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TrtklrNovember 17th, 2008, 11:05 am
Banned
Michigan

Posts: 115		Ok, as some of you may or may not know I have been salmon/trout fishing for just a few years now. I have heard some serious conflicting stories about salmon on the run. I had someone tell me that salmon develop lock jaw once in the stream and can't bite, which know not to be true, this was told to me by a gentleman that was head of the fishing dept at gander mtn. but what i am in conflict of is I have heard from two salmon fishers that salmon make 5 runs up a river to spawn and on the fifth time they die. my theory has always been that they make one trip to spawn and die. I have told these people they are probably thinking about steelhead not salmon. so help me out here could ya?
I have seen nothing more beautiful than the sunrise on a cold stream.
TroutnutNovember 17th, 2008, 11:56 am
Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2737		Wow, there's lots of misinformation out there.

I had someone tell me that salmon develop lock jaw once in the stream and can't bite, which know not to be true, this was told to me by a gentleman that was head of the fishing dept at gander mtn.


The guy should be fired. Telling people that will just encourage snagging and depress his lure sales... nobody wins. Dumb.

Salmon stop feeding once they enter the stream to spawn. They still have aggressive instincts and will reflexively attack and bite various things, which is how we catch them. They just aren't feeding when they bite.

I have heard from two salmon fishers that salmon make 5 runs up a river to spawn and on the fifth time they die.


I don't know where that comes from. Pacific salmon (kings and cohos in Michigan) ALWAYS spawn only once and die. Atlantic salmon, like steelhead, can spawn more than once. I'm not sure what the typical spawning mortality rates are, but I think I've seen numbers in the ballpark of 50% for those repeat spawners. (Fancy vocabulary words of the day: Pacific salmon are semelparous, spawning only once, while Atlantic salmon and steelhead are iteroparous, spawning more than once.) I'm sure that very few live long enough to make 5 spawning runs. The idea that they all run up exactly 5 times and then flop over dead is ridiculous.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
TrtklrNovember 18th, 2008, 11:44 am
Banned
Michigan

Posts: 115		thank-you, did not know that about atlantic salmon
I have seen nothing more beautiful than the sunrise on a cold stream.

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