Caption: Lake Champlain Atlantic salmon. Credit: Dave Nettles/USFWS

Beginning in 2003, three strains of freshwater (landlocked) Atlantic salmon were stocked as yearlings and evaluated for relative performance.  Early Lake Champlain salmon propagation and stocking developed around available salmon egg sources and the primary source available was from West Grand Lake, Maine. New York’s Adirondack strain was mostly of West Grand Lake heritage and Vermont used the West Grand Lake salmon as a naturalized Lake Memphremagog (Vermont) strain.  The Service used both of these strains to provide the bulk of Lake Champlain’s yearling salmon for stocking in Lake Champlain.

An interesting trait of the West Grand Lake salmon is that they are outlet spawners in their natural water, West Grand Lake being devoid of suitable salmon spawning inlets.  Might some Lake Champlain salmon be predisposed to head toward the Richeleau River (Province of Quebec, Canada) outlet to spawn, thus, leaving the Lake Champlain system through Quebec to the St. Lawrence River?  In fact, Quebec authorities have identified Lake Champlain salmon in some of their samples.  Might an inlet spawning race of salmon be better suited to the Lake Champlain environment?

Enter the Sebago Lake, Maine, freshwater Atlantic salmon strain.  Eggs had recently become available and were propagated and stocked in Lake Champlain by Vermont with good success.  To test this perception of better performance, we reared and stocked all three strains as marked yearlings in equal numbers and at identical locations in the Boquet River, N. Y.  After the third year of stocking, returns to the spring and fall electrofishing samples have favored the Sebago strain by 2.3 to 1 compared to Memphremagog salmon and 2.7 to 1 compared to Adirondack salmon.  To date, salmon returns to the sample are 67 to 29 to 25 respectively.

The strain evaluation continues but preliminary information indicates that Sebago salmon, a race of inlet spawners, may be better suited to the Lake Champlain environment.  For more information, contact David Nettles, 518-897-1348.