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From what I've read they've stocked about 6,742,000 atlantics into lake Ontario since 1987 with the bulk coming from the last 6 years.
So my questions are, have you caught 1 yet, or at least seen someone catch one in a river? any numbers?
Does anyone have any success stories about lake Ontario atlantics in the river?
Just looking for feed back from guys that fish lake O tribs...
Thanks
Graham
Personally I am split on the whole Atlantic stocking issue. Oh, by the way, I have caught fingerlings only in Duffins (which were released immediately of course), but NO Atlantics caught or seen that were of any size. This is over the past 6 years too with many an hour spent on the banks. I have been very successful with Rainbows and even the odd Salmon in the fall. The reason I am split on the issue is the whole Atlantic stocking program has gotten a lot of money thrown into rehabilitation of some good streams (good) but with minimal success in terms of these fish coming up that same stream to spawn (bad). Could that same effort/time/money be put into the 'sure things' (rainbows anbd chinnooks) ? I suppose, but it is not as romantic as having the Atlantics revitalized. Still, I appreciate the money and effort being put into the streams.
round and round she goes, will it ever stop? Who knows.
For me as a resident of Durham, who has been fishing Duffins for half my life, long before "Steelheading" became as popular as it is today and who vividly remembers thinking....well there goes the neighborhood when Henry and Italo really started plugging it.
Its comes down to this.
Sure it could in theory.Quote:
Could that same effort/time/money be put into the 'sure things' (rainbows anbd chinnooks) ? I suppose, but it is not as romantic as having the Atlantics revitalized. Still, I appreciate the money and effort being put into the streams.
But what "evidence" does anyone have that after 30-40 years of no effort and no money, once the plug is pulled on the Atlantics people will still pony up the $$....and the sweat? There isnt much use in speculating about what it could be doing, if we cant know the money/interest will continue.
Also the program is doing far more. Its creating awareness, media attention, has kids in schools learning about cold water fisheries and has them in the field to.
Theory is nice, theory doesn't always translate into reality. If the past 30 years are any indication, im not sold we should be talking about pulling the plug. Then to, todays kids...................are tomorrows activist and voters.
Years ago I was helping stock the Upper Grand .During a break I was talking to two individuals and we were talking about stocking in general.I happened to mention that the bioligests had for brains.They said why? Well the millions spent on the splake programme.I have fished for over 60 years ,I"ve caught 1.The Atlantic salmon programme stocking millions how many have you seen?I pointed out the fact that the original strain was landlocked.The strain they planted is migrating strain.If they make it past the area of Montreal where water pollution does"t kill them then if they didn"t get eaten or caught in gill nets then they will go up the next river they see.The two persons I was talking to were ministry biologists.Their answer was they didn"t realize that.Salmon from the fingerlakes of New york would have been the better choice.Better to spend the money in stocking like Pennsylvania does.More numbers and larger smolt sizes give servival rates.