Lake O Steelhead numbers down

We are out there most days on the northshore around GTA and rods are bouncing, but all chinooks and a few hos. Very few steelhead being caught. Other boats I talked to reporting the same. Seems to me steelhead numbers are down. I know river guys have been complaining for years boys on the american side catching lots, wonder why maybe the MNR should reduce the steelhead limit to 1 LOL Keep up the great work!

I'm getting at least 50% steelheads every day.

Usually 4-6 kings in the morning and all bows/steelhead and cohos after that, typically on the cheaters sitting at 30-40 feet.

They are very plentiful out in 200-400 FOW out of Whitby.

Yes I agree Steelhead numbers are down.
I do believes there is a very good reason though.
3/4 years ago Whirling disease killed a huge amount of Steelhead in Lake Ontario. This drastically effected how many fish spawned on the north shore. Since a huge amount of our Steelhead fishery is directly dependant on natural reproduction this collapse was fully expected IMO. The US side can rebound faster as they stock 10 times the amount of fish we do based on agreements between our two countries and most of their rivers not having natural reproduction capabilities.
Good news is events like this are natural and taken into account for MNR harvest rates. From what I recall the MNR biologists work on a 7 year cycle I believe. Collapses and boom years for recruitment are expected to happen and taken into account on harvest limits. These limits may be wrong to some and I wouldn’t argue, but that’s just opinion based on preference.

If you do want Steelhead just go to the Blue Zone where both American and Canadian Steelhead hang out all summer. 👍🏻

There are quite different stocking numbers in different sources. I could never figure it out…

http://fsis.glfc.org/stocking/events/2022/#mapState=lake-ON

vs

https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf...ingstrategy.pdf
Lake Ontario stocking allocations
The stocking strategies provided herein are based on New York’s Lake Ontario stocking allocations for each species as of 2022 (Table 1).
Table 1. New York’s Lake Ontario stocking allocations in 2022.
Chinook salmon 895,600
Steelhead 505,200
Brown trout 480,000
Lake trout 320,000
Coho salmon 135,000
Atlantic salmon 150,000
Total 2,485,800

Yes I know the run out to the blue zone will get you steelhead but those are nearly all American stocked fish. Canadian steelhead very little stocking and not much coming out of our rivers anymore with all the development. Sad.

Have to say I disagree. Our rivers still have a lot of reproduction but could be better. Having a collapse due to whirling disease corresponds with our numbers being down now. I do believe they will rebound and also believe stocking is not the answer. Ontario already stocks on top of natural reproduced Steelhead and yet the survival of stocked fish is super low in comparison to wild fish. Look at the credit. Terrible numbers overall due to fish not reaching suitable spawning water and the river is stocked. Yet last numbers I saw 75-80% of returning fish are wild. There is data showing wild survival rates are much better than stocked fish.

Natural reproduction over stocked fish all day. Put the $$ into the watersheds instead of using a bandaid solution like stocking.

100% Bill.

If we did stock I think we should have a dedicated stocking program for only one river. Most of the Humber substrate sucks for natural reproduction and it’s so highly urbanized it would be perfect for a put and take stocked fishery. It also has a ton of access for the public.

I am not a fan of Stocked fisheries but this scenario would allow for fishing opportunities for all.

Yeah, there's not much you can do about the Humber unfortunately. The MNR could make some reg changes for the rest of the north shore that would vastly improve the numbers of fish that make it up and back come spring.

hmmmmm......I am not totally in agreement with you gentleman

couple of points......the entire fishery was created by stocking and became a world class fishery


the rainbow limit was reduced in 2012 or so and everybody thought that vast amounts of bows would surge up tribs.....didn't really happen

last.lots of reference to 100 per cent reproduction......no such thing exists even in the wild....also by tossing out that lind of number, how many fish are actually spawning


100, 1000, 10,000.....as this really would make a huge difference


forgot to mention the lice steelhead have


just my thoughts

From someone who fishes the rivers religiously, not much last year or this year. But from my records and personal experience, something is going on and it's not looking good. That's all I'm going to say about the steelhead numbers in our river systems.

Millions of dollars were invested into the Credit River, 1.5 million dollar fish lift which is not used to lift Steelhead, millions in tree planting, more dollars in stream and bank reconstruction. All this money was invested however unfortunately due to political pressure from a very small minority very few Steelhead are allowed up to spawn in the head waters. The Credit is now a far cry from being a good Steelhead fishery, the numbers of fish have dwindled down and continue to every season. The money has been invested, infrastructure was built but it's not maintained or even put into use, and the trout have been blocked from spawning sites. For what ever the reasons the future of Lake Ontario Steelhead is in trouble on the Canadian side of the lake and not a priority for the MNR

Millions of dollars were invested into the Credit River, 1.5 million dollar fish lift which is not used to lift Steelhead, millions in tree planting, more dollars in stream and bank reconstruction. All this money was invested however unfortunately due to political pressure from a very small minority very few Steelhead are allowed up to spawn in the head waters. The Credit is now a far cry from being a good Steelhead fishery, the numbers of fish have dwindled down and continue to every season. The money has been invested, infrastructure was built but it's not maintained or even put into use, and the trout have been blocked from spawning sites. For what ever the reasons the future of Lake Ontario Steelhead is in trouble on the Canadian side of the lake and not a priority for the MNR

MNR needs to start using a different river for egg collection and keep those lifts open. I won't even get into the $$$ spent on Atlantic salmon... Both the big resident browns and the salmon/steelhead have taken a beating due to the Atlantic salmon program. Time to put that $$ and effort into resources people actually want.

Millions of dollars were invested into the Credit River, 1.5 million dollar fish lift which is not used to lift Steelhead, millions in tree planting, more dollars in stream and bank reconstruction. All this money was invested however unfortunately due to political pressure from a very small minority very few Steelhead are allowed up to spawn in the head waters. The Credit is now a far cry from being a good Steelhead fishery, the numbers of fish have dwindled down and continue to every season. The money has been invested, infrastructure was built but it's not maintained or even put into use, and the trout have been blocked from spawning sites. For what ever the reasons the future of Lake Ontario Steelhead is in trouble on the Canadian side of the lake and not a priority for the MNR

MNR needs to start using a different river for egg collection and keep those lifts open. I won't even get into the $$$ spent on Atlantic salmon... Both the big resident browns and the salmon/steelhead have taken a beating due to the Atlantic salmon program. Time to put that $$ and effort into resources people actually want.

The biggest thing said on the Credit is miss management.

Last time there was a large increasing Steelhead numbers on the Credit was when CRAA was allowed to transplant 500 steelhead. These 500 Steelhead had the runs approaching 8000 fish. Then the MNR dropped that number of transferee fish drastically. Then the MNR stopped CRAA from taking full control of the Transplants and the MNR did a shitty job of transplants.

The entire credit issue is access to spawning habitat. Way too many political games with the MNR, CVV and the political pull of a bunch of elite folks in the fly club in the forks.

Ask yourselves this. If the Credit had massive returning runs of Chinook, Coho and Steelhead how would the MNR justify their budget requests for hatchery and stocking programs? Failure of the credit equals justification for funding which the MNR is always short on.

I'm all for rehab and getting school kids involved so they have an understanding of how ecosytems work


been against the Atlantic gong show for 15 years now.....waste of money ant total mismanagement of funds and resources. been commenting same for years


back to steelhead....the Niagara river runs have been declining for years now and last year was a real bust......of course people are catching chromers, but not like before........it began shifting around 2014

last in depth conversation I had with a fisheries biologist some years ago still sticks with me.

quote....If I had my way to enhance the fishery, i would cease angling. period !!!!!


i replied, that with linear thinking like that you should find another job