Good news for anglers comes out of Lake Ontario fishery meeting in New York

Amherst, N.Y. — Lake Ontario salmon and trout fishermen enjoyed another outstanding year of fishing in 2024, especially as it relates to Chinook salmon.

That was the information conveyed at the recent meeting of the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association with Bureau of Fisheries personnel that manage Lake Ontario for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

The meeting was held Dec. 12 in Amherst, Erie County. About 50 interested anglers showed up, which was a good turnout since a Lake Erie “lake effect” snowstorm was pounding areas in Buffalo and south.

For salmon fishermen, the 2024 season was a big one when you look at the Open Lake Creel Survey. Chinook salmon catch rates by fishermen were the second highest in the 38-year history of the survey, higher than the 2023 catch rate – which was also very high. The all-time high was in 2018.

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Catch rates

Chinook salmon catch rates were nearly double the 10-year average in all four lake management areas that stretch from the Niagara Bar to Henderson Harbor according to DEC Aquatic Biologist Mike Connerton. Chinook salmon size was up slightly from 2023, checking in at 19.2 pounds for an age 3 king salmon in August.

Brown trout catch rates were up 32% above the 10-year average for the entire season. In the spring, catch rates ranked eighth overall in the creel series. Coho salmon catch rates were 33% higher than the 10-year average. Atlantic salmon catch rates, while still a smaller piece to the lake’s catching puzzle, saw an 82 percent increase in its catch rate in 2023 and this year it saw a 16% jump above the average.

2025 stocking

Heading into the new year, there are many encouraging signs that paint a brighter picture for 2025. A stable forage base allowed fish managers to stock more salmon into the lake in 2024 and expand the number of stocking sites.

This past spring was the third year in a row for a stocking increase. There are some mild concerns about the forage base after the 2024 spring trawls, with a focus on alewife, so this coming year we will see a “status quo” approach to salmon and trout plants – all the same stocking numbers that we saw in 2024.

While the estimated alewife biomass increased slightly this year, the spring baitfish survey indicated that Age-1 alewife was at its lowest point since lake wide sampling began in 2016. Lake managers will be keeping a close eye on the different year classes of alewife. Adult alewife from 2020 and 2022 are driving the current increase of this biomass.

King salmon stocking efforts were expanded in 2024 in two ways. First, Sodus Bay was added back into the mix of the state’s Chinook salmon stocking strategy. Previously, Olcott, Oak Orchard, Rochester, Oswego, and the Salmon River were the featured ports for kings, with additional stocking taking place in the Black River/Sacketts Harbor and Niagara River. Due to the increase in stocking numbers this year, Sodus Bay was added back and received 90,000 salmon for the pens, the same number as the Niagara River and Sacketts Harbor. Except for the Salmon River, the other sites will receive 138,210 salmon at each location. That will all be duplicated in 2025.

There are a total of 300,000 Chinook salmon stocked in the Salmon River through the Salmon River Fish Hatchery in Altmar. They are held in the hatchery longer, until the fish reach the same size as the salmon being held in the pens. This also helps ensure a good return to the hatchery so the necessary eggs can be taken to continue with the annual stocking process.

This is a shared resource with Canada and the Province of Ontario will also be stocking Chinook salmon into the lake based on the management agreement between the two countries. For 2024, that amounted to a 15% increase in salmon plantings for our international neighbors, roughly 666,000 kings overall. No news yet on what Canada is doing in 2025.

Pen rearing

Nine different pen rearing projects were in place for 2024, and all should continue in 2025.

That includes nearly 823,000 Chinook salmon (in pens) and over 70,000 steelhead in the pens, with many coordinated through fishing clubs and charter captains. For Chinook salmon, every fish stocked (except for the Salmon River) will be reared in these pens for three to four weeks to increase their survival rates and to help the imprinting process along.

While projected salmon stocking numbers are a positive sign for the future, they are still only a piece to the management puzzle. Lake managers must keep an eye on the big picture, such as with natural reproduction, forage base assessments, and the size of the salmon in the various year classes.

Predator and prey

Chris Legard, Lake Ontario Unit leader for DEC, pointed out at the meeting that the prey fish survey results continue to show a high biomass for alewife and the forecast is for relatively stable conditions for the next two years.

While the size of the age-3 Chinook salmon has been below average for eight consecutive years, the average size of these fish was 19.2 pounds, up slightly from 2023. We are still good with our current stocking numbers.

The size of three-year-old Chinook salmon is reflective of predator-prey balance and growing conditions during the previous three to four years. The predicted alewife biomass indicates that the coming years should have more prey available to Chinook salmon than there was in the previous four years.

DEC does not have an estimate on natural reproduction but, on average, the proportion of wild fish in the system can range anywhere between 30% and 70% DEC will have a better handle on this proportion moving forward now that the parental-based tagging program has been implemented. No results were available on this new program yet.

More stocking news

There is a new strain of brown trout being developed and the Rome Fish Hatchery will be transformed in 2025.

Broodstock will be totally converted to the new strain in 2025 and stocking in 2026 will consist entirely of the Romiskany strain brown trout. Meanwhile, traditional stocking targets for brown trout for 2025 should be met using the current strain of fish, 480,000 fish for 2025.

Last year saw below average catch rates for steelhead and lake trout. In part, that could be due to the excellent salmon fishing that took place in 2024. Another contributing factor (affecting lake trout) could have been because of the record high numbers of lamprey documented in 2022. Lamprey numbers had a slight uptick in 2024, but it is still below the record levels of two years ago.

Steelhead numbers are on track to reach the DEC stocking target level of 640,220 fish (with 70,000 of those stockings held in pens). Lake trout numbers are set for 360,000 fish from the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery for 2025, a slight bump up as a carryover from 2024. When increased stocking numbers were announced for 2024, hatchery managers had to grow 40,000 more fish (yearlings) for stocking in 2025.

Coho salmon action was up 33% from the 10-year average. Stockings for all Coho are now yearlings in the spring, which will improve survival rates. The target of 135,000 fish should be met once again in 2025.

Atlantic salmon stockings are on track to reach a target level of 200,000 fish for Lake Ontario, one-third from the Adirondack Fish Hatchery and two-thirds from the Eisenhower National Fish Hatchery in Vermont.

The meeting was informal with plenty of questions from the group. The recreational anglers and charter captains were also able to provide some anecdotal information on different aspects of the fishery program in Lake Ontario. This will probably be the only DEC presentation in the western end of the lake.