LongLine

Thanx for update.

Technically the Capt & crew are fishing as the purpose of a charter is to assist a client to catch fish. DEC regs define fishing as: "Fishing means the taking, killing, netting, capturing, or withdrawal of fish by any means. This includes every attempt to take fish, plus assisting another person in taking or attempting to take fish." Interesting debate. Legality and Sportsman morality can be different things. IMO, capt is responsible for what happens on his boat and as long as it's legal, sets the rules.

I agree that any properly resuscitated & released salmon (that hasn't been foul hooked or mangled up) has a very high chance of survival. Keyword being resuscitated. If released like Bass fishermen do on TV, they won't survive, regardless of whether they're in the slot or not. Having a slot doesn't prevent them being landed. In a small boat it's fairly easy to resuscitate a salmon. It's also easy to release them before they're brought in the boat. It's precarious to do either in most lake boats that I've seen as the freeboard is too high or there's too much gear along the sides to reach the water line. I suppose one could resuscitate with a net but I don't know how one would keep the fish upright and headfirst.

What is the advantage to a slot limit on Salmon?

Ice cover prevents evaporation; hence the lake level will stay higher longer. (which for both Erie & Ontario is very low right now) I don't know how it affects the growing season but I'm sure some were complaining about their lake effect snow fall this year, especially on the east end. As to why the CDN plant not as affected, I can only guess it has to do with the historical clockwise flow of water in Erie (unlike Ontario) that generally drives it towards the US. If the ice chunks are strong enough to "scour" the spawning areas, then they're strong enough to damage docks. If one is fishing/cruising and hits a submerged/floating beam and damages their prop or worse...I guess they just shouldn't have been fishing/cruising there. (Don't we have enough "crap" to avoid out there?)

And how much damage has been avoided since 1964 (when boom first utilized) ? How many more docks, boathouses, launch sites have been built since '64? Modis imagery shows ice formation size has been reduced by approx 70% from 3/25/25 to 3/27/25, so how much of growing season has been lost. especially with the up & down "springs" we get? If there's ice coming down the river, is it from erie or from welland and east of the falls? Power companies don't pay anything. They pass all costs along to their customers. I wonder how much they'd add as a surcharge to his utility bill for repairing/replacing the main intakes to the power station every year.

If the ice "chunks" are big enough to scour the spawning beds then they'll cause a lot of damage to river front property such as docks, boat houses etc. There's plenty of other things in the rivers to avoid running into. Who'll be the 1st fisherman to damage his rig hitting ice?

NY has a population of 19.6 million and NYSDEC employs just shy of 3,000. This equates to 1.5 DEC employees per 10,000 residents. Pennsylvania has population of 12.8 million and DEP employs 2,500 which equates to 2.0 DEP employees per 10,000 residents. Ohio has population of 11.7 million and ODNR employs 3,300 which equates to 2.8 employees per 10,000 residents. NYSDEC would need 3,920 employees to reach PA's ratio of 2 per 10,000 residents. They'd need 5,488 to reach ODNR ratio of 2.8. ODNR operates 6 hatcheries and stocks approx. 320 locations. Pa Fish & Boat Commission (DEP) operates 12 hatcheries and stocks 823 locations. NYSDEC operates 12 hatcheries plus the Lake Ontario Unit. They stock over 1,200 locations. Looks to me that NYSDEC does a lot more with less than these other states and is greatly understaffed. Although some would, I would not rely on an apprentice plumber to fix an electrical problem in my house.

Haven't kept a fish in over 30 yrs. I don't believe high mortality rate with salmon. Just keep them head-first into the current for a minute then push them headfirst towards the bottom. Stlhd & LTs more "delicate."

Thanx Pete. Glad the offer was made to those guys to be rehired. We're keeping fingers crossed that all works out well.

Thanx Pete. I appreciate the info.

Bird flu? Haven't seen that many around the Genny either.

"Someone" brought up grinding them up and mixing them with feed at hatchery. My responses were geared towards that and not to what they eat out in the lake.

I don't know if fish will exhibit the symptoms and/or die from it. Birds found with it were waterfowl and their infection in Great lakes area was attributed to the Round Goby. As shown in previous posts, gamefish are also eating the gobies. Do gamefish filter the toxin out via their bodily functions thus fishermen can safely eat them? Gamefish don't seem to be able to filter out other pollutants, hence health and preparation advisories. I don't know that there's a feed shortage for the hatchery. I'd rather see some kind of "growth hormone" added to the feed. Do Bass get big because Gobies are nutritional or because they eat so many of them while defending their nests?

Thanx for the update.

That's why it's monitored more. They did that once and a bunch of fish got wiped out.

Fish to be stocked are fed a special diet that is heavily monitored. Fish are treated for diseases. I remember a few years ago, an article connecting gobies to botulism. Another stating that gobies often have a high heavy metal content due to eating mussels. Heavy metals will disrupt a fish's immune system.