What a ho!!!

[StoneFly]

Nice Ho silvio,..hopin to hook into one of those soon,..

[CLofchik]

The fall of 2007 would have been the last run from MNR stocked fish. Metro East Anglers did collect eggs from the 2007 run for stocking, so hopefully we can get some better runs in the future. We do hope to collect eggs this year as well.

 

The lack of a fin clipping does not indicate that it is not a stocked fish. 2008 is the first year that all stocked fish are being fin clipped. I am not aware of any coho's being clipped in previous years. In past years, the Chinooks involved in pen rearing projects were clipped. However, the majority or Chinooks stocked in previous years were unclipped.

 

Your fish may have been been a stray from the U.S. (who still stock cohos), an Ontario stocked fish that spent an extra year in the lake, or a naturally reproduced fish.

 

I believe that all Ontario stocking was in the Credit; however, I am not sure about that.

 

Bronte, Credit & Humber all got ho's for a few years, all clipped, as an experimental stocking to judge returns. Secretly I think they stopped because of the embarrassment to the Atlantic program and their dismal returns, very few coho's were stocked but if you were on the Ringwood egg collection last year you'd remember that the chinooks were almost outnumbered by the coho's at the dam! Compare that with the ONE Atlantic captured.....even though there were twice as many stocked for that year class.

 

Here's all the stocking info for all the great lakes, great dbase.

 

http://www.glfc.org/fishstocking/index.htm

[silvio]

Thanks for the link. would love to see a stocking program in place for these fish. so does anyone have Facts on the few they stocked( return rate, how successful, reason for stopping stocking efforts)? any plans on staring a stocking program again?

[StoneFly]

From the Toronto Star today, tells a more positive story,..

 

http://www.thestar.com/article/508588

 

Raising small fry for frying pan

 

JIM WILKES PHOTOS/TORONTO STAR

The salmon and trout that lure anglers to Ontario waters start their lives under a den mother's care. Hatchery technician Melanie Jepp scoops handful of Coho salmon fry at the Ringwood Fish Culture Station just north of Stouffville. Jepp says they respond best to AC/DC's music; Rush songs make them scatter. Email story

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Salmon, trout that lure anglers to Ontario waters start their lives under den mother's care

 

Sep 30, 2008 04:30 AM

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Jim Wilkes

Staff Reporter

 

It sounds like a place where trout go to learn good manners.

 

But the Ringwood Fish Culture Station is where they and more than a million salmon get their start each year.

 

Nestled in the trees off Highway 48, just north of Stouffville, the station hums with the sounds of big fans and motors that keep water circulating in huge tanks, each containing thousands of sac-fry – the little fishies that have made the leap from roe to eager swimmers.

 

They'll keep growing until mid-November, when they'll be released in three streams leading to Lake Ontario. Most cozy in for a year before venturing out to the deep water of the lake, where they'll grow exponentially as long as they avoid thinking a lure is food.

 

Many will end up as some angler's dinner, but in the end, that's what it's all about.

 

"Recreational fishing is huge for the economy, for conservation," said Lezlie Goodwin of the Anglers and Hunters Association. "Anglers spend $2.5 billion in Ontario each year."

 

And for Lake Ontario trophy catches, it all starts in a few sheds at Ringwood, where Melanie Jepp, a mother of four, also acts as den mother to 1.7 million little Coho, Chinook and Atlantic salmon, and rainbow and brown trout each year.

 

Jepp, 28, who studied fisheries and aquiculture at Texas A&M University and Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay, works seven days a week at the Ringwood station, balancing a busy home life with her other family in the tanks.

 

"I get to help the environment," she says.

 

"It's cool. I get to make fish."

 

The Ministry of Natural Resources opened the hatchery in 1982, but cost cutting forced them to mothball the station in 2006. The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters joined forces with the Toronto Sportsmen's Show to rescue the hatchery; each contributes $50,000 each year to keep it running.

 

Metro East Anglers is the host club and its members put in many volunteer hours, including stripping hundreds of thousands of eggs from spawning salmon each October along the Credit River in Mississauga.

 

Jepp oversees the growing process as the roe – and other eggs imported from far-flung parts of Ontario – develop into fry, then smolt before being released into the Credit, Duffins Creek in Whitby and Cobourg Brook, all of which empty into Lake Ontario.

 

"The rainbow trout are my babies," she says. "It's like sending your kids off to school. You're happy that you got them that far but sad that they're leaving.

 

"But they're going to grow, go on to better things, explore and learn."

 

And end up on somebody's plate.

 

"I like these fish," Jepp adds. "They taste good and they fight really well on the line.

 

"But I like them as co-workers, too. They're really pretty, they're family fish. They like to touch each other when they swim."

 

They like their music, too.

 

And like Donny and Marie used to say, they're a little bit country and little bit rock 'n' roll.

 

The Coho like to rock, but they're particular. "They don't like Rush," says Jepp, "it just makes them scatter. But they love AC/DC. The music makes them go faster and there's a pattern."

 

Chinook find their pleasure elsewhere on the radio dial, favouring hurtin' songs.

 

 

 

The hatchery is open most days to visitors, but it's best to call ahead. To learn more, go to ringwoodhatchery.ca.

Edited October 1, 2008 by StoneFly

[CLofchik]

Thanks for the link. would love to see a stocking program in place for these fish. so does anyone have Facts on the few they stocked( return rate, how successful, reason for stopping stocking efforts)? any plans on staring a stocking program again?

 

Returns are really hard to judge, but starting this year they have started stocking coho's again.

[jace]

Returns are really hard to judge, but starting this year they have started stocking coho's again.

 

 

I wouldn't mind seeing that as well. I know people who run one of the most successful salmon hatcheries in the world as far as return rates and consistency and it takes a lot of work and dedication to make it happen. It's a group of about 8-10 full time people, it runs around the clock, and everything they do is down to a science including feed times, food size, release times, disolved gas levels, etc to keep them strong and disease free. Marking can be done with fin clipping, but for the most part, when mass marking is required, hatcheries do it by timing patterns of water heaters which makes distinct otolith markings.

 

 

They're one of my favorite fish to catch because they put on a good show when they're on the line.

 

...one of the nicer coho's caught this year. around 35"