Salmon Stripping

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Mark Your Calendars For Salmon Sunday!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Salmon Sunday
Pope Dam in Melvin Village
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
For more information visit The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Newsroom/News_2005/News_2005_Q4/Salmon_Sunday_102405.htm)

[Grant]

Sweet! I haven't been to Salmon Sunday in 12 years, so I might do it this time. I have some old photos from one -- about 21 years ago -- that I will post when I get around to scanning.

[mcdude]

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/531/medium/20scansalmonstripping.jpg
Salmon Stripping - old postcard from Melvin Village
What exactly is Salmon Stripping? I have no clue. McD
PS - I think I see Grant, as a young boy, scuba diving up the river!

[Grant]

You've done it again -- GREAT postcard.

What is salmon stripping? Well, the landlocked salmon population in Winnipesaukee is not native...and they don't reproduce on their own, so Fish & Game provides a little "help." Starting in October, they begin netting salmon (you can see the big nets hanging near the Pope Dam in Melvin some times), and putting them in a holding pen at the dam (pictured in the postcard, although now it's surrounded with a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire).

On "Salmon Sunday," F&G folks enter the pen armed with nets and with a stand, where they take the salmon, one at a time, and squeeze the eggs from the females and the milt (sperm) from the males. Mixed together in plastic wash basins, the mixture is then put in big jars and shipped off to the hatchery in New Durham (?), where the salmon eventually hatch (although not in the jars...). The young fish are stocked in Winnipesaukee and other lakes throughout the region when they are about 18 months old.

It's a very cool thing to watch (IMHO), and a chance to see some of the beautiful salmon that most of us would never see otherwise. And, trust me, I look for them. I also fish for them but, as a bass angler, I am still a serious "newbie" and trying to figure it all out... For some GREAT landlocked and Laker photos, check out the "Bragging Board" at www.fishlakewinni.com. This guy knows how to find 'em!

[gtxrider]

Did Fish and Game every try candle lit dinner, soft music and a bottle of wine? ;)

[upthesaukee]

Naw, just blow in the fish's gills, and they will follow you anywhere!

[Grant]

Brush yer teeth first.

[Grant]

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/531/medium/20scansalmonstripping.jpg
Salmon Stripping - old postcard from Melvin Village
What exactly is Salmon Stripping? I have no clue. McD
PS - I think I see Grant, as a young boy, scuba diving up the river!

okay one last comment on this one...

From the garb and the coloring and lack of fence, I would venture a guess and say that this photo definitely pre-dates my arrival on the planet. Perhaps it's Senter Cove Guy you see in the water... :D I didn't show up until summer of 1961.

[Grant]

Posted some photos from 1984 Salmon Sunday. Can't seem to get them to load on PhotoPost. In the meantime, here they are:

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/51407236

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/51407239/large

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/51407252

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/51407254

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Thanks for the pictures Grant.
Do the salmon survive F&G stealing the eggs and milt? Their website states that the fish are returned to the lake. It was my understanding that they die after spawning. If they just go to the back to the lake to expire, why not eat them? Are they not good at this time of year?

[Grant]

Nope -- they are returned, and many are "tapped" later. They are different than the ocean-living/stream-spawning varieties. But they can't do "it" on their own in the Lake, so F&G helps the process along. I decided yesterday that I am doing it this year -- it'll be a good chance to see if we've suffered any damage as a result of high water and wave action. The lake was a foot lower when I was up there in mid-late September!

[gtxrider]

I am not sure if that happens to the Land Locked Salmon which I think is really and Atlantic Salmon. They also don't have to make the long trip from the ocean fighting their way upstream.

If it is true that they expire after mating than that explains why they have to be forced (stripped) :rolleye2:

[mcdude]

Thanks for the photos Grant! More than I ever wanted to know about Salmon Stripping! gtxrider: your response cracked me up! :D

[Grant]

Good time. Good crowd. Incredible weather for Nov. 13th!!!

And the average fish size was very impressive -- the salmon population is obviously very healthy in Winni.

Thanks to F&G for staging such an informative and entertaining afternoon.

Lots of photos later today.

[Grant]

Photos from this year's salmon stripping are up.

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/salmon_sunday_05

[Resident 2B]

Grant,

Your great photos convey the message of what happens during this event, so that those of us who had no idea of what was happening could better understand.

Thanks for the education!

Great job!

[rickstr66]

The salmon in Lake Winnipesaukee do not die from fish and game extracting thier eggs.
Spawning in and of itself is not what kills migrating salmon. It is the rigors of getting there that kills them. They literally die of exhaustion.

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Thanks for the pictures Grant, glad you had a good time.
I especially liked the waterfall photo. What clarity.

[Grant]

Stopped in the dive shop in Wolfe City last weekend to say hello, and found proprietor Tom busy mending dry suits (a frustrating and malodorous undertaking). He mentioned that, earlier in the day, some students had been swimming up from the Bay toward the bridge to the Back Bay and drifting down with the salmon. I was envious, to say the least -- talk about a cool "drift dive." Intentionally left the dive gear at home to focus on leaves, limbs and the like.

Anyway, Tom mentioned that if you hung out on the bridge and looked down, you could see the salmon doing their instinctive best to swim upstream. So my daughter and I went out, walked a few doors down to the bridge, and looked. Sure enough, we got a nice Salmon Sunday Preview Saturday...lots of NICE big ones flipping around right under the bridge. Good fun. Thanks for the tip, Tom -- and we'll see you in the spring when the salmon are back and schooling in the Bay.

[Mee-n-Mac]

{snip} Anyway, Tom mentioned that if you hung out on the bridge and looked down, you could see the salmon doing their instinctive best to swim upstream. So my daughter and I went out, walked a few doors down to the bridge, and looked. Sure enough, we got a nice Salmon Sunday Preview Saturday...lots of NICE big ones flipping around right under the bridge. Good fun. Thanks for the tip, Tom -- and we'll see you in the spring when the salmon are back and schooling in the Bay.

Thx for posting this ! I had no idea people could see this. Next season I'll know better.