LongLine

Rick I don't think that'll happen. At this stage, I think is a very interesting abnormality. Look what happen to the alewife population 2 yrs ago. In 2008, from years at all time lows, the 2 yr olds jumped 600% but the yoy numbers went back down. What they've documented is: -that the SR is the best place on the lake for Nat Repro (bottom conditions, temperature, flow, etc); -N.P. is not consistent year to year on the SR. (2008 report told of a year with a very poor showing on the SR.) -Previous years on the SR were a real surprise, however survival numbers (which were best guesses by biologists) were small compared to numbers that were stocked to keep the preyfish in balance. i.e few thousand compared to the normal 1 1/2 million. That’s the reason for the trailer: to get a handle on what’s going on out there. The study will take years. The DEC requires data. Even VHS regs took 6 months & that was a “class A†disaster. (Natural repro is not a disaster; The Genny is not the SR & is still on the impaired water listing.) Also, support of Sportfishing is solidly stated in the Great Lakes Objectives of every organization involved (Fed/State/provincial gov’ts, glfc, conservation groups, etc). To cut stocking would require a lot of groups to be involved. Yes, the stocking was cut back years ago but that was due to the drastic reduction in preyfish abundance. (To prevent any crash like Huron had.) As for some Naturals showing up this year I’m also quite happy because unfortunately last year’s stocking of kings was dramatically low due to the eye-up problem. Only 798K Kings were stocked. Any naturals, wherever they’re from, will augment the number of available trophy Kings a couple years from now. Tom B. (LongLine)

WTG jdigi. Nice fish. How bout some details? where, how? Tom B. (LongLine)

WTG B-F. There's more to come. Tom B. (LongLine)

TTF - A DEC net? I hadn't heard that. If it is, then they're probably doing a fish survey. They did one a couple years ago out Webster-P'Ville way with the smallmouth. DEC research reports are not all that easy to get. Analysis time, bureaucracy, staffing, peer review, etc, etc. Their webmaster is very late in posting stuff. I sometimes check their online monthly reports, but even these are a few months behind. If you go to their site & do some searches, you’ll find some interesting stuff, but like I said, it’s rarely current. The 2008 Lake Ontario annual report still isn’t online. I have it electronically & can send it to you if you want but I warn you it’s huge & loaded with numbers & statistics. A fish ladder at Maplewood would be quite a project. We’ll never see it. Unfortunately the gov’ts of Rochester & Monroe County and local media don’t support the fishery. I think that is really sad. (Monroe County Fisheries Advisory Board doesn’t even have a website.) ESLO started here at the Genny & the Kings have been coming here to spawn well before the Pen Rearing projects. There are some groups that have websites that touch the Genny subject such as: http://rochesterenvironment.com/genesee_river.htm and the Seneca Park Zoo, however, they just briefly get into it & don’t get into research. Also you can search on the USGS or USF&WS or GLFC sites under Genesee River but again, not all that current. Sorry to hear about the engine noise. Good Luck with it. Tom B. (LongLine)

Stix, Yeah, they $uck. I got some on my probe to ball cable the other day. That freighter should have been sunk before it crossed the Atlantic. Tom B. (LongLine)

Happy 4th to you too, Ray. Did you paint the shift key with Glo like I did? INDEPENDENCE DAY Tom B. (LongLine)

TTF – Yep that was me. 18 ft BlueFin, Red hat & knocking knees. Mark - On the Adipose fins: The NYSDEC used some of the Occidental Settlement money to purchase a specially equipped trailer a little while back. (1 ½ -2 yrs) This trailer has all kinds of electronic equipment in it & is used to automatically clip Adipose fins on the Kings that are to be stocked. They’re trying to study the degree to which natural reproduction is taking place on Lake Ontario. Some Natural Repro has been documented on the Salmon River on the East end and on the Credit River in Canada for a few years now. They also use the trailer to tag some of the fish. They have taken the trailer to all Canadian and to all the US hatcheries. Every salmon that has been stocked in the last 1 ½ yrs in Big-O has gone through this trailer. These fish would now be shakers, roughly in the 10-16†size range. The trailer handles them one at a time and sorts out any that are missed. Those that are missed are then hand clipped. DEC says that the auto portion is something like 99.99% effective and hand clipping is minimal. As I see it, there are only 4 possible scenarios as to how there were two unclipped King shakers off the Genny so far this year: 1. The trailer missed a heck of a lot of fish. First, I doubt that very much. From listening to the guys at Ringwood and reading reports, people are very impressed with the efficiency of the trailer. Secondly, mathematically speaking, survival rate of stocked fish is not all that great. These two would have to have been in the minority to survive any stocking. On top of that & making the odds even worse is that one guy caught two of them within a mile of each other off the Genny, a couple weeks apart. (They were not the same fish) I have better odds at winning the lottery. 2. These two could have been Nat Repros from the SR or Credit. I doubt this very much as these little guys would have had to swim over 50 miles to get here. They would have been swimming up current and across some awful cold water to get here. Why would they swim from warmer water, across cold water to warmer water? I could understand the wandering nature of mature fish but these certainly aren’t mature fish and it’s not that time yet. 3. They could have been Michigan fish. I doubt this even more. Again, survival rate, much longer swim, across Lake Erie, the falls/canal, and there were two weeks between them and again, I caught two of them. (Man, the lottery odds look really good compared to those odds) 4. Which I do find possible, is that Natural Repro is taking place around or in the Genny. Even though the Genny has not been considered good spawning grounds, the sturgeon that were planted are doing well. Also the Walleye & Bass populations are now pretty good. In addition, more Atlantics are being caught along the Southern shore than in many years. No doubt, the waters have been changing. That’s why I’m excited, as Fish08 said. I think Natural Reproduction of Kings may be occurring in our Central area. Don’t get me wrong, I love catching slob Kings, but just think five years from now, we may well have to upsize our gear to land slob Natural-Kings. Tom B. (LongLine)

Thanx. Thought I'd go real early to miss the building wind. Partner had to work. Doesn't look good for tomorrow. Actually, I'm more excited with the little guy having an Adipose fin. Caught one a couple weeks ago with one too. Tom B. (LongLine)

LongLine : Fishing Report Got up at 2:30, Launched at the River. Had 1st rod in the water by four. Man, is it dark & spooky out there, especially flying solo. Headed slightly west to 40 FOW. Surface Low-mid 60’s. Guess there was a 1 1/2ft chop from the west with an occasional 3 ft’r. Put a spoon that I taped up this week approx 70 Ft behind the ball (similar to a Cartwright …..but different) and zig-zagged my way out. Lot of bait starting at about 60FOW but all near the bottom. Definitely start of Flea season. The sun finally came up. (use your imagination – it’s there someplace) This little King hit at 80 down over 95FOW. Nothing to brag about EXCEPT look at his fins. 14†& he has a full Adipose fin. Anyways, figured that the bigger ones were a little deeper & maybe up a little in the water column, due to the cloudiness, I played the hunch & raised it up to 45 & continued zig-zagging in the 95-125FOW area. Screen was clean except for the fleas past 110. Then in 105 FOW it fired. Haven’t had a hit like that since late last summer. This guy took line like nobody’s business. I had to turn around and chase him down as he took most of my 10 Lb line. (I could see the black of the spool so he had at least 220 Yds) Unfortunately at that moment, my auto pilot (bungee) broke & the engine stalled. Luckily he decided to turn & swim toward me so with a lot of cranking; I got my line back, even though it had some globs of fleas on it. Snapping the line in & out of the water cleared the fleas, as he quickly passed the boat & headed back in the other direction. So I turned again to follow him & the engine stalls again. Oh well, guess I have to do something with that idle. Anyways after a good 25 minute battle, I finally get him out from under the boat and in the net: And a 2nd pic for ReelJerks: 23 Lbs on my scales. (A derby fish yet not a derby fish, as you can’t fly solo in the LOC) Maybe again tomorrow, depends on the weather. (Nap time now) Luck to all, Tom B. (LongLine)

Nice pix. Definitely dark & it's only the 1st of July. Next time I see a pickup carrying a wheelbarrow & fishing rod, I know where's they're heading. Tom B. (LongLine)

You might just need a new bulb. The one I have has a check valve in it. Agree with Stix. "Try the easy stuff first." The only way it can siphon back into the tank is if some air gets into the line on the engine side of the bulb. Are all your connections tight? An easy way to check for looseness or leaks on the engine side is to look at connections/hoses as you pump the bulb. Tom B. (LongLine)

Beckman makes a good net. When chosing, consider how you fish and how you land the fish. I.E. solo vs party fishing; off the side vs netting off the rear of the boat. Mine's a type of soft synthetic braided material. (not rubber, not nylon) Never had problems except occasionally with treble hooks. Tom B. (LongLine)

Indy - Nice fish. I've always thought that "Kaliforny" had some decent fish hidden away out there someplace. Ice - Please post some of your pix. I haven't seen any, other than the tires your were trying to sell a couple years ago. Tom B. (LongLine)

md - I have a 500. I really like it. Surf temp - yes, surf speed - yes, Battery charging - yes, Trip log - yes, multiple color schemes - yes, single/dual freq - yes, thermocline - yes, see the cannon balls - yes. Pix of baitfish on my report post a page or 2 back. Tom B. (LongLine)

Additional funds for the "Conservation" fund is a good thing. The major problem I have with it is where is the accounting for the money????? Take a look at this article. Even the gov't doesn't know where it's being spent. http://www.nyoutdoornews.com/articles/2 ... news02.txt I add fishing up to only a couple million. Fishing is only one and a very very small part that is funded with the Conservation fund: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administrati ... ettest.pdf http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administrati ... budget.pdf The conservation fund paid for that million gallon manure spill on the East end a couple years ago. The farmer got fined peanuts. Guess who's paying for "Brownfields" & remediating all the polluters? C.O.s caught 1,000 people without licenses last year. What was the fine? $50 each? Why isn't there a minimum of 10 times the license fee with a surcharge that doubles it? (something like moving violations on automobiles) As far as I see it, the State took the easy way out & stuck it to the law abiding people again. If the state would get their heads out of their butts with the bottle bill, we could all fish for free and have more than enough to double, even triple the funds spent on fishing, hunting & trapping. (The money left over from people that didn't return their bottles DID NOT go to the Conservation fund as it was supposed to. The state let the bottle distributors keep it & that's what the political fighting is about again!) Tom B. (LongLine)

I feel sorry for the poor officer that stops Ray when he's doing his "Buffy" thing. Cop will probably wish he was back on land. Tom B. (LongLine)

Ray - Those researchers did not get a 2 Million dollar grant. Although they did get the Ig NOBEL prize in 2004 for discovery of the Herring "FRT" ("Fast-Repetitive-Ticking" aka Fart) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... farts.html http://www.alr-journal.org/articles/alr ... lr3045.pdf That's why Gamakatsu puts the plastic tubing in their packages of trailer hooks. ...also why Magnus Whalberg is now working at "Whally-world" The real question is now whether the salmon ascend or descend when they hear/smell the FRT. Tom B. (LongLine)

Ray – Studies from the Northwest utilizing passive integrated transponders, (P-I-T’s) on 3 yr olds have shown that starting from a point of neutral buoyancy, Salmon can attain monotonic speeds of 32.27 Ft/sec when ascending for considerable distance. They are much slower on the descent. This of course is temperature gradient dependent and related to their ratio of Red to White muscle in the 4th body quadrant. Mickey –remember that it’s very easy to fish below the fish on Big-O. Tom B. (LongLine)

Raider - Putting the release on the ball will increase drag on the ball hence more blowback. Also when lowering the unit, when the probe is out of water, you may encounter a revolving probe tangling your line. I've found release above the probe works best for me. Tom B. (LongLine)

LongLine : Fishing Report TRIP OVERVIEW Date 19-Jun-09 Time Weather Wind Speed/direction Location Total Hits: 3 Total Boated: 3 Species Breakdown: 2 Kings, 1 Bow Down Speed: Boat Depth: 25-80 Lure Depth: Summary: I have never seen as many baitfish in the 25-40FOW range W of the Genny as I did this morning. Alewives are definitely in & there are a lot of them. Also quite a few in the 60-80FOW range. Schools were huge. Fish were small but the smallest (approx 10") was the most interesting: This is a wild one (black mouth). Note the adipose fin. DEC taking angler survey in River. Not many big ones caught today. Luck to all Tom B. (LongLine) (Launched at the River. Fished 5:00-11:00. Very cloudy with heavy patches of fog. Trolled 20-40 to Russell then out to 90 & back in to 60. Worked 50-80 back to River. Wonderbread, Purple ice, Lemon Ice, all off lower rigger. Speed 2.5-3.0. Surf temp colder toward Russell. Cold water closest to shore. Kings were shakers, Stlhd about 5 Lb. 4 trailers at launch, Maybe 8 boats out fishing.)

You can’t overtake a boat then turn directly in front of him. Sorry…that’s the law. However to avoid a collision, nav laws can be put aside. Avoidance is the only way to go. However if the boat doing the overtaking is indeed that close, then a friendly shout, (to the boat being overtaken, as he is being overtaken) explaining that another boat/meathead is forcing him to take that course, probably would have made this a very peaceful situation. Waypoints only mark where you saw some action. They are not lane markers. The waypoint will still be there no matter which direction you approach it from. How many guys are on a boat is irrelevant. (If you think he’s overloaded then that’s even more reason to keep your eye on him and stay away.) IMO, if you're that close to see his tackle boxes, you're way to close. As far as a small boat being more maneuverable than a big one, what a bunch of cr@p! (Guess you’ve never seen those big ones back into their slips.) Small boats sit higher in the water and the slightest wind/waves will move them around. Maneuverability all depends upon the skills of the skipper. There are always two sides to every story so like I said, a few photos would’ve told the whole story. (by both parties) Luckily there wasn’t a collision or lost gear. Tom B. (LongLine)

When a boat is being overtaken (passed) by another boat, the boat being overtaken has the right of way and must continue on a straight course. ... So much for navigation law.... Next time take a series of photos, post them & consider emailing them to the CG in Cleveland. (CGHq) Tom B. (LongLine)

That oil has to come from somewhere. I'd check lower unit oil first, for signs of water and definitely check the prop shaft seal. Is the engine running real rich? Gas treatments in the gas? Correct oil in the engine/gas? 1st time you've run it this year? If the engine sits for a long time with the gas treatments in the cylinders, exhaust will be full of cr@p. Tom B. (LongLine)

Brian - Nice fish. Good to see some of the older ones showing up. (I'm guessing at least 8 yrs old) G2Bite - They're poor fighters when compared to Kings. Matt's right about bringing them up from the depths. They seem to take a little while longer to resusitate than other fish. However 98% of us would love to be able to consistantly catch those "poor fighters" like Brian does. Matt - Feds raise the fish. Last couple yrs they've come from Vermont Fed hatcheres. However NYSDEC does actually do the stocking. It's cordinated via GLFC & considered a joint venture with USFWS. Here's how this years stocking went: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/arti ... /305269976 Actual 2008 Lake Ontario stocking numbers: Kings: 798,780 Rainbow: 643,720 Lake Trout: 500,910 Brown Trout: 420,170 Coho: 228,000 Atlantic: 49,470 The target number for Lakers has been 500k for a number of years. Tom B. (LongLine)

SF_Ibay: There was quite a temp difference between E & W of the Genny. There were frequent bait clouds in 50-80 FOW on West side. (alewife spawning) Tom B. (LongLine)