Salmonid populations are currently weak, as indicated by a low catch rate and an absence of larger, older fish in the sample. A total of 93 salmon, one rainbow trout and no brown trout were captured during the sampling efforts. Of those 93 salmon, only four had spent more than a year in the lake, as determined by fish size at capture. Normally, only large fish are targeted by sea lamprey, but those fish are conspicuously absent in the sample. Instead we found a total of 24 adult fresh or healing sea lamprey wounds (larger than a quarter) and 15 transformer fresh or healing wounds (smaller than a quarter) for a total wounding rate of 42 sea lamprey wounds per 100 (mostly small) salmonids. Apparently, sea lamprey are increasingly targeting smaller salmonids presumably due to the sea lamprey-induced mortality of larger salmonids, the preferred prey of sea lamprey.

Salmon strain evaluations indicate a relatively strong contribution from the Sebagos, with 19 of 23 salmon from that strain. Three marked salmon were Adirondacks and only one was of West Grand origin. Fall 2003 assessments showed the same trend. Sebagos are inlet spawners (conducive to the Lake Champlain environment), West Grands are outlet spawners and Adirondacks are a mix of the two strains plus some with sea-run genes.

Intuitively, geneticly-programmed inlet spawners would be the best fit for Lake Champlain, because these salmon would not be genetically predisposed to orient in a direction opposite to the currents. In this situation, they would migrate upstream as young and downstream (and out of the lake system to the St. Lawrence River) as adults. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues with subsequent stockings of the three strains. Evaluations will continue to document the relative contributions to the lake and spawning populations.