arguement that all fish between 19-21 inches or (2.5-4 lbs) have to go back. People will be netting them and then playing with them in the boat trying to make them stop flopping while trying to measure and double check and then they drop them on the floor of the boat and pop an eye or smash it's head before the fish calms down enough to get a good measurement for them to see it is 20 and 7/8 inches and has to go back and now it's either dead or severely hurt and may swim away but never grow to it's potential because of stress injury's.

I don't think that the fishery is in danger from the # of fish people are keeping, but rather people not being careful and keeping 2 but also killing 5 by mistake.

If i were in charge of making rules for fishing the first one would be to mandate the use of rubber nets on all fish in state of new hampshire, period.

It is going to be interesting to see how this falls netting goes as in the number of wounded fish that are netted compared to years past.

YoAdrien you make alot of since There would be alot more hands on the fish if there was a slot.I never thought of it that way.But there probable will be a high death rate the more thay are handled.I also agree on all the nets being rubber.It's so much easer to get the hook out and the fish back in the water.Thanks for the feed back.

Erin

Boy I hope we (everyone) is wrong about the death or growth rate of miss-handled or even properly handled fish. If that's realy the case Adrien, you may have killed 100's on your trips to Maine with the Fish and Game, etc. Don't say you allways handle them properly and yours don't die or get stunted due to injury. If they are as sensitive as we say, no amount of proper care will be 100% effective for the well being of the Salmon.. I allways feel if they lay there for a bit and then make a mad dash for the deeps they are OK, I hope I'm right, or near right.

I think (hope) more survive than we estimate, otherwise we would see them floating all over the Lake. I do agree that they do suffer in many other ways and probably don't grow properly as indicated by netting results, I've witnessed this myself.

Now what about Lakers and Bows, are they as sensitve and fragile as Salmon ??? And while were on the subject, why is it Bass don't seem to be phased at all when caught, even when hooked deep. Any given weekend day on Winni, maybe several 100 are caught and released and caught again. I don't realy recall seeing many (any) that showed hook marks from being hooked before. do they heal quicker/better ???? Or do all of them end up on the bottom of the Lake.

One thing we can agree on is if the Lake is in trouble, a fix needs to be found and put into effect.

John S.

Bottom line is how good is catch and release in general ??? We like to think we are doing the right thing, but we are killing or maming (spelling)
every fish we put back.

There is a solution, but nobody will want to hear it.

John S.

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Replying to:

I am no biologist but i have been told that while slot limits are good tools they are not always effective because of the amount of stress put on fish that are close to the slot limit. when the limit is 2 15" salmon there isn't much question if the fish is legal or not. you can tell before you net it if it is a keeper or not and if you are going to throw it back.

When there is a slot limit, let's say for sake of arguement that all fish between 19-21 inches or (2.5-4 lbs) have to go back. People will be netting them and then playing with them in the boat trying to make them stop flopping while trying to measure and double check and then they drop them on the floor of the boat and pop an eye or smash it's head before the fish calms down enough to get a good measurement for them to see it is 20 and 7/8 inches and has to go back and now it's either dead or severely hurt and may swim away but never grow to it's potential because of stress injury's.

I don't think that the fishery is in danger from the # of fish people are keeping, but rather people not being careful and keeping 2 but also killing 5 by mistake.

If i were in charge of making rules for fishing the first one would be to mandate the use of rubber nets on all fish in state of new hampshire, period.

It is going to be interesting to see how this falls netting goes as in the number of wounded fish that are netted compared to years past.

I never said i was perfect and i never said none of mine die, i said in another post here that i have killed fish by handling them poorly, and to add to that, usually dropping them on the deck. But i take as much care as humanly possibly short of not fishing at all to make sure they survive if they are released.

I have an 80 gallon livewell with all rounded corners and 3 pumps in it. It is so good at pumping oxygen that i can keep healthy salmon alive in it in 74 degree water for the whole day if it runs constantly. If i have a fish i suspect that may have been hurt then i put it in and turn it on. I give it a few hours and see how it is. sometimes they die in 10 minutes even if they seemed healthy when put in. and other times i open the lid after 8 hours and they are livelier than when they went in and go back like a shot. When you see as many salmon come in and out of a boat as i do you get a good idea what is going on.
Also if you put fish in there and at the end of the day decide to keep them you have to hit them on the head with a hammer (exaggeration) because they are so re-energized and livlier then when they went in. I have a small rubber net that fits into my livewell and can quickly pop the fish back in the lake in seconds, also the livewell is as smooth as glass with no sharp edges at all. I feel this is doing as much as i can to help the fish, but maybe i am wrong here and killing thousands, but it is the best i can do and that is all i am saying is that if we all do a little it goes a long way.

As far as the trips to maine are concerned, they are done under controlled circumstances with State Fisheries Biologists on board. I have a large tub of drugged water that the fish are quickly put to sleep in and handled while drugged so they are not injured during handling. The fish are then put into my livewell with all the pumps running and sometimes 20 salmon at a time are in there waking up and then they are released in as good of shape as possible. If any die then we keep them and eat them. I go once a year for 3 days and keep between 20-24 salmon / trout. The state of maine in return gets about $300 in fuel from me, a few meals at restaurants, a couple out of state licenses, a clean water sticker fee, a couple hotel stays, and my time as a volunteer for the health of the fishery, if they didn't think i was helping they wouldn't send me gifts and thank you letters for my time in helping them, but hey maybe i'm way off here?

Looks like you took it personal bud, I had a felling ya might, but realy not my intention at all. Let me read through your reply when I get back from the PO and I'll respond, apoligize or whatever is needed.

What I was trying to say was it seems we shoudn't be putting any fish back in at all if we are killing that many, unless undersize and that's the law.

Later,

John S.

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Replying to:

I never said i was perfect and i never said none of mine die, i said in another post here that i have killed fish by handling them poorly, and to add to that, usually dropping them on the deck. But i take as much care as humanly possibly short of not fishing at all to make sure they survive if they are released.

I have an 80 gallon livewell with all rounded corners and 3 pumps in it. It is so good at pumping oxygen that i can keep healthy salmon alive in it in 74 degree water for the whole day if it runs constantly. If i have a fish i suspect that may have been hurt then i put it in and turn it on. I give it a few hours and see how it is. sometimes they die in 10 minutes even if they seemed healthy when put in. and other times i open the lid after 8 hours and they are livelier than when they went in and go back like a shot. When you see as many salmon come in and out of a boat as i do you get a good idea what is going on.
Also if you put fish in there and at the end of the day decide to keep them you have to hit them on the head with a hammer (exaggeration) because they are so re-energized and livlier then when they went in. I have a small rubber net that fits into my livewell and can quickly pop the fish back in the lake in seconds, also the livewell is as smooth as glass with no sharp edges at all. I feel this is doing as much as i can to help the fish, but maybe i am wrong here and killing thousands, but it is the best i can do and that is all i am saying is that if we all do a little it goes a long way.

As far as the trips to maine are concerned, they are done under controlled circumstances with State Fisheries Biologists on board. I have a large tub of drugged water that the fish are quickly put to sleep in and handled while drugged so they are not injured during handling. The fish are then put into my livewell with all the pumps running and sometimes 20 salmon at a time are in there waking up and then they are released in as good of shape as possible. If any die then we keep them and eat them. I go once a year for 3 days and keep between 20-24 salmon / trout. The state of maine in return gets about $300 in fuel from me, a few meals at restaurants, a couple out of state licenses, a clean water sticker fee, a couple hotel stays, and my time as a volunteer for the health of the fishery, if they didn't think i was helping they wouldn't send me gifts and thank you letters for my time in helping them, but hey maybe i'm way off here?

The sentence below was flawed seriously. The amout of fish that die from being caught is about 5 out of about 100 we keep the ones that died but also keep 15-20 more that weren't going to die for our consumption under legal limits for 3-4 people over 3 days

""If any die then we keep them and eat them. I go once a year for 3 days and keep between 20-24 salmon / trout.""

Sorry Yo,

You don't have to defend yourself, your boat, trips to Maine with F & G, or whatever, least of all to me.
I've been on your boat, saw the live wells, etc. We all know how much care you give to the fish caught, whether released or not. Perhaps I used the wrong choice of words and I aplogize for doing so, nobody's perfect like you say and that includes me fer sure.

I was not meaning to point any fingers at you or anyone directly. It just seemed from your earlier statement "I don't think that the fishery is in danger from the # of fish people are keeping, but rather people not being careful and keeping 2 but also killing 5 by mistake." It seemed to me, the more we catch, the more we kill, by accident or not. And if Winni fisherman are getting better because of this web site as it been suggested by several, then we have a serious problem developing don't we ???

It was also said by others (not sure by who) that allot of Salmon we let go in fact do die, or are injured too seriously to thrive when released... I'm sure both these things happen, but to what extent.

All that being said, it prompted me to think well maybe not so many are being killed as people think. I never see many (any) floating around dead and quite a few I release myself that look hurtin, seem to perk up and take off in a flash.. I hope they are OK, they sure look OK. But if they are in fact dying, we need to get some diretion from F & G what we can do. We all know rubber nets are good, most of us use them, maybe they should be mandatory. It's a step in the right direction, but they aren't the cure all. We need to do more, but what ?

Like I said before, I know how we can make a "huge" difference, but nobody would want to hear it, including me..

Again I'm very sorry if I ruffled yur feathers a bit, it was the furthest from my intentions. In any case this subject is getting the attention it should and that's what I wanted to do in my post. We need to address it now, before it becomes a problem we can't fix. "If it aint broke, don't fix it", does not apply here, sometimes we fail to see something is "in fact broke or breaking".

Lastly, I also hate to hear (and repeat) what's been said about this web site, by several people now. That Fishlakewinni.com's message board may be the demise of Salmon fishin in Winni, by making average fisherman real fisherman.. Instead I'd like to think this web site and the people who use it, to be the work force towards a better future for Winni's Salmon fishery.

This web site should never be knocked the way it has, perhaps it did make allot of us better fisherman, but that isn't and should't be considered a bad thing.

The same people that made us all better fisherman will I'm certain take a charge and help preserve what we have.

John S.

John s.

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Replying to:

I never said i was perfect and i never said none of mine die, i said in another post here that i have killed fish by handling them poorly, and to add to that, usually dropping them on the deck. But i take as much care as humanly possibly short of not fishing at all to make sure they survive if they are released.

I have an 80 gallon livewell with all rounded corners and 3 pumps in it. It is so good at pumping oxygen that i can keep healthy salmon alive in it in 74 degree water for the whole day if it runs constantly. If i have a fish i suspect that may have been hurt then i put it in and turn it on. I give it a few hours and see how it is. sometimes they die in 10 minutes even if they seemed healthy when put in. and other times i open the lid after 8 hours and they are livelier than when they went in and go back like a shot. When you see as many salmon come in and out of a boat as i do you get a good idea what is going on.
Also if you put fish in there and at the end of the day decide to keep them you have to hit them on the head with a hammer (exaggeration) because they are so re-energized and livlier then when they went in. I have a small rubber net that fits into my livewell and can quickly pop the fish back in the lake in seconds, also the livewell is as smooth as glass with no sharp edges at all. I feel this is doing as much as i can to help the fish, but maybe i am wrong here and killing thousands, but it is the best i can do and that is all i am saying is that if we all do a little it goes a long way.

As far as the trips to maine are concerned, they are done under controlled circumstances with State Fisheries Biologists on board. I have a large tub of drugged water that the fish are quickly put to sleep in and handled while drugged so they are not injured during handling. The fish are then put into my livewell with all the pumps running and sometimes 20 salmon at a time are in there waking up and then they are released in as good of shape as possible. If any die then we keep them and eat them. I go once a year for 3 days and keep between 20-24 salmon / trout. The state of maine in return gets about $300 in fuel from me, a few meals at restaurants, a couple out of state licenses, a clean water sticker fee, a couple hotel stays, and my time as a volunteer for the health of the fishery, if they didn't think i was helping they wouldn't send me gifts and thank you letters for my time in helping them, but hey maybe i'm way off here?

My personal feelings Even with this awesome board unless i go out with one of you guys i can't seem to catch Squat on winni with my buddy Robert i can with all honesty say that our biggest day on winni is Maybe 6 fish, not quite sure why as all the other lakes we visit throughout the year we seem to do rather well on (with alot of help from this site in the past 2 years LOL) but for the oddest of reasons we've never had one of those killer days on Winni, Who know's maybe the boat has the smell of our old pulp mill or something and the northern lakes are used to the smell Beats the heck out of me but i know i long for a day when i can actually say i caught and released 10-15 fish on winni LOL I do agree with rubber nets 100%%%%% Take Care God Bless and Good Hunting LOL Dave From up North

YoAdrien what part of maine do you do you volunteer work in?That sounds like alot of fun to do stuff like that.

Erin

Aroostook County.

It really is a lot of fun.
I lived up there for 4 years and it is great to go back up and go fishing with old friends and help with the departments fisheries research all at the same time. Even gets my brother out with me because he lives up there and doesn't really come down that often with his business and all.

It may be my favorite trip of the year.

YoAdrien that's way up there isn't it?My floks live in maine also I fish long pond in belgrade all summer long.I love Maine I would love the retire there.As they say it's a peace of heaven.Winter can be hard but other than that it's a great place to play.

Erin

For a long time I thought excacty the same way as you, but now I have to disgree on the Salmon over 5 pounds, FROM WHAT I'M TOLD THOSE SHOULD BE THE KEEPERS.

Salmon "live fast and die young", quote from John Viar. Those 5 pounders are over the hill, they contribute little to the overall Salmon population and at the same time eat "allot" of bait. I used to feel these big guys have done well to survive this long, let's put em back, but I was wrong in my thinking. The fish that have a future in the Lake are the 2 to 4 pounders.

As far as Lakers go, you may be on to something. As they do add to the fishery in the way of spawning for real we should maybe protect the big breeders. But then again, how long are they productive ????? If til a ripe old age, I agree to protect them. At he same time, maybe we should have a seperate take limit for Lakers. Maybe say 2 Lakers and 2 Salmon/Rainbows, etc. many of the Lakes are really overun with Lakers and these eat allot of bait that could be for Salmon. I think the Lakers need allot less protection than the Salomn, they seem to be doing just fine.

But all in all, in reality I think allot of the Salmon as well as Lakers are put back anyhow.

John S.

In my previous post, I meant to say "2 Lakers and 2 Salmon and/or Rainbows (or other Trout species) total of 4 fish".

Bass have been catch and release for along time by the majority of Bass fisherman, maybe 100%. They seem to thrive very well still and without any outside help, but at the same time eat allot of bait too.

How much bait is there for "all" the game fish, this is why I think the Fish and Game concentrate so much effort on the Smelt..

What would the overall fishery be like if all fisherman kept 1 fish a day, I think better maybe, less overall fish, more bait, euqal bigger fish.

John S.

Catch & release most of the time. Use a rubber net or just shake the hook out of the salmon's mouth while still in water. Don't touch salmon because they are extremley delicate.

I wish I knew how to keep post in order, some of my post under this subject are was out of the order I sent them, hope people can sort it out OK ???

John S.

I'm no expext here and this is just my opinion form what I have obsevered. We have a had a camp on cow island since the early 60s. I think currently salmon and lake trout fishing are as good as they have ever been. In the early 70s we caught some bigger salmon but not a lot of them. My dad and I used troll off rattlesnake island in the summer with wire line dave davis spoons and f7 flatfish lures. a good moring or evening for us back that would be 2 to 4 fish sometimes five but we got a few salmon that were 6 to 7.5 pounds. Back that we used zebco delairs to wieght fish so they might have been a bit off but these were bigger salmon that what we call big now granted we had no and than very primitive fishlocators than too so it;s had to compare numbers today where a 10 plus fish day on 4 lines isn't that uncommon most days of the seasons. we also seem to catch more lake trout now while salmon fishing than we did back than where it seem we only cuahgt lakers if we were fishing for them (ae deep and slow) except for in the spring. We are alomost 100% catch and release unless a fish has been hooked to badly to put back or we occacionly keep one to eat. We use a rubber net and take great care in the way we release fish.

Bass on the other hand I think have suffer from fishing presure on winni but there are still alot of them and they are not hard to catch. I don't fish for them but I have noticed that the number of larger bass nesting in our cove in june is not like it was years ago, and I have seen the same fish caught 10 times over in the same afternoon by the parade of bass boats working the shore of the island. Not that there is anything wrong with that and they have the right to fish. but i wonder how that impacts there spawning and what there release mortality is. Maybe we are catching the same salmon 10 times over too? and I wonder what our mortality rate is when releasing Just my thoughts on the subject.

Glen

Glen:

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. They make a lot of sense to me. I guess given the rise in the number of people using the lake, where we are isn't all that bad. Actually, from the sounds of things, it seems fishing is pretty awesome. I guess you have to give credit to Fish and Game and maybe an assist to increased catch and release?

Just my 2 cents but if i remember a quote from John Viar, he said you should never "shake" the hook out of a Salmon that you plan on returning to the lake as it tends to injure them sometimes mortally, Take Care God Bless and Good Hunting LOL Dave From up North

I think the Lake is in a good place as far as the fishing goes. One more thing that I think has changed the lake alot over the years is all of the high inpact building construction on the shoreline especaily the islands. If we look at places like governers island the west shore of long island and other places where the natural shoreline has been replaced with lawns and other things. I think this greatly increases run off into the lake and has lowered water quaitly over the years and this I think has change the eco system and the fishing In anserw to your question I do think fish and game has done a very good job mantaining and managing the fishery in the lake. I'm sure Catch and relase goes along way to mantaining the fishing we enjoy I also
think that most of the salmon and bass fisherman on the lake are both very informed and ethical in the prusuit of their sport. I know that the menbers if this board are and thats goes an long why to protectecting what we are enjoy. Also if you need any advice on setting up your boat for next year post post your questions here You will find a lot helpful advice for guys who realy know what they are talking about when if comes to fishing for salmon and trout on
winnipesaukee

Glen

Glen