Gator

Ha! He fishes custom rods. Little does he know I build them out of used pool cues

It's certainly a changing world out there. It's also easy to misinterpret (or over-interpret) the data. While my guess is that most folks will see the reduced take as validation of their individual experiences in the woods...lots of stories about guys who didn't see much...I think that it also highlights the changing environment in which we hunt. Increased leasing. less access to land and more pressure on public land, food plots creating have-and-have-not scenarios. It's not as simple as a snapshot of how many deer are running around. And of course weather, like KS mentions above. Frankly, I'm concerned about hunting in general in NYS and I think that access is the biggest issue. I've leased land for years and bought land last year, but I've also knocked on more doors than I can count with little to show for it. It's tough out there. And I think that it's getting worse. Or maybe that's just me getting old: or , cause it's true.

Yeah, me too. Although I'd like to be out there in a boat getting after those crappie soon...

The webcam shows a few people out there, but I'd be careful. This late season ice is the most dangerous of the year.

Yeah, likely so. My wife thought the crappie were better than perch or walleye when fried side-by-side in grape seed oil with only a little salt and pepper so you could really taste the fish. I think they're okay, but actually my favorite fish to eat is rock bass...weird, I know....but they're so delicious.

Wow. That escalated fast. I know a bunch of guys who fish Seneca regularly, like Meatman, who pound the perch but don't tell anybody about it, then chuckle when Joe Average says there's no perch. I don't really blame people for keeping their mouths shut on that lake...it's ridiculous what some guys will do when they see you haul a single fish over the gunnel. Can you say, "fishing in my back pocket"? But the consensus is that the population is down, even among regulars. And perch go in cycles. So no, maybe the population hasn't crashed. But it's ridiculous to claim that we can't have an impact on the resource. Heck, even Meatman says that he puts the 2-lb spawners back for the future. Kudos! Some guys don't. There's lots of idea swinging around in this thread, but I agree with Les that there's not a good way to know the truth of the matter. Time will tell. And by then everybody will have forgotten this thread. Maybe. The internet is a lot like being married. Don't say anything that you wouldn't be willing to hear about for the next twenty years, cause what's on the internet stays on the internet

Amen! It's just wrong mindedness to think that we can't affect perch populations and they'll always be there. Didn't we learn anything from passenger pigeons or buffalo? We are custodians of the resource. It's only renewable so long as we are mindful that it's not infinite.

I find that a spear gun works well, so long as the pond is clear enough to scuba dive. Not many COs will bother you when you're diving, so you just have to worry about getting the stringer from the pond to the car undetected. If there's a bunch of guys fishing, it's sometimes hard to avoid bobbers, and once I got a hook in my you-know-what, but it's so worth it.

That is a good deal with the dollar as strong as it is. Anybody know what "extras" you'd pay buying a boat in Canada and bringing it back to the US? I'm not in the market...I love my existing Lund...just wondering.

I have a daughter who's 14 going on 20...got to get used to it Nice rig. Good luck with the sale.