Closed Fish Ladders?

[rich_ace_G]

I have visited 2 tribs up north and not 1 salmon has reached spawning grounds yet. WTH?

 

[FishChaser67]

Sad news ..

 

[Shmogley]

same thing around here. even out east i saw "volunteers" moving the gate manually just so the hundreds of stacked fish could move through. dont blame them after watching fish smack into steel bars all day trying to move up.. sad that people need to take things into their own hands because the MNR/local watershed groups cant do what they should.

this year is significantly worse in regards to the ladders. its like they gave up on the whole program

 

[rich_ace_G]

I'm not entirely blaming any org or department because It could also be caused by very few rains and not enough for water to rise around dams. But the concern here is knowing 1 particular trib...there is a pool close to the dam where every angler knows...and every fish has to go through obstacles and a long stretch of shallow water 1-2 ft. which I doubt they can swim back. If every salmon ends up in that pool it would be a slaughterhouse by weekend. That includes your beloved browns and steels.

 

[ChromeAddict]

Such BS, I haven't seen 1 spawning fish either. There are a lot of dead fish that haven't even spawned yet in the lower stretches.

 

[BASSMASTER19]

its quite warm still, those 2-3 days of cold rain messed the fish up now they are over stressed by the heat, add in the white bucket brigade and its gonna mean not a lot of fish are making it

 

[sakimano]

Anyone else think they should close the species entirely in the tribs and rivers?

We're so diligent about protecting bass by not opening the season until well after the spawn ends. The site is never short on spring and early summer rant threads against anyone seen fishing bass before the open because they're killing) hurting the fishery.

However with salmon and trout, we're able to target them at the most important time of the year for them...the spawn. And it's also when they're most vulnerable, making a massive journey and fighting upstream in 2 feet of water.

It's ALWAYS a slaughter.

Everyone loves to make fun of any immigrants who are out there with subtle code word jabs because they're scooping them out of the rivers illegally but to be honest I think fly fishing and harvesting a spawning, vulnerable species is no less harmful since it's the same end result. I think the whole thing should be closed, permanently.

 

[fishermandan420]

They close the upper rivers from now until after the spring spawn to protect spawning fish. Usually over winter it's only open closer to the lake, where you are more likely to get fish during their run and not spawning.

 

[Dozer]

I'd be ok with just having small sections open year round and upper sections open for resident fishing only say between early June and beginning of September. That way not only do people not interfere with spawning activity but also allow the eggs to hatch rather than get stomped over by someone big fat feet. I think not allowing the harvest of fish would help the cause but that would never happen. Closing the tributaries, although the ideal situation, would eliminate river fishing all together and that would make me quite an unhappy camper - think of all the money Kingpin would lose not selling reels and how uncool people would if they couldn't post a photo of their reel and fish.

 

[sakimano]

I guess the other side of it is that I don't fish those species so I'm pretty unsympathetic, so forgive me if my suggestions were extreme. Pretty selfish way for me to look at it lol.

From the point of view of someone who does fish those species my suggestions above would all but eliminate access to these fish other than deep water trolling in the lakes etc. So that's not ideal either.

I just find it surprising how unprotected they are. I'm out there a few times every year just watching the fish run and it's amazing...but almost more amazing is the flagrant disregard for the regulations. I have never once seen a CO there...and this is arguably the most important time of the year to protect these great species.