jimski2

WSYR report on Great Lakes Ice Cover This year says get ready now!

Trailer boaters with all their numbers are the last persons to review boat ramp plans and design. Most designs are set up by marina operators and politicians.

Global warming increased again last year so Lake Erie ice may be missing again this spring.

The large smoked whitefish Wegmans are caught with larger mesh gill nets in deep lake waters. The plastic net floats are crushed by the pressure there so only cedar or aluminum floats are used on the nets. Originally the nets were constructed from linen table cloths threads from the wives table. No nylon was available then.

The collapse of the commercial fisheries after 1955 was an explosion. of a foreign invader, the rainbow smelt. Stocked in a Michigan lake as forage for lake trout harvest, these little monsters decimated the cold water species such as blue pike, whitefish, ciscoes, walleyes, Lake Trout, etc. Two things happened in the early 1960's, Canadian trawlers targeted smelt for export to Asian Markets and Salmon stocking began. The "dead lake" started to return with the smelt biomass reduced. The smelt feasted on the fry and minnows especially in the colder waters of Lake Erie. Lake Ontario was shut down due to waste chemicals there. But a salmon/ trout stocking programs there turned things around with forty pound salmon caught. As the forage base was reduced the numbers of salmon and trout stocked in all the Great Lakes became controlled but good numbers are available. Alewife are plankton feeders and they thrived to feed the salmon and trout numbers. I can remenber while ice fishing, the smelt were so numerous your minnow could not reach the lake bottom for perch fishing. The blue pike disappeared slowly as small blues were caught less but remaining lager blue pike disappeared completely. Canadian smelt trawlers loaded their deck space solid over two foot deep for years. They still do that today.

Dunkirk,, NY had. Fleet of steam and diesel fish tugs that shipped the whitefish to NY city on the Erie RR that built the city pier years ago. They were iced down with ice harvested from Lake Erie in the winter, the DEC fishery office was originally a whitefish hatchery. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Canadian commercial fishermen harvest one million dollars of whitefish annually and export mostly them to the USA. American hook and line anglers have forgotten they exist out there in the lake, Meegs fish lures on the You Tube have videos from Lake Simcoe on the best method they have developed. Search out their site and other lakes from Montana on better methods on catching cleaning and cooking whitefish.

TCS Outdoors streams videos of last years open water walleye fishing all winter long.

Nothing yet, so be prepared for early spring fishing on Lake Ontario.

We should appreciate the fine conditions we have here in New York and get those out of state travels plans out of your. head. Stay home now,STUPID! Bad things are out there.

Salmon and steelhead counts on Lake Washington waters have crashed tremendously now. Counts at the Ballard Locks and Cedar river are showing huge shortages. With a $31 million hatchery the returns have colapsed.

Instead of a bigger boat, buy a lakefront fish camp. You do not have to go home, just clean up, and get ready for tomorrow without a long drive back.

I turned my forward downriggers to the bow. Then I attached the the side planer board to the wire swivel. With the boat in slow forward we let the boards out. We clip the releases to the cable aqnd when we are done we flip the rewind switch on. Easier to clip releases to the wire also.

If you can not keep your old wife happy, what makes you think a new wife would be better?

Skeichers are comfortable as bedroom slippers, Safer in the boat as many falls happen with flip flops, Crocs and bare foot. When they need cleaning dump them in the wash machine. I wear mine from church to grass cutting also, They help putting the boat on the trailer since getting them wet is what they are for.

Club membership is falling now as original members pass on. More contests have started up and prize donations are down. Virus restrictions have limited meetings and monthly meeting revenues have disappeared. Private run contests seem to have more interest but boat sizes chase the smaller boats out. It is tough now but the bass clubs have evening and weekend contests that are popular with smaller bass boats with two person teams. New York waters with several species and a drawing for the grand prize seem to draw good numbers of salmon, walleye and bass prizes. Maybe trout could add more categories. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United