The station fell short of their goal to take 800,000 to 1 million salmon eggs, taking only 559,000. So we should be able to produce the amount of salmon we need for next year's stocking. These will be released when they are 7 inches long. Of the remaining fish, approximately 200,000 will be released earlier in the year when they reach 5 inches. About 33,000 are scheduled to be released at smaller sizes due to hatchery space limitations.
Larger fish have better survival rates.
The smaller fall run was expected. We had a poor year-class of smelt that would have been optimum size for forage this year. In addition, high releases caused a large number of salmon to be pulled through the dam, reducing the number available to fishermen and the spawning station. Chinooks may also have had a hard time homing back to the station because a number of creeks in lower Oahe that are usually dry in the fall had flowing water this year and attracted salmon. Although prospects for 1998 probably aren't any better than for this year, especially if the reservoir level remains high, Marrone said smelt reproduction in the past two years was excellent.