Silver Salmon

Week 7, I was first for 3 days and got bumped to 3rd with a 29.04 lb. Still not a bad prize package.

Nice.......usually happens


keep trying

Hey Bob...

Very nice! Well done, congrats

https://silversalmonchallenge.com/2022-week...eaderboard-copy

and congrats on that tank salmon.

Nice salmon…the fish is the prize.

29 lber is a massive salmon.. great job!

My best is 23 lbs this year. It's been a tough one!

20+ years ago I caught a 34.5 pounder, and when the Sun put the derby on, that fish was good enough for like 15th lol. Winners 20+ years ago were in the 40s. I wonder if we've just killed off the monster bloodlines or if it's a feeder fish issue.

Honestly I have a theory about the fish being smaller than in the 80’s when there were massive stocking programs.

Most of all our eastern creeks have great salmon reproduction and the runs are around 75-80% wild fish. The spawning water these fish reach are shallow and small where the best substrate is and best water quality is. Like any species over time with low water years and small tribs etc the most successful spawners are the fish best suited to that habitat. The smaller Kings like the 20 lb fish are better suited to reach higher in our tribs than the 40lbers of old days. Just by sheer size these smaller fish reach higher to better spawning habitat and their genes are passed on. Again just my opinion but you can see similar circumstances with Steelhead etc.

"Disco" you and "Ritbo" are both right about the fish size. There are so many factors that have contributed to the size and populations of fish in the great lakes. Just call it quality and quantity instead of how many fish there is and how big they are today. The quality and quantity of fish in the great lakes has been under attack for over 200 years. Pollution...Habitat Destruction and Over Fishing. Not just the great lakes. This is a coast to coast problem and right around the entire planet as well. I will just stick with the great lakes for continuity. There was so much over fishing on the lakes in the past that we ran out of some species of fish. So we added some more different species of fish. We have even tried to bring some species of fish back to their original lakes. We have trusted our government and ourselves to be responsible and proactive. We'll we didn't do such a great job because over all the fishing is not where it should be today. There is some progress here and there, stocking of certain fish, but this issue should have been a priority 200 years ago when they said we could never run out of fish. Just look at a small example of our nations history of wasting the valuable resource of fish. It's simple math really....no fish left equals no fishing. Hopefully it never gets that bad again.

Great points Disco and crapeeeman.

Even in the Whitby derby last weekend, the largest was 25-26. Everyone else had fish in the 18-21 range. It was the three best fish, and there were like 20-30 weighing in. Not everyone had 3, but I think it was around 40-50 fish in the 18-21 range, with a few bigger ones like that 25-26.

The winner of the Calcutta (3 fish weights) was like 66.5 lbs.