Native Fish to Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee was a warm water fishery until about 1860, with yellow perch, chain pickerel, brown bullheads, shad, cusk, round and lake whitefish, brook and lake trout and alewife are to name a few.
Shad, not salmon were the fish that were trapped at The Weirs with weirs by the Native Americans. Atlantic salmon and American shad traveled up the Merrimack River for spawning in the spring. The salmon took a left in Franklin and went on to the White Mountains via the Pemigewasset River. The shad took a right to the Winnipesaukee River.
Some sixty to seventy species of fish have been introduced into Lake Winnipesaukee through the last 150 years. Land locked salmon did not appear until the late 1870’s. They were introduced by the hatchery in Meredith and came from the St. Croix and Penobscot Basins in Mane.
Small and largemouth bass, rainbow and brown trout are some of the many fish, which were stocked. Either by individual fishermen or the state agencies, which significantly altered the Lake Winnipesaukee native fishery.
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