Growing Salmon Overrun New York Waters Ahead of Fishing Season

Fishing enthusiasts in New York will be happy to learn that this year, there are more salmon in New York and the salmon have been getting bigger over the years.

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According to a report by Steve Featherstone on NYup.com, The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are letting fishing lovers know that there are 10% more salmon this year and they're getting fairly bigger.

This year, there's expected to be 985,180 Chinook salmon in Lake Ontario, a 10% increase and in 2022, the average three-year-old salmon's weight jumped from 18.4 pounds to 20.7 pounds.

That means that fishing enthusiasts will have plenty of fish to catch this fishing season, and their catches are sure to make their catches from previous years look like throwaway fish.

According to the report, the reason for the additional, larger salmon is a good balance between predator and prey. Salmon feed on a type of herring called Alewife, and those herring are getting larger as well. With perfect balance between predator and prey, both fish can grow larger and more abundant in a healthy ecological environment.

Chris Legard, Lake Ontario unit leader for the Department of Environmental Conservation Bureau of Fisheries, said "It's looking good. We're looking forward to the 2023 fishing season and expect that salmon trout fishing in Lake Ontario will be excellent again this year."

One hatchery, the Salmon River hatchery in Altmar, New York, will have a salmon stock of 300,000. Other hatcheries will have salmon stock closer to 100,000 for the upcoming fishing season.