Good New for Coho Fans

[John Bacon]

Metro East has been given the go ahead to raise Coho salmon at Ringwood hatchery this fall. The MNR had suspended stocking in Lake Ontario; this would have been the last year for Canadian stocked Coho's if stocking had not been resumed. This will not impact the number of Chinook stocked into Lake Ontario.

[silvio]

Thats some good news. Thank you

[misfish]

I really enjoyed the coho run in the credit when I fished it. Much more fun the those chinocks.

 

Good to hear.

[aniceguy]

where did you hear or see this?

[tonyb]

Yeah is this for real??? stop playing with my heart

[FishFinder]

where did you hear or see this?

 

http://spoonpullers.proboards42.com/index....6771&page=1

[Tacklebuster]

What so great about coho's. Kings fight harder, grow bigger, and if you like the acrobatics, then I would think that Rainbows perform quite well.

[misfish]

You need to register to see the post.

 

 

Here is what was announced

 

I’m proud to make the following announcement on behalf of the Metro East Anglers (MEA).

 

The OFAH and MEA have been in recent discussion with the Lake Ontario Management Unit (LOMU) and the MNR in regards to the production of Coho salmon for Lake Ontario. As you may be aware the MNR halted stocking of Coho salmon a few years ago and as such the population of Coho on the north shore of Lake Ontario has and will be declining.

 

Through a series of constructive and positive meetings between the OFAH, MEA, LOMU and MNR we have decided to re-commence the Coho stocking program for Lake Ontario.

 

Starting this fall Coho will be produced out of the Ringwood FCS by the OFAH and MEA partnership through active volunteer involvement. The production of Coho at Ringwood will in no way affect the existing Chinook salmon production targets for Ringwood; these will remain as they were for the 2007 year class.

 

This positive step forward is a good example of how stakeholder involvement can influence our sport fishery on Lake Ontario.

 

Glenn Anderson

President, Metro East Anglers

 

 

I watch an episode of Cronzy a few weeks back and they were talking about the Atlantics. This has been a hot topic for awhile now. I have not heard or seen great numbers of them, so I think they would be a waste of time. cohos,chinocks and browns and bows are my pick.

Edited June 28, 2007 by misfish

[Tacklebuster]

I wouldn't mind the Atlantics, they might actually be edible

[fishdawg]

I wouldn't mind the Atlantics, they might actually be edible

 

what would make a 3lb Atlantic more edible then a 3lb Coho?

 

I agree the At;antics are a waste of time. Bows, browns, cohos & chinnooks please & thank you!

[misfish]

I had said this before.Way back when I use to live in Brampton,I fished the credit regularly.One time while fishing at Eldorado Park they had put in a few thousand Atlantics.

10 years later while out rigg,n the mouth of the Humber, I landed an Atlantic. That was the first of only 3 out there.

 

They were only 3-5 pounds.

[Aaron Shirley]

Good to hear about the cohos. I am in agreement about the Atlantics. I was involoved with helping to stock individual Atlantic fry by hand behind boulders about 12 years ago in the head waters of the tribs. They have been stocking Atlantics every year since and I still have yet to catch my first Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario, and I fish salmon hard.

 

Having Atlantic salmon reintroduced into Lake Ontario again is a nice idea, but after a decade of stocking efforts and nothing to show for it, the program should be discontinued in my opinion. I am not a biologist, but the unsuccessful stocking efforts so far in conjunction with the stream degradation and lost habitat should be enough to realize that a new strain of Atlantics will not take to Lake Ontario waters. Further stream degradation is happening every year with the increase in building going on.

 

I have witnessed a dramatic decline in populations of steelhead over the past 15 years in the tribs, and they are a much hardier fish than Atlantics.

 

It's too bad the funding for the future doomed Lake Ontario Atlantic stocking efforts couldn't be directed into the OMNR budget instead.

 

I just hope some funding can be directed to stream rehabilitation while they continue to throw funding down the toilet for the Atlantic salmon stocking.

 

Chinook, Steelhead, Browns and Cohos may not be natural to Lake Ontario, but they are all a viable option to the decimated Atlantic salmon that once inhabited the lake. Furthermore, they have been established in the Great Lakes for many years and they are all popular with anglers.

 

Sorry about the rant. It's just frustrating to see them beat a dead horse.

 

Aaron

[lilkynan]

Thank God

[aniceguy]

Those that know me well enough know exactly how I feel about Atlantics under the current program...That being said the current program does have some merit from an educational standpoint. They are bringing awareness to the rivers and watersheds they are in and with that comes tree planting additional stream rehab new CWFIP applications from groups that arent even fishing based but want to help the rivers.

 

While the program just might be a dud, the awareness it brought to these rivers many that are smack dab in the middle of Urban centers is a good thing

[John Bacon]

I wouldn't be so quick to write off the atlantic program just yet. There are some positive changes on the way.

 

First off, there are many different strains of atlantic salmon. Only one strain, the lehav, has been stocked into Lake Ontario so far. A new strain may change the success rate.

 

There were two strains of Chinook stocked in Lake Ontario. I don't recall the sources of the two strains; but only one of them was successful. Had only the unsuccessful strain been stocked; then the Chinook program may not have been anymore successful than the Atlantic program has been so far.

 

Also, the original eggs collected in the late sixties were not intended to become the brood stock for the program. As a result proper procedures to snsure that there is sufficient genetic diversity for a broodstock were not followed. In addition, a brood stock needs to fish from wild eggs introduced every tens years or so to avoid the brood stock from becoming domesticated. The atlantic salmon brood stock has only had one infusion of wild eggs; that was in 1972. The net result is that we have a brood stock that consists of a bunch of domesticated inbreds.

 

The re-introduction of turkies into Ontario has been a great success. Do you think it would have enjoyed that level of success if they had used a bunch of inbred farm turkies? That is essentially what has been done with the atlantics so far.

 

The goods news is that there are a couple of new strains on the way. There are plans to bring the sebago lake and restigouche strains of atlantics to Ontario. For the first time Ontario will have proper brood stocks. The Sebago Lake strain is a landlocked strain which should prevent them from heading for salt water; there are some who believe that the current atlantic are doing just that. I don't know too much about the restigouche strain exept that they are very big; this strain could keep those accustomed to 30+lb Chinooks satisfied.

 

Unfortunately, it takes time to set up a brood stock. Eggs are collected and must be raised to adults that will produce the eggs for the fished to be stocked. Don't be surprised if you start seeing more and bigger atlantics in the years to come.

[aniceguy]

John,

 

Im very aware of every facet of the current and past Atlantics program . Our club was the first NGO to stock these fish into Lake Ontario. Sebago and Restigouche might very well work, or they also might become duds but once quaraentine is done and we finally see eggs, fry, and a fish thats actually stocked we are looking at 10 yrs minimum. The current funding for this program is for 5 yrs, once that egg is dryed up where will the money come from. If it contines from private funds good, but if its public money then NOT GOOD.

 

We are seeing hatchery displacement occuring now, as also we are seeing the current fishery being managed for the potential of a new fish that has shown in best guess .0001% return rate again not a good thing.

 

Green lake is the only strain to have shown any measurable return rates in the early 90's. That strain was removed from any future potential become of an issue at the hatchery in Maine and the current OMNR back then totally ruining a relationship with the owners of that Hatchery.

 

 

Again the program is great for the educational componant it brings, but imagine if the close to 2 million bucks and OMNR energy for this program were injected into other fisheries.......