Fancy that, finally some good news about New England Atlantic salmon. A record 402 salmon were captured at the Essex Dam on the Merrimack River in of Lawrence this past spring. Yes, that’s right: 402. What the officials behind Connecticut River salmon restoration would give for a number like that these days. The previous record […]

July is here and with it all the manmade anadromous-fish passageways on Connecticut Valley dams will soon be closed, signaling the end of another disappointing spring spawning run. How else to assess the 2010 migratory-fish numbers, which, through Monday, showed 167,486 American shad, 49 Atlantic salmon and a not-even-worth-reporting 92 blueback herring? Imagine that, 92 […]

Chalk it up as another disappointing year on the Connecticut River anadromous-fish front. With the Holyoke fish-lift closed for the 2009 season, a total of 76 Atlantic salmon and 162,067 American shad were counted in the river. Add to that the fact that blueback herring have virtually disappeared and it’s starting to look very bleak. […]

A column about declining Eastern brook trout populations throughout the Northeast prompted a response from West County sportsman Bill Meyers, who identified a problem not mentioned in “Eastern Brook Trout: Status and Threats,” published by Trout Unlimited for the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture. Meyers’ point is sure to ruffle feathers, which should come as […]

A development in July 2006 gave hope for downstream spawning in the Connecticut River basin. The last three salmon captured that summer were seined in Connecticut’s Salmon River, suggesting that the fish had taken residence there long ago, perhaps due to recurring heavy river-flow that prevented upstream migration well into June. Salmon start entering the […]

Colrain sportsman Billy Meyers chimed in about a perceived relationship between immature Atlantic salmon stocking and declining Eastern brook trout populations in their native western Franklin County hilltown streams. He was responding to a one-source tirade against salmon stocking by Leyden octogenarian Edward M. Wells, who spent time on his grandparents’ Buckland farm as a […]

I was returning home from running the dogs when, as I climbed the gentle slope to my home, I spotted activity along the eastern perimeter of my yard, several vehicles, people milling about. Then, as I got closer, it was clear to me who they were. It was a salmon-stocking crew from the Connecticut River […]

I was e-mail queried the other day by an unknown reader who, it turned out, was a blogger interested in my opinion about continuing the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program, which began in 1967 with the now impossible goal of establishing a viable sport fishery. The question read: “Gary, is it fair to say […]