Salmon need water temperatures between 40 and 55F to lay their eggs, which is why most salmon will wait until fall or early winter before they commence with Oxygen Levels. A few extra things to pay attention too: type of spawning habitat, and type of salmon.
One of the next things we asked ourselves was; how long does it take for salmon to spawn?
Young Atlantic salmon spend two to three years in their home river before going on a one to three year journey in the North Atlantic where they grow into an adult. They travel over 6,000 miles before coming back home to spawn. They sometimes swim 200 miles up the river to find their preferred places to spawn.
In Minnesota, most of the chinook salmon that return to the North Shore to spawn are 3-5 years old. Typically they move near shore in mid-September and wait for October rains before they run up the streams. Actual spawning usually occurs in October and sometimes into early November.
One more inquiry we ran across in our research was “How do salmon know where to return to spawn?”.
Salmon come back to the stream where they were ‘born’ because they ‘ know’ it is a good place to spawn; they won’t waste time looking for a stream with good habitat and other salmon. Scientists believe that salmon navigate by using the earth’s magnetic field like a compass. When they find the river they came from, they start using smell to find their way back to their home.
Can salmon be eaten after spawning?
Spawning for a salmon is when they lay eggs to hatch, otherwise known as roe, or salmon roe. Most wild salmon is caught and killed post-spawn and therefore eaten after spawning. However, a dead salmon is a dead salmon is a dead salmon.
When can salmon be seen migrating to their spawning area?
Most Pacific salmon can be seen migrating from spring though fall, depending on the species. Most adult Atlantic salmon migrate up the rivers of New England beginning in spring and continuing through the fall as well, with the migration peaking in June.