Lake Champlain Stocking is anyone besides me concerned

[Captain Paul]

When you go to Vt.fish&wildlife web site and check out stocking this year for Champlain it seems like it got a lot less fish than it was scheduled to get if my figures are anywhere near close it was suppose to get 97,000. Brown trout and only received 53,000. Salmon 346,000.on the schedule only received 147,000. yearlings. Lake Trout scheduled 164,157. and only received 58,000. I find this alarming when we have such a great fish hatchery in Grand Isle and it is running at less than full capacity the cost of raising more fish with the facility and employees already there can not be that much more. With the opportunity to have one of the best fisheries in the country here in our back yards it seems like this should be a priority for Vt. and NY. We all seem to get together for derby's and I think its time we get together and find out why we are not getting the fish in the lake that we should be what everybody's thoughts

[Reelax]

Imagine there being 2x the fish stalked.. Looks like they are running at half capasity.. I wonder why??

[digitroll (ron)]

Brian Chipman is going to be at the shoot-out BBQ. Good question to ask him about the reduced stocking.

[fishmaster176]

Would it have anything to do with Irene and the damage she caused to some of the facilities? Just a thought.

[Thorny]

Thanks for the heads up Capt Paul. Great observation. Hopefully we can get some verification of what you read and some of the reasoning behind it.

Most of the folks that manage this fishery read this Forum. Sure would be great to have some input from someone in the know! Can someone please shed some light on this issue.

Thanks
Thorny

[Captain Paul]

84 views not many thoughts on this

[Sea Hare]

If the good Captain's figures are correct, then someone in F&W has some explaining to do. I'm curious what their response will be. Perhaps our misguided congress had something to do with it !

Jon

[Matt]

What are the numbers compared to previous years?? Maybe it's always like this? If not, it's definitely cause for concern.

[mspgh]

Was there a problem at the hatchery that caused this? Not looking to place blame but stuff does happen.
Would be nice to know the reasons behind the lower output.

[Boatless in BTV]

I think the way they set up the listings in the database cause confusion. For example, looking at steelhead stockings for Lewis Creek:

Lake Champlain Ferrisburg Main Lake - Lewis Creek - access area STT 9000 3000 YR 7.99 03/26/2013 Addison
Lake Champlain Ferrisburg Main Lake - Lewis Creek - access area STT 9000 6000 YR 7.99 03/26/2013 Addison
Lake Champlain Ferrisburg Main Lake - Lewis Creek - access area STT 9000 1225 YR 7.99 03/28/2013 Addison
Lake Champlain Ferrisburg Main Lake - Lewis Creek - access area STT 9000 7103 YR 6.74 03/26/2013 Addison

That makes it look like there were supposed to 36,000, of which 17328 were released. However, I'm pretty sure when they split a stocking (multiple trucks, multiple biologists involved, etc.), the total gets duplicated even though the work is divided. So, in this case, I think the actual target number was probably 18000.

Adding it all up the stocked total for this year for steelhead was 57472, basically equal to the target of 58,000 listed on the bottom of this page http://www.anr.state.vt.us/fwd/stockingschedule.aspx and up from 55008 the database lists for last year.

As for salmon (not counting Huntington River fry)
2013: 153,864 (scheduled 134872), 2012: 160,762

So it's looking like they're essentially on the same pace as last year.

Lake and brown trout stocking is typically done in November so presumably it hasn't happened yet this year.

[digitroll (ron)]

Thanks boatless. No concern. Nice breakdown of the data!

[Captain Paul]

Does anyone what Ny. puts in for fish

[Reelax]

Does anyone what Ny. puts in for fish

I think they are the one stalking Cisco's and the white perch...

[Maddog]

New York lists their fish stocking by county. You'll have to look through the counties that border Lake Champlain to find the information you're looking for.

NYS Spring 2013 Trout Stocking by County:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/30465.html

NYS 2012 Fish Stocking by County:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/30467.html

[Captain Paul]

I could have missed something but looks Ny. only stocks Brown trout in Champlain