Fall Salmon Returns at Grand Isle Hatchery Trap

[popster]

Following a slow start to the run, the fall Salmon returns at Hatchery Brook is in full swing now as the numbers have increased dramatically in the past week. VTFG is on target to get 450,000-500,000 eggs from the 100 pairs of Salmon needed. I had the opportunity to observe the operation at the Grand Isle trap Monday. A huge thanks, as always, to the Vermont Fisheries personnel who worked the trap: Margaret Murphy, Ben Rooks, Dave Gibson, Kevin Kelsey and Bernie Pientka. Hats off to you all.

There has been a large number of 24"+ Salmon showing up, but leading the pack is the beautiful 31.1" 11 lb Male Salmon that came in yesterday!
One huge female gave up 9300 eggs, while the ave. take is 3200!
Some pics from Monday

The Salmon are moved from the trap into the larger tank with contains recirculated stream water, then moved into the smaller black tank which contains a calming agent prior to Dave's work up of each fish.


From trap to 1st holding tank


Calming tank


Margaret loading the tank, Dave works the fish, calls out the data which Bernie records


Bernie recording data from each fish. Dave handles & tags each fish: calls out the length, weight, previous tag # and/or new tag #, Lamprey wound info and then determines whether the fish is to be used for spawning or restocking. Ben monitoring the Oxygen level in the Truck holding tank. Fisheries Manager, Margaret, dip netting fish from trap to tank








At the Hatchery




Ben with a beautiful female Salmon.... 9300 eggs from her and a male





And the leader showing up yesterday. DaDa.... 31.1" 11 lb Landlocked Atlantic Salmon
Kevin proudly showing us a sample of what can come out of Champlain yesterday.

[Reelax]

Wow Bill... that’s the best fishing report I have ever seen!!! Thanks to all involved for making this such a great fishery!!!!

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks Bill for this very informative report and pics. Glad to see such big specimens are still in the lake. Looking good for the future.

[BottomDollar]

Very cool Bill, thanks for the post of your visit. Beautiful fish. The kipe on those big males is incredible.

[bagman]

As of 11/13 332 salmon trapped in Grand Isle. This does not include multiple recaptures. What is most impressive is the size of the fish this year with many 2, 3 and even 4 yr. olds. Due to low water conditions on the Lamoille it has been extremely difficult to get the boat up far enough to shock but 57 salmon have been collected. The cove lake trout take is at 579 (and 25 salmon} The expectation is that future lake trout stockings will be feral Champlain fish not hatchery brood stock eggs. There will be wounding rate stats coming soon but all indications are that wounding rates seem to be low

[popster]

Hey Bagman (Bill), Do you know if Fish & Game found any Lakers with Salmon tails in their mouths!

[bagman]

No Bill I don't believe they did

[Crazy Ivan]

Hey Bagman (Bill), Do you know if Fish & Game found any Lakers with Salmon tails in their mouths!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL....

[digitroll (ron)]

Spent 3.5 hours this am at the hatchery grabbing 38 different videos from the mouth of hatchery brook up to the final eggs in the jars getting the whole process. Now the fun work of editing for my short video of the process from my Go Pro camera and I Movie editing software. Tons of nice salmon. The future is bright. 17 more salmon trapped over the weekend as this is nearing the end of the window.. Today they reached their goal of 350K of eggs. Mission Accomplished!


closest shell garage to my location

[digitroll (ron)]

On a 35 mph windy day yesterday I spent some quality time visiting the Ed Weed facility in Grand Isle shooting some video (38 clips) with my Go Pro in 2.5 hours of the Salmon Egg collection process from start to finish condensing the video to 3 minutes 30 seconds. Keven Kelsey and the crew leader Paige with Dave / Ben / Bernie and 2-3 others finished their egg collection effort hitting their goal of 350,000 eggs collected for the spawning season. Lamprey hits were way down from the fish I viewed and these fish were good size! 350 salmon have been collected and it's getting close to the end of the run in another week or so. A very good run this year! Thanks to everyone that let me watch the process! The Lamprey control is working!



You Tube clip video of the process 3 minutes 32 seconds:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee-EVzhKOks

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Nice video Ron, thanks for sharing.

[TUnamas]

Great story with great editing Ron! I was up there several weeks ago and swung by the hatchery too. There were a few cars and trucks about, but I didn't see anyone who could walk me through it. It was shut off due to COVID, so I couldn't enter and walk around the tanks. We had an epic laker bite that night from the breakwall at the Ferry landing on fly, but it is REALLY GREAT to see large salmon still in the system. Looked like quite a few lamprey scars, though the reports seem to be "it's better." Salmon in the rivers has been late, but better than usual this year!

[Boatless in BTV]

Past Hatchery Brook fall salmonoid returns:

2019 - 672 salmon, 23 browns, 9 steelhead
2018 - 350 salmon, 42 browns, 12 steelhead
2017 - 164 salmon, 41 browns, 5 steelhead
2016 - 374 salmon, 85 browns, 1 steelhead
2015 - 1494 salmon, 15 browns, 1 steelhead
2014 - 724 salmon, 13 browns, 20 steelhead
2013 - 411 salmon, 21 browns, 11 steelhead
2012 - 381 salmon, 19 browns, 22 steelhead
2011 - 410 salmon collected (browns, steelhead not listed)
2010 - 350 salmon collected (browns, steelhead not listed)

NOTE: The trap first went into use in 2014 so all salmon collected before that were netted. The reports for 2011 and 2010 both say, "Many additional salmon were observed in Hatchery Brook but not collected."

Source: https://www.fws.gov/lcfwro/partnerships/reports.html

So this year's run appears to be at or slightly below the long-term median, but also significantly below a good year in 2019.