Russ Johnson and I took a trip to Powder Mill hatchery today, all I can say right now is the Salmon are in great hands and easily on track for the ideal stocking size of 8 or 9 to a pound.

Hatchery issues seem to have been resolved, not by luck, but by dedication of our Biologist and maybe more so the dedicated workers at the hatchery. With 18 to 23 years experience on the job, these guys know their stuff.

It was a great trip,

Big John and Russ Johnson

Big Jon - Do you need an appointment to hatchery ?? I am going soon.
Going to sportsman show Friday I have spring fever !!

No reservation needed unless maybe if it's a big group, they are there 7 days a week, but I would imagine weekdays would be best. Nice regular guys, proud of their work. Once they realize your a serious fisherman and not just there to see the "show" fish,etc. they will tell you where everything is and perhaps even show you around. We got a great bums tour and watched them move a few thousand Brookies from one pool to another, all by hand while we talked.

We learned allot, it was a great day and I can see why we need to have a Salmon stamp or cold water species license. But even they felt it would probably just go into a general fund. It's very expensive to raise those fish, the Salmon from eggs to stocking is 18 months minimum. Last fall's eggs (for 2011 stocking) were just hatching yesterday, only a couple, like 2 or 3 out of a thousand or so on the one tray we looked at..

That is only one of many hatcheries across the state, high tech and expensive to build amd maintain I'm sure. I'd like to visit some others.

Big John

Nice report ! It sure is pretty cool how we end up with a lake full of fish to catch. It is a job for a special person and your right they have a lot of passion for what they do. Just like you and I in our quest to fish for them.
Nice to see your not an easy chair quarterback.

Well I was under the impression since last fall that they were on target for 8/9 to a pound (last years were 32/pound) but we had planned on taking a trip to see for ourselvs..

Since the Salmon program depends on eggs from our Lakes (usually Winni) the last two years a big majority have come from Squam.

However, since two years in a row the Lakes were stocked with tiny Salmon, very few made it to maturity. So with Squam being virtually absent of 2 and 3 year old Salmon now (a fact, see net data) another year of sub-size stocked Salmon could be fatal to Squam and maybe the program.

Then a week ago I heard a "rumor", that they were only 22/pound in January, we had to see it for ourselves as that could be the last nail in Squams coffin and maybe the whole program. There are two groups of Salmon at Powder Mill. One group for the main stocking are "12/pound right now", the guy demonstrated this to us, no hearsay.. Then they had a secondary group, in colder water, hatched a little later that were 22/pound now.

This second group, designated as "surplus", they felt would catch up to the others very fast when the water is warmed up some. I guess they are like a back up group, an insurance policy, sound strategy.

I could go on and on about the trip, but suffice to say it was an eye opener and reassuring that the 2010 Salmon were on target.

That said, it appears that Winni Salomn quality is the only big problem that we know of at the moment.
And as far as I know there is no easy fix except to maybe let it run it's course and wait for it to correct itself (I was told it's happened before ?) it wont correct itself overnight. All other suggestions I've heard have maybe too many too many side effects, economy, license sales, changes in rules which many of us would not be in favor of. Some rules designed for Winni specificaly, could backlash and effect all the other lakes, maybe negatively, etc.. Just my opinion

At least we know the quality of the Salmon for the future, from what we saw, seems basicaly sound and they are cuurently working on more ways to improve on that. It was no accident.

The only thing that we see that would effect the Salmon program, would be budget cuts. Even with a Salmon stamp or similar, it could be in trouble. I'd hate to pay more and have it go into the states "general fund", no way to control it, but that's politics.

Attend any rule hearings and be heard, "the sqweeky wheel, gets the oil"..

Big John

John; Although they don,t raise landlocks, last I knew anyway, the Milford hatchery is worth a visit also. Cal P.

If a well organized group was to donate X amount of $$$ to the "SALMON STOCKING PROGRAM" would that be leagle and used for the salmon program only???BARRY

Thats great news john , one or two slow years sounds better than a collapse of the whole program . Thanks for going and letting us know the progress.

Rick

I felt bad you coudn't join us after we got there, maybe next time.

Big John