GAMBLER

It should be an emergency regulation and a top priority if things are as bad as they say it is. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

They had no problems hitting the goal of 900,000 fish a couple years back. No one is being a conspiracy theorist here Lucky. They did it years back with the Lakers. What is stopping hem from doing it again? You can’t sit here and say they will not. I question things like this because there are holes in the data with the trawling issues this spring. When the boat is broken down and they do not get out and trawl early, the data is skewed. If they are so concerned about the bait numbers, why are they not increasing the king creek limit for 2019? There is a huge class of two year olds that will be doing more damage yet we are going to sit back and leave them out there to deplete the bait population more? On Lake Michigan, creel limit numbers jumped and stocking was cut at the same time to insure the pressure was off the bait. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Only 2 rods left

The Lake Trout restoration Plan calls for a certain amount of adult lake trout in the system to sustain/increase natural reproduction. The adult lake trout population has been declining since 2014 (Lake Unit report for 2015,2016, 2017.) With stocking issues, the adult population is only going to drop more. If the levels drop below the target, don't be surprised if the lake trout stockings increase over kings. We saw this happen years back ( I can't remember which year 2011 maybe). We were asking for more kings at the state of the lake meeting and were told there was not enough bait to support anymore stocking. Later in the evening they told us they were increasing the lake trout stocking to increase the adult population to help natural reproduction.

The DEC stocks to keep the alewife at bay, support a sport fishery and most important keep the target levels for native species. If the alewife numbers rise, so will the laker and atlantic numbers. The writing is on the wall again with the cuts. Kings are the only species getting cut.

I think they are ugly as sin.

pics?

Right from the state of the lake meeting minutes. See the bold / underlined area below.  Average weights and condition (a measure of “stoutness”) of salmonines at a given age serve as a potential index of relative balance between the number of predators (primarily salmonines) and preyfish; however, water temperatures also influence fish growth and condition. Average weights and condition are calculated for salmonines examined from the open lake fishery (Section 2) and as spawning adults at the Salmon River Hatchery (Section 9).  Chinook salmon growth measured from the open lake fishery was below average in 2014 – 2017. The August 2017 mean length (35 in) of age-3 Chinook salmon was over 1.7 in shorter than the long-term average. However, Chinook salmon condition or relative “stoutness” in 2017 was one of the heaviest values observed for Chinook salmon 28 in. Below average summer temperatures may have negatively impacted growth in length, however, the good condition of Chinook salmon ≥ 28inches indicated that alewife (the primary forage of Chinook salmon) abundance was sufficient to maintain Chinook condition (Section 2). 

The great fishing in 2018 was due to the huge year class of wild kings from the salmon river. Management can't take credit for that. The skewed data can show way less 2016 YOY class due to the movement of bait in the spring. The later they trawl, the more chances the bait moved off the bottom where they trawl.

The catch rates are due to a huge class of two year olds in the lake. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Genetics and the fact that the year classes that were born in the low YOY bait years started life off with little food to eat. If you look at the state of the lake meeting from the past two years, last years two and three year old kings that were at the hatchery were below average in weight. I believe 1.5lbs and 3 lbs. therefore, they should be smaller as adults. Lake Ontario is still putting out 30lb fish. When Michigan cut they were barely seeing any 20lbs fish. 30’s were unheard of. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

The huge year class of two year olds is due to the huge natural reproduction class found on the Salmon River in 2016. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

The trawls from this spring are skewed due to weather and the fact that the trawling vessel was out for motor repairs during the key time to find alewife still in the bottom. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Natural production is too unpredictable and unstable. If the lake fishery diminishes, businesses will close and people will not come. People do not come to Lake Ontario for Atlantic’s and Lake Trout. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

And if they are wrong, the population will explode and they will up Atlantic and Lake trout stocking not kings. I said it before the last cut that we will never see king stocking numbers go back up if the bait rebounds and I will say it again. Atlantics and Lake Trout are federal fish and do not cost the state the money Kings, Coho, brown and rainbows do.

Which in turn will destroy the fishery...... They cant get the lake trout stocking on target most years with out some kind of hatchery mishap. Very few people will come here for lake trout. I will not continue to troll trout and salmon if the Kings are gone. I do enjoy fishing lakers and browns but it will not be worth the cost to fish without kings.

If they are worried about the bait population taking a hit from the huge number of three year olds we will have next year, why not bump the king creel limit up? If these cuts go through, It might be time to start selling my stuff and buying that cottage in the 1000 islands.......

With the cuts they put in place a couple years ago, the DEC pen project blunders in 2017, cormorants, and the die offs in the pen project pens this spring, we should be fine. I saw big alewife in kings all summer not many medium or small ones. The browns we kept were full of gobies, smelt and medium to large alewife. I did not catch many steelhead this year but the ones I did filet had medium to large alewife in them.

TTT

Ttt Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

That sucks! Hopefully the Musky makes it.

TTT

TTT