The trust wants Dunedin to be known as ''Salmon City'' and has been busy in recent years developing its hatchery and its rearing ponds at Sawyers Bay.
Trust chairman Brett Bensemann said it released 175,000 smolt earlier this year but planned a much bigger release in the first half of next year.
The release would be staged in January, February, March and June so the fry had room and time to embed the location in their memory before heading out to sea.
''They migrate down, they get the imprint and then they carry on down to the harbour and then we put the next lot in and they do the same.''
Most salmon were picked off by seagulls and bigger fish before they grew to full size but thousands were expected to return in two or three years.
Mr Bensemann said Dunedin was unique in New Zealand because its salmon came up the harbour, whereas most other good fishing spots were on rivers.
''You don't need a licence [to fish] in the harbour,'' he said.
The trust was also part-way through turning one of its reservoirs into a landscaped lake where people could catch a salmon and see how the whole operation worked.
