First off THANKS!!!! It was a pretty good turn out, I’m surprised how many people showed up. I was impressed by the amount of information presented, Ben and the guys have been doing their homework! I was the guy by the door asking too many questions, I wish I would have been able to stick around BS and meet a few more of you guys in person. I was really impressed with the overall tone of the room. Everyone was really cool.
The 2 questions I came away with that for me were unanswered were....
1. I’d like a clearer picture of what we did with our kings over the past 4 years. I’d just like to see how the numbers comapare with my personal fishing experiences the past few years.
2. I’d like to see what kind of changes are happening from the other states. If IL, WI, and MI are significantly bumping up their coho numbers are we really going to see a better fishery for dumping a fe more of our own?
I thought Ben did an excellent job breaking down the return rate vs stocked number of fish and emphasizing where the most bang for our “buck” is.
I don't think coho numbers are going to change appreciably lakewide. Off the top of my head there's about (edit) 2.3 to 2.5 million or so stocked annually and I don't think that there's more than a couple hundred thousand change either direction, at least that have been publicly broadcast. Probably not distinguishable in our spring fishery, the variation in environmental conditions that dictate our success in the spring are big enough that you probably couldn't discern any effects of a lakewide coho stocking change unless it was pretty sizeable, like 20% plus or minus
Chinooks in Indiana over past 5 years:
2015, there were 67K stocked at Buffington Harbor, 67K stocked on Little Cal, and 45K on Trail (pump failure on stocking truck led to significant mortality in one tank en route to stream)
2016, there were 67K stocked at EC Marina, 69K Little Cal, 68K Trail Creek
2017, there were 63K Trail Creek
2018 there were 67K Little Cal
2019 there were 75K Trail Creek
Most of the return is as 2 and 3 year olds. The exact proportion of mature at 2 years old vs 3 bounces around a fair amount year to year