Gator

. You'll have less fingers, but lots of friends. I'm crap at sharpening; it I can't do it with a Chef's Choice sharpening machine or the occasional hit with a sharpening steel, then I'm SOL. I'd love to know a guy who's good at keeping blades honed. I'm willing to trade expertise on a confocal fluorescent microscope, if that appeals . Or not.

Dang, I only got 14...your blue beat out my glow green dot moccachino hamstring alabama red (with a twist of lime). Guess I'll have to go buy a dozen. I'm with Rob. As I get older, I've started to keep it simple (by necessity, you know?). White with black or green dots, light green silver (livewire, hammertime), dark green silver/black (42 second), some variant of a crush, occasionally Froggy. It's way more important to know the water you're fishing and have good information. I'm also not a charter captain though, trying to squeeze every last fish out for his sports. If I leave a couple on the table...it's still a good day.

Biggest perch I ever caught was out of a canoe on Keuka back in the '80s fishing with my girlfriend from college. 3 lbs 4 oz. I've never even come close since then. My PB on Seneca for 5 fish was 8.11 lbs--which doesn't even hit the top five in the duck hunter's club tournament. Still, in terms of "meat fish" it used to be hard to beat Seneca if you knew where to find them. You could poke a couple dozen in the 12-13" range and they were beefy, with shoulders.

LOL. I got the "generic" reference. The way I figure it, if you can't laugh at yourself, it's time to have an attitude adjustment. And by that, I mean a beer . As for stepping in it, well, here's hoping our female compatriots have a broad sense of humor (OMG, no pun intended). Good luck with that.

True dat! I will tell though you that I've been fishing it since the beginning, and haven't found 12"+ perch...it's been 9-10" keepers for a limit with a couple of bigger fish mixed in since first ice...so if I'm lying (and I usually am ), I'm lying upside down, if you know what I mean. Of course, I could just be a crappy fisherman (crappie??). I'm sure somebody got into some big ones, I'm less convinced with any regularity though. No doubt they're there though. I will also say that of the three limits I brought home, every single fish I cleaned was a female. I wonder what that means? Funny story--I was fishing Honeoye on Saturday and I'd kept three lakers for a friend from Keuka on Friday. As we were leaving I went to give him the bag of fish and two guys walking onto the ice said that it must have been good if we had a whole bag of fish. So I showed them the lakers. Their jaws dropped open. I guess they thought we'd caught them at Honeoye. Good stuff. I eventually--after milking it a bit--told them the truth.

I'm not convinced that it was 12"+, even at the beginning of the season...there's been an incredible # of 9-10" all year. I know a couple of guys who've done better, but not consistently and not in numbers.

Hard to believe that somebody isn't jumping on this. These bibs were all the rage when they first came out and they retailed for ~$200 new. I guess all the ice we have out there has increased the size of everybody's...bravado.

FYI, you should be able to get the 2xl at Field Supply for $87, last I saw. Good luck.

We used to use those old sash weights for running strings of long-line dekes on the Finger lakes, too. But I think that I may have given the wrong impression. The blinds I had available weren't old, sash type blinds. They were relatively new blinds purchased maybe five years ago from Lowes. When we had some remodeling done, they were replaced...but they were practically new, reasonably expensive, stand-alone, no sash, no junk, and probably gone from the curb by now...

If anybody can use them, I have three 35" wide window blinds, two of them with white slats and one with light natural wood. I also have a single 24" wide with light natural wood slats. We took them off some of our windows a couple years ago. All the pieces appear to be accounted for and they're in good shape. Pick up only--I live in Rush, just south of Rochester. I'd like to get rid of them as a set. Please pm me if you're interested. If there's no takers by Friday, to the curb they go.

Excellent information from Tmag and in general on this thread. As a researcher, I will emphasize that while it's nice to have data, it's also important to distinguish between cause and correlation. There are a variety of models that might help to explain the situation, but as with most biological systems, Seneca is complex and likely impacted by multiple variables in only marginally predictable ways. This is why economic drivers almost always have an advantage over biological concerns. The sure bet of $$ in the pocket wins out against an uncertain ecological impact, and a cost-benefit analysis generally favors the almighty dollar (does that make me cynical or realistic ?) That having been said, it's great to see all of the folks who are trying to understand what's happening. Obviously from my perspective, science-based resource management strategies are the way to go. I applaud everybody who's supporting evidence-based decision making...science has been getting a bad rap lately.