Let me clarify a few things before this thread spirals out of control with misinformation... I apologize in advance for the length of this post...
First off the missing age classes of salmon have absolutely nothing to do with water quality, algae, crayfish, camps, boats or lack of baitfish...that’s all just a bunch of malarkey! As a matter of fact trawl netting and hydro acoustic surveys of smelt (primary food for salmon and trout) are done on a regular basis by the states biologist and have shown that winnipesaukee has an abundance of smelt and has been this way for a number of years so food is not an issue. Also the water quality in Winni is excellent for salmon and smelt to thrive in so again another non issue.
Salmon are not native to the lake and are stocked each year by the state. Every year winnipesaukee gets stocked with a certain number of POUNDS of salmon. It does not stock based on quantity but by weight.
Unfortunately due to “issues” at the Powder Mill Hatchery, for the past few years, the state has had to stop using heated water and nutrients which would help the salmon grow larger before stocking. Prior to this and In years past, 8-10 smolt per pound was the average when stocking and approximately 30,000 salmon were stocked each year at different locations in the lake.
In 2017 the state stocked 55,816 salmon in Winnipesaukee all in one location. Most people think wow that’s good they stocked almost twice as many fish as previous years...unfortunately that 55,816 represented the same weight as the 30,000 previously stocked in years past...the smolts were that much smaller and Most of them became baitfish for larger predatory fish and birds (loons,ducks, etc, etc.) and not many survived. THis is the reason we have missing age classes of salmon. The reason for stocking all in one location is the state thought they would have a better chance of survival being all together as it is natural instinct for baitfish to school up when being attacked.
By far in 2018, the predominant salmon age class caught was 3 years old. On average the catch ratio for most of us involved with this study was between 75-80% of our catch was the 3 year old salmon. We were catching very few if any any 1 or 2 year old fish and myself personally never caught a single stocked fingerling after they were stocked which is highly unusual.
Beginning this year all salmon rearing has been moved from the Powder Mill Hatchery to the Nashua, NH facility where warm water and proper nutrients will allow the smolts to grow larger before being stocked in the lake and survivability will be much better. The salmon will eventually rebound but it’s going to take a couple years.
There is a LOT more going on behind the scenes but this post is long enough and gives everyone the basic idea of what the issue really is.
In the meantime there is over abundance of lake trout and plenty of rainbow trout in the lake just waiting to be caught! Also the 4 year old salmon that will be caught this year should be real beauties! So get out there when and if the ice ever leaves!
Tight lines!
Dan