Atlantic Salmon

are there atlantics in lake erie or ever been caught in the erie tribs?  
I know in new york they catch them in the ontario tribs.  does new york have an atlantic program where they stock them or anything like that? or theyre just there?

There's no stocking program for Atlantics in Erie, though I wish there was one, as I theorize they'd do even better than Steelhead honestly. The reason being that Atlantics, behaviorally, are almost identical to Steelhead, and additionally Atlantics can tolerate warmer water than any other Salmon species. They are often repeat spawners, although some do die afterwards simply due to the stress of spawning. Some of them chose to feed while on their spawning runs while others do not, it seems to be dependent on individual fish and populations instead of a general species trend as is the case with Pacific Salmon.

NYDEC and OMNR both have stocking programs for Atlantics (native in Lake Ontario), which are very slowly making a recovery, but they could be doing a lot more for the species (especially NY, which only stocks 50,000 yearly). The largest inhibitors to their recovery are habitat loss and competition with invasive Pacific Salmon.

If there was one additional species I'd love to see in Erie Tribs alongside Steelhead and Browns, it would undoubtedly be Atlantics.

jat1007
i  wonder why they do not or have never tried to introduce Atlantic's in Erie?... considering they are native to a great lake... i heard they are the hardest fighting salmon specieshas anyone ever heard of one being caught in lake Erie or a trib? 

Good question, but I hope they consider soon. Being native in Ontario doesn't make them any more native in Erie than Steelhead or Pacifics, but they're still a great sportfish that I predict would do well in Erie while causing less environmental harm to native species than Pacifics. And I will defend that they're the hardest fighting Salmon, I've caught Chinooks, a Coho, Pinks, and an Atlantic. And that one Atlantic easily topped them all. They're right up there with steelhead in terms of fight, only they run faster and jump higher.

genieman77

jat1007i  wonder why they do not or have never tried to introduce Atlantic's in Erie?... considering they are native to a great lake... i heard they are the hardest fighting salmon specieshas anyone ever heard of one being caught in lake Erie or a trib? 

 I don't know the difference in one from another(For years I caught one or more "steelhead"  every year thinking it was just an odd color steelie with gum disease)It wasn't til years later as I landed aa 6-7 pound  fish, a creek neighbor said, "Wow, that's a nice Coho!! Had no clue til then... They all look alike to me....LOL Anyway, years ago a friend who is knowledgeable and I were fishing raccoon creek... He was casting in the lake and  caught a small (msybe 3 pound) fish he said was an Atlantic  Been many years ago, but if I recall it was sort of brown color  LTA

Once you have an Atlantic on, you'll know the difference :). It's possible it was an Atlantic, but in their "silver" lake dwelling phase, Atlantics and Brown Trout look very similar.

genieman77

Divemaster


Once you have an Atlantic on, you'll know the difference :). It's possible it was an Atlantic, but in their "silver" lake dwelling phase, Atlantics and Brown Trout look very similar.

I'm sure he knew the difference in a Brown and  samens  Biggest fightenist fish I've caught was a 20+ pound King    LTA

Okay, but just look at OW pictures of both "silvered" up, they look almost identical, even charter captains have trouble IDing them sometime. For a while, my hardest fighting fish was a 36" 23-25# Laker caught in 100' off the peninsula this July, such a strong pull like no other fish but once I caught that 25-27 pound Lake O Atlantic in August, that tore of 400' of line and launched 5-8' out of the water a dozen times, it was all over, and I'm addicted to them now. Which is why those two species are my favorite out there now :).

XtopwaterkingX
Should have turned it in. The record is an oz shy of 25 lbs, like 20 years ago.

Seriously? Dang, just looked it up, you're right, now I feel like an idiot because I thought it was 35 pounds XD. I'm guessing it was 25-27 pounds, but didn't put it on an actual scale, so it could've just been a spunky 22-24 pounder too. Either way, it was an awesome fish.

from pics i have seen and a few in person atlantics could easily be mistaken for a brown....   
 
divemaster... 25lbs? thats a monster... got any pics?

jat1007
from pics i have seen and a few in person atlantics could easily be mistaken for a brown....    divemaster... 25lbs? thats a monster... got any pics?

I can never figure out how to post pictures on this da*n site but I'll see if I can get some off my laptop later. Not the best pictures since we never took it out of the water, but we got a couple. Didn't want to risk harming a fish that big, which would be (and hopefully is currently) a breeder.

i think you are correct... ive heard there is atlantics in raystown lake also... 

Divemaster

XtopwaterkingX
Should have turned it in. The record is an oz shy of 25 lbs, like 20 years ago.

Seriously? Dang, just looked it up, you're right, now I feel like an idiot because I thought it was 35 pounds XD. I'm guessing it was 25-27 pounds, but didn't put it on an actual scale, so it could've just been a spunky 22-24 pounder too. Either way, it was an awesome fish.

Maybe you should check the weight of some of those 36" steelhead you're reporting catching too... Or try measuring one 😂😊

fishrmn

Divemaster

XtopwaterkingX
Should have turned it in. The record is an oz shy of 25 lbs, like 20 years ago.

Seriously? Dang, just looked it up, you're right, now I feel like an idiot because I thought it was 35 pounds XD. I'm guessing it was 25-27 pounds, but didn't put it on an actual scale, so it could've just been a spunky 22-24 pounder too. Either way, it was an awesome fish.

Maybe you should check the weight of some of those 36" steelhead you're reporting catching too... Or try measuring one 😂😊

 
pics...

jat1007

fishrmn

Divemaster

XtopwaterkingX
Should have turned it in. The record is an oz shy of 25 lbs, like 20 years ago.

Seriously? Dang, just looked it up, you're right, now I feel like an idiot because I thought it was 35 pounds XD. I'm guessing it was 25-27 pounds, but didn't put it on an actual scale, so it could've just been a spunky 22-24 pounder too. Either way, it was an awesome fish.

Maybe you should check the weight of some of those 36" steelhead you're reporting catching too... Or try measuring one 😂😊

 pics...

Lost the three big guys, landed the smallest one at 27" after I finally decided to use 3X haha.

i wonder if they did stock them in Erie what size potential they could reach... like the steelhead average around 4-7 lbs with a 10lber being a good sized one... i was told when the cohos were around they were all the same like they came out of a mold 20-24 inches...  would be interesting if there was another species that "ran"
 
but then again the steelhead program does pretty well and there's some browns around although i cant seem to catch any... so why spend the money on something else....considering if you'd go anywhere else like the pnw you might walk ten miles and hook two fish and that's a good day... then again those rivers are BIG..

Wasn't one reason PFBC quit stocking salmon in Erie is that they ran to the Canadian side of the lake ?

psu_fish
Wasn't one reason PFBC quit stocking salmon in Erie is that they ran to the Canadian side of the lake ?

i thought it was because they felt the steelhead program would do better....