The Case of the Missing Niagara River Salmon
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It is a case for Sherlock Holmes.
As the month of November nears, anglers in the Niagara River are still wondering what happened to all the salmon that were supposed to be returning for the final run of their lives. During a normal year the local charter fishing fleet, as well as the legion of shore fishermen, will start to pursue the mighty king by the second or third week of September. The salmon action concludes by the end of October. This year the fishing started on time, but the catching didn’t. It was one of the toughest salmon years anglers have ever seen. In fact, some charter captains cancelled their seasons while others opted to fish for bass and walleye.
Imagine a charter boat loaded with good sticks going four days without a bite? That can be frustrating. Imagine a dozen boats fishing Devil’s Hole and only six fish being caught for the entire day? If a boat caught two fish, they were the heroes on the river by the first week of October. After a banner year on the lake (again), what could have happened to the might king?
Since most fish that would be returning to the river would be three-year-old chinook salmon, let’s look at what happened in 2016. For starters, the Niagara River received its full stocking target number of salmon – 75,000 kings in the pens operated at the time by the Niagara River Anglers Association (NRAA), and 128,000 direct-stock kings, all from the Salmon River Fish Hatchery. The Niagara River is normally one of the final locations to receive fish in the pens and for stocking due to colder water coming down from Lake Erie, thanks to the ice boom.
Read the rest of Bill Hilts' detailed analysis in Outdoornews here:
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