Landlock Salmon on Lake George

By: John Schaninge

The following, is a brief history, overview, as I know it of the Landlocked Salmon (LLS) fishery in Lake George (LG) followed by what the LGFA would like to see done for the future of Landlocked Salmon in Lake George.  It is complicated and thus a little long so everyone can understand why we want improvements with the cooperation of all our communities, we can make it happen.  I have been here fishing on Lake George for over 50 years for Trout and Salmon, and the LLS fishing has never been worse! 

LLS are not native to LG; they are native to a number of lakes in Maine.  It is believed they are descended from Atlantic Salmon that were stranded in inland waters by the last ice age and spawn in rivers and streams emptying into those lakes.  They are identical morphologically (they are indistinguishable physically) to Atlantic Salmon, but they stay in fresh water their entire lives instead of returning to the ocean.  They have been stocked in LG since the late 1800"s and have become prized by anglers everywhere.  LG was one of the brightest successes in the country in the past and anglers have come here from all over because of that, spending large amounts of money locally in search of them.  In the early 1980's, one that weighed 19.5 lbs, as I recall, was caught.  LLS in the 6-14 lb size were caught commonly.  I personally remember fishing on the surface in the spring and late fall and it was not uncommon to catch 10-15 in an outing of only a few hours.  Most were released, with some kept for a dinner, as they are in my opinion one of the finest fish to eat there is.

Lake George does not have sufficient successful spawning to enable the LLS to reproduce in numbers required to maintain a viable fish population of LLS.  This is because they spawn in streams and due to the steep nature of our terrain; there is not a lot of available spawning areas.  Further compounding the problem, the LLS spawn in the fall, and when the eggs hatch, the young live in the streams for 1.5 years until they return to the lake.  Our streams often have low flow in the summers and a lack of large deep pools for them to survive in.  Due to those facts, the LLS have been stocked by the DEC for over a century.  Through scientific studies, the stocking has changed over the years and instead of stocking many very small fish in the spring, a smaller number of larger fish have been stocked each spring.  The number of LLS stocked has been determined by studies that looked at growth rates.  Although there is always some discussion if those numbers are adequate because the food availability changes from year to year, the DEC has settled on stocking 34,000 LLS that are about 4 in. – 8 in. each spring.

Historically, the LLS that were released in mid May into LG have been delivered by hatchery trucks coming from the Lake Clear hatchery, the only hatchery for NY for LLS.  I will address the strain of LLS in a later paragraph.  The method of release for many years was to take the LLS from the trucks and put them in boats manned by volunteers who took them out on the lake released them around the lake in small groups..  This was done because releasing them next to shore meant you fed the birds and larger fish which swarmed in to feed on them as soon as they were released.  It is also important to ensure the lake temperature is not too cold or warm when the fish are released or they will have thermal shock issues.  About 1986 (more or less), the stocking of LLS with volunteer boats was discontinued.  That program has been revived, due to very poor LLS fishing in LG with very low numbers of LLS being caught even with nets in the fall.  The fishing has dropped steadily for the last fifteen years and it takes, as I remember, almost twenty hours to catch a legal Salmon on average now.

Six years ago, a number of concerned anglers, many of whom belong to the Lake George Fishing Alliance (LGFA)  got together with the DEC to try to determine why the fishing was so poor.  One outcome of the meetings and the subsequent studies was to re-establish around 2005 the volunteer boat release by LGFA members of the 34,000 LLS (4 in. to 8 in.).  The LGFA also arranged for 3000 LLS to be kept in the Warrensburg hatchery until late fall to see if stocking larger LLS would help.  The fish released in the fall were 10"-12".  DEC trap netting in the fall has shown that the number of the 3000 LLS released in the fall found in greater quantity than the 34,000 released in the spring.  The fall stocked fish were fin clipped so they could be identified.  Thus, increased size at release time is a great success!  The LGFA and others would thus like to see the number of LLS raised in the hatchery at Warrensburg until fall increased.  Additional hatchery pools would be required so as to not interfere with other stocking programs.  The LGFA has indicated they would finically support building the additional pools if it is determined that there is sufficient cold water supply.  LGFA would also raise money for the maintenance of the fish at the hatchery.  We have requested the support of our local political agencies to have someone look into the water supply available at Warrensburg and to work with LGFA in the implementation of that program.  It would cost Warren County nothing or very little and the additional money raised by increased spending on tourism would by far offset any expenses.  It is LGFA’s goal to see greatly improved LLS fishing at no cost locally.

There is one other issue that seems to be of critical importance.  The LGFA, Lake George Association (LGA), DEC and others are concerned that perhaps the strain of LLS had something to do with the vast decline of LLS in Lake George and other lakes.  The US Fish and Wildlife wondered about the same thing and did a scientific study that stocked three strains of LLS in Lake Champlain in an attempt to find out if there is a difference (see the LGFA web site for a DEC article published in the Glens Falls Post Star).  It turns out there was a huge difference!  Three strains were released into Lake Champlain, the Lake Clear strain, the Sebago Lake Maine strain and a Lake Memphremagog (VT and Quebec) strain.  There was a FOUR to ONE survival rate of the Sebago strain over the others.  It seems the wild  Sebago Lake strain by far out-survived the  tame hatchery strains.  Recognizing the enormity of this study, the DEC obtained Sebago Lake eggs, hatched and raised them and put almost 3000 Sebago Lake strain into Lake Clear with fin clips.  In two more years there will be either Sebago Lake or Sebago Lake/Lake Clear strains producing eggs at the Lake Clear hatchery and that will be available for stocking LG.  It should be a huge improvement, but be at least 2012 before LG sees a difference.

That said, the huge increase in survival rates of the fall stocking of larger LLS indicate that for the future of the LG fishery, we should increase the number of LLS raised over the summer by the Warrensburg hatchery.  Combined with the Sebago Lake strain change, it should be possible to once again have a world class Landlocked Salmon fishery in Lake George in the future!  That not only means we locals are smiling, it means all the hotel owners, restaurant owners, tackle shops, guides, other businesses and visitors will have big smiles on their faces and stories to tell everyone at home before the visitors come again and again with fat wallets and friends!  Let’s work together and improve the fishing and the economy at the same time!

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