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Old 10-27-2005, 07:18 AM   #4
Grant
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Default A Strip Joint in Melvin Village

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!
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Last edited by Grant; 10-27-2005 at 08:01 PM.
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