Sweet Caroline

How much longer are we going to continue trying to restore native species i.e. Lakers and Atlantics? I understand the state likes getting the free funds for these fish but at what point do you call the program a fail? 5, 10, 30 years? Natural reproduction is never going to be enough to sustain a viable fishery of these native fish on its own. Despite what we do the ecosystem has changed forever and instead of trying to restore it we should work with it. Totally agree that stocking a fish that can live 30yrs makes management of a predator/prey relationship difficult. I’m still not buying the fact that we have “too much baitâ€, enough bait, yes, but too much, not so sure. Record high catch rates the past 10 yrs and a declining average size do not add up to a system that has too much bait no matter how you slice it. Also still can’t help think of the 80s when we talk about having too much bait. Lake Ontario will always be more productive than Lake Michigan, but after two years of poor alewife reproduction and now heavy cannibalism by an abundance of adult alewife on the YOY I’m not sure how stocking more Kings will help the current and near term (1-3 yr) situation. The abundance of adult alewife that we have now will be out of the system in two years and then what is going to replace them? My concern is that if we are not careful we can turn a poor situation in to a disaster like what happened on Huron and Michigan. Certainly stocking more lake trout is not going to help the situation. Stocking more browns and steelhead that have a shorter life span and diversified diet probably would be the better solution…. and are a species many would prefer to catch over lake trout. Don’t get me wrong, I like catching Kings as much as anybody on here but I think given the unknown of what is going to happen with the future adult alewife crop, stocking more Kings at this point could be risky. And with all the back and forth about what should be done, after a normal or mild winter fishing could be on fire again next Summer and we could chalk this all up to two bad winters that made the fishing difficult. Conversations like this tend to be forgotten after a good season. I personally have experienced much worse seasons than 2015 and really don’t have any major complaints about the fishing. Would have liked to have had more matures and steelhead, but we still caught a ton of fish. I understand that some years are better or worse than others when it comes to catching matures.

Probably not what people want to hear, but wouldn’t it make sense to stock less Kings after a Spring of poor alewife recruitment and more after a Spring when there is strong recruitment? Instead we stock the same amount each year regardless. If my understanding is correct, an alewife hatched in May or June doesn’t become food for a 1yr salmon until the following Spring? So if the Spring of 2015 had poor recruitment then you would stock less salmon in the Spring of 2016. Conversely, if the Spring 2015 had strong recruitment then you could stock more in Spring of 2016? Seems more logical to manage the salmon stocking in parallel to the previous year alewife recruitment then just to dump in the same amount regardless? There probably were many years we could have stocked many more salmon and years when we should have cut back. My fear is that if everybody is saying that we now have 2 bad years of YOY alewife anything we stock on top of the cannibalism by the adult alewife will decimate what is left. Seems like we could be setting ourselves up for a disaster. If there is a huge population of adult alewife out there now and we have a warmer winter we have the potential to have a great 2016 YOY and we could potentially stock many more salmon in 2017. I’m willing to accept the good with the bad if that we means we have a stable fishery for years to come.

Been fishing the lake for a long time. This August seemed similar to what was typical in the mid 90s to mid 2000s…. 1-3 matures per trip albeit smaller than what they were back then. Been a little spoiled the last 10 years with insane catch rates on matures. The past two winters took their toll on the fishery in many ways….abnormal migratory patterns, consistently changing conditions, reduced growth weights of both salmon and alewife, just to name a few. Caught tons of skippys and teenagers this year (95% C&R btw) so I’m not concerned about overall numbers of fish. Slower growth rates could potentially have produced more 3 &4 yr olds for next year as many salmon may have a delay in maturity. A little concerned about the reduction in steelhead at least with my catches. Also, despite a strong belief by many I feel alewives populations are struggling in both health and numbers. Can’t help but refer to the 80’s and early 90s when we talk about too much bait. Granted I found bait just about every trip but most schools I marked were tightly bunched most likely as a result of being hammered by predators. Also, why hardly any 30+lb fish this year if there is so much bait? I’m in this fishery for the long haul with two young boys that I want to experience the great fishery as much as I have. I do not want this to end up like Lake Michigan and experience a crash because of all the pressure we are putting on the DEC to keep catch rates high. Catch rates will be high until they fall off a cliff and then you are fu$#*%

They are out there. We have been getting matures with regularity spring-summer. This past weekend we found that staying on the bait and marks until they turned on was better than searching for active fish. With the calm water a lot of turns produced strikes. meat rigs and dodgers took most of our matures. Early morning bite was OK, then dead mid-morning, and then they picked up after 11am again.

Did you go east or west out of the Genny. Thinking about going out tomorrow

use 30lb test. although you will get some fleas I've never had any major issue

I have an 18th month old and another on the way. I cannot wait for these moments! I'm thinking 5 or 6 would be the earliest I would even consider taking them out for this kind of fishing but would like to hear from others who have already been through it? Enjoy. That is one heck of a lake trout for anybody regardless of age. Nice job!

Yes I did. Ran that everyday.

Glad you got a few Steve. Appreciate your help as well this week. Had an insane mid morning king and steely bite east of Hedges that day. Didn't get our first bite until 9:30 and then it was doubles and triples until I had to pull at 11:30. Interesting week out of the ROC for sure, Fished eight straight mornings and some days we had a stupid crazy bite and some days it was a grind. Never really had a great early morning bite which makes sense with the full moon all week. A high, wide, and bright program produced the best for us with pinks, reds, and orange spoons producing off the 2,3,4,5 and 6 cores. Caught kings everyday so it should be a good year with a large pod off kings down west and in Rochester.