We put a few salmon in the boat a laker and a real nice bow. The salmon were split between 2 year olds and 3 year olds. The size difference in some of the fish was pretty amazing. The 2 year olds still seem barley legal. They were fiesty, but still pretty small 15"-16" range. One of the 3 year olds we caught, which was a male by the way, was solidly built probably in the 21"-23" range and I would put its weight over 3 pounds but not quite 3 and a half pounds. We also pulled in another 3 year old that was a complete contrast to that fish. This one was 21" exactly and weighed just a little over 2 pounds. (We measured it on the cutting board before it went into the frying pan.) This fish was missing patches of scales in several spots, it was discolored, its tail was sliced in 4 spots and it had a body like a snake. Based on that info we made the judgment call to get it out of the lake and onto our plates.

Could the condition of this salmon have been caused by a non-rubber net? I don't know, but it sure looked that way to me. Also, there was no evidence of any hook wounding on its mouth except where our single size 6 siwash went in.

I will not be posting which lures/flies, depths and speeds anymore like I have in the past, but I will say that planers and lead was a good combination for us. I will also post my observations about the conditions of the fish. I think that is what we are all wondering about right now anyway. Have a good season everyone!
Tight Lines,
Link

Link, great report, if you send it to fish and game in a creel report format they can use the data better than us dummies.

I realy am confused by hook wounding getting all the blame. Did any of the two year olds look hook wounded to you ????

The NHSA and/or NHFG are supposed to come up with a user friendly creel survey but I haven't seen one yet.

I have my own and send a report in after every timne on the lake, fish or not, species, length and weight, time on the lake, how many lines.

Lets try to help F and G , send it to John Viar


Big John

Super report. I agree with John that anything that you can send to F&G will help in the future.
Does the #6 Siwash hook seem to work OK? I've been using #4 and #2 Siwash at Champlain but I was afraid the #6 was too small.
Dick

John, I didn't see any hook wounding in any of the fish to be honest. I think you have a good suggestion about sending observations to John Viar so I will.

Dick, this year is the first year that I have been using the Siwash hooks, other than the spoons I have bought previously that came with one on it, a winnie wonder for example. I have in the past had problems with the bigger siwash size #2 going through the eyes of salmon. This year I put #4's and #6's on my spoons. My logic was that most of us had been using flies in those hooks sizes all our lives and never really complained so I thought I would see what happened on the spoons. So far I have had about the same amount of LDR's I would have had if I had been fishing trebles. The hook removal process, however, has been far easier. The time the fish are spending out of the water has been greatly reduced. Even the guys that have fished with me, who do not fish but once a year, still landed their salmon on both the siwash 4's and 6's. I'm not saying that this is the solution to any problems that may be occurring but those days of trying to get a hook out of a fishes mouth that has all three barbs embedded on the inside of its closed mouth should hopefully be gone for me. The size 4's I am watching closely as I think even those may still be big but the 6 did hold the fish and I don't think it would make it to the eyes if upturned. Just think of all those fly fisherman though, using hooks that are size 16, 18, 20, 22....they still catch pretty big fish on those little tiny hooks.

theres no problems with the smaller hooks as for catching, you just need one that balances right with the lure your putting it on. my biggest bow, 5.5 was caught on either a 24 or 26 and ive reeled in carp near 20 pounds on a 24. a size 6 is plenty of hook on a salmon. ive been changing out the hooks slowly since last year when the trebles start bending or when i notice a db with those awkward bent in hooks that were on them a couple years back. for some reason the winni wonders i got in this year, most had trebles, not the huge single hook they had last year

Good Job Link if we all follow your lead we will be well on our way to culling our Lake to Quality instead of beat up seconds... Nice Post

Cool Water