Early Salmon Spawn?

[DRH]

This morning we noticed some large salmon swimming around our dock, as they do toward the end of each year when they spawn. However, we haven't previously seen them come into the shallow area around our shoreline this early in November. Usually they come in around the third week of this month and stay about 3 weeks. Interesting that they are early this year.

[GWC...]

How about a picture of one or two of those beauties for the folks who do not have your advantage and can only imagine that which you are seeing daily?

[Smitty1]

Here is a way to see lots of Salmon and ask questions, etc.

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us./New...unday_2006.htm


Smitty

[DRH]

Originally Posted by GWC...

How about a picture of one or two of those beauties for the folks who do not have your advantage and can only imagine that which you are seeing daily?

Here are a couple photos I took of the salmon at our dock in November a few years ago. I would estimate the length of the two fish in the photos at around 20" but some of them we see are larger, probably in the 22" - 24" range. We sometimes see upwards of 8 - 10 of them swimming around the dock in late November/early December to spawn. For some reason they are a bit early this year.

I first posted these two photos on the Forum several years ago, and at that time I thought they may be rainbow trout. However John Viar, a Fisheries Biologist with NH Fish and Game, saw the pictures and posted a reply indicating that they are landlocked salmon.

[GWC...]

Appreciate the pics...

I wonder if APS has water that clear?

As a side note - one afternoon I let the boat engine run in gear at idle for about thirty minutes one day to watch a fish that looks very similar to the fish in your pictures do its thing and enjoyed being entertained as it "swam" to maintain its position in the "stream" caused by the prop wash. Guess it was "fishing" for anything that might pass it.

[Grant]

Wow -- great photos. I've heard from friends that we've had large numbers of them dancing around our dock and shore in the late fall, but I have not seen that yet. This time last year, I watched them swimming up & under the Main St. bridge in Wolfeboro toward the Back Bay -- lots of them, and plainly visible from the bridge despite the very high water last fall. Tom at Dive Winni said that he had a class that was swimming up current toward the bridge, and then drifting down in the swift current, watching the fish along the way. I really wanted to try that this fall, but I will not make it up there for Salmon Sunday weekend. Bummer. Thanks for the pics.

[ApS]

Earlier this fall, I watched a salmon (I guess...inserted green plastic thread?) swim into shallows and disappear behind some boulders in just 6" of water. I waited and waited, and he never reappeared.

Originally Posted by GWC...

Appreciate the pics...I wonder if APS has water that clear?

That IS clear water.

At the APS domicile, the lake is swimming-pool-clear between the ice floes in Spring. It's at its silted-murkiest between 10AM and 4PM on summer weekends.

But even in a summer with record runoff and lake level extremes, the nearby waters are clear enough to view the silt fences required of new development.