Lake Champlain Salmon Anglers: Help Needed for Diet Study!

[graham_montague]

Hello Lake Champlain fishing community,

I'm a PhD student at the University of Vermont studying Atlantic Salmon in Lake Champlain, and I need your help! I'm looking to collect stomach samples from Salmon to better understand what these fish are eating throughout the year.

What I'm asking:
• Catch Atlantic Salmon in the Inland Sea and/or Main Lake
• Allow me to collect the stomach from your catch (the fish needs to be kept alive or recently harvested within ~30 minutes)
• You keep the fillets!

When & Where:
• April through December 2025
• We need ~15 fish monthly from both the Inland Sea and Main Lake (30 fish total per month)
• We can tentatively coordinate fishing days where I'll meet you at a specific boat ramp/shore (for example: Converse Bay boat ramp for the Main Lake; John Guilmette Access area for the Inland Sea)

This research will help improve our understanding of Salmon feeding habits and contribute to better management of the Lake Champlain fishery. All information collected will be shared with the fishing community.

If you're interested in participating, please contact me at graham.montague@uvm.edu. Let me know your preferred fishing locations and general availability. I am happy to take any questions you also have!

Thank you for supporting Lake Champlain salmon research!

Graham Montague

[Reelax]

Graham … Pat, and I helped you collect fish to implant trackers last fall in salmon. The data you’re getting is amazing. I will be happy to do what I can to help out. I know of atleast 2 boats fishing out of converse Sunday if your willing to work that that day:)

Matt

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

Graham … Pat, and I helped you collect fish to implant trackers last fall in salmon. The data you’re getting is amazing. I will be happy to do what I can to help out. I know of atleast 2 boats fishing out of converse Sunday if your willing to work that that day:)

Matt

Where can we see the data of those fish?

[Reelax]

The contents of a couple harvested salmon from Keelers bay this week… I know this isn’t scientific but it’s an example..

Thanks for the pic Popster!

[striper192001]

Hi Graham,

I was helping that day last fall in the Inland Sea as well. Esad and I brought you the most salmon that day for the trackers....(Ahem.....had to throw that in.....)
Sorry guys.........truly I have learned everything from you all so thank you.

Happy to help Graham, putting finishing touches on my boat today !

John

[graham_montague]

Graham … Pat, and I helped you collect fish to implant trackers last fall in salmon. The data you’re getting is amazing. I will be happy to do what I can to help out. I know of atleast 2 boats fishing out of converse Sunday if your willing to work that that day:)

Matt

Thank you for all your help! Sorry that I could not make it Sunday, but I am hoping to coordinate anglers this weekend (4/11-4/13). Stay tuned!

[graham_montague]

Graham … Pat, and I helped you collect fish to implant trackers last fall in salmon. The data you’re getting is amazing. I will be happy to do what I can to help out. I know of atleast 2 boats fishing out of converse Sunday if your willing to work that that day:)

Matt

Where can we see the data of those fish?

We do not have any of the movement data from the lake age-0 fish we tagged last Fall quite yet. We do an annual data download of the lake wide receivers each summer so stay tuned on that data! We have very preliminary movement data from Atlantic Salmon smolts tagged from Ed Weed hatchery in spring 2024 and would be happy to share some movement graphs to you. Thank you!

[graham_montague]

Hi Graham,

I was helping that day last fall in the Inland Sea as well. Esad and I brought you the most salmon that day for the trackers....(Ahem.....had to throw that in.....)
Sorry guys.........truly I have learned everything from you all so thank you.

Happy to help Graham, putting finishing touches on my boat today !

John

Haha, thank you John! Ron and I are planning on coordinating an outing this weekend so hopefully we can get some diets soon!

[graham_montague]

The contents of a couple harvested salmon from Keelers bay this week… I know this isn’t scientific but it’s an example..

Thanks for the pic Popster!

Wow, that is a lot of Alewife! Very cool and thank you for sharing. This is the type of data we are hoping to collect; however, the fish need to be collected relatively recently after they are harvested (~1 hour or so).