Sweet Caroline

Been told that 90% of the cormorant diet is gobies. Abundant and easy for them to catch

I’ll be an armchair quarterback here, but couldn’t the DEC use a “follow the hatch” stocking strategy? When Spring trawls indicate a good alewife production, stock more kings the following Spring. When production is down, stock less. Life cycles of each species run fairly parallel. When the alewife are at maturity so would the kings. Of course, natural reproduction throws a twist in that approach but it is better then stocking the same amount regardless of prey availability. I suppose that is kind of what they are doing now with the recent stocking reductions to a certain extent so I give them credit for that. In a lot of these threads I read a lot of opinions, subjective numbers, and speculation being treated as fact. “My fishfinder shows this”, “ my buddies are telling me that”, “ I’ve caught less of this or more of that” “the reason is because of this”. We can argue back and forth about Lake Michigan catch rates, but what does the creel data suggest? We can come up with theories about what is causing lower weights in salmon or maturity at different ages, but what is the objective data telling us? Is the data telling us that Lake Michigan salmon are indeed maturing later than Lake Ontario? If it is true that abundance of bait causes salmon to mature early, then when the lake was polluted with alewife in the 80’s wouldn’t the majority of mature salmon be 2 years then as well. I don’t think the data would suggest that which contradicts the idea that our salmon are maturing early because of more bait. Nobody can dispute that there were tons more bait in the 80s, early 90s and the majority of mature salmon were 3 year olds, not 2. I’ve read studies that say the opposite regarding maturity. When conditions are unfavorable, such as insufficient food source, individuals reproduce at an earlier age and smaller size to keep the gene pool going. It is too much of a coincidence that as Lake Michigan reduced salmon stocking the size of their salmon increased. There is some merit to what Captain Vince is saying about “watching what you wish for” and the larger size correlation to low catch rates. Are you willing to sacrifice lower catches for larger salmon? But why reinvent the wheel when we already have a test tube with Lake Michigan. What does their objective data show when they lowered stocking rates? How much did the creel increase/decrease, how did it affect the average size and age class? All information that should be available and taken into consideration for our Lake Ontario management. In a perfect world if there was always a perfect balance of predator/prey then size and catch rates would remain unchanged. The DEC certainly has their job cut out for them in trying to maintain that balance and I give them kudos for their efforts. My two cents

They cut stocking by over 50 %.

50s down 90-100 over 400 plus off Ibay tonight. FISH ON!!! Everything we threw at them got bit.

Nice job Dave and thanks for the tip. Was worth the trip yesterday.

Should still be plenty of browns in the 10-20ft range. Water still cold

Pretty much any port will have good fishing opportunity that time of year. I’ll put a plug in for Rochester. Some of them best brown trout, lake trout, and salmon fishing all within a few miles of the Genny. But seriously, everything is biting at the end of July out of any port.

I was in Naples NY and yes Sutton Spoons is still there. I bought a couple spoons. Six bucks each I think and a Sutton Spoon T-shirt for $5. They still wrap their spoons in tissue paper. Probably never use them but I couldn’t resist.

Been a while since I trib fished so I may be a little out of touch. I trib fished hardcore for 20 plus years though. My personal opinion is that after mid-Nov the majority of trib fisherman are C&R. I believe the attraction to the trib fishery is to catch quantity with some trophy potential. I think more fisherman will come back if they can catch 10 plus fish in a day and maybe keep one as opposed to only catching 5 or less and keeping 3. The majority of people aren’t traveling from other states and spending money to come and catch fish for dinner, especially in the tribs. I guarantee that if somebody comes up and scores 10 fish in a morning with some trophy’s mixed in they are 10 times more likely to come back then if they came up and only caught 2 or 3. Once a fish enters the trib it is very likely to being caught over and over again, therefore any reg that promotes C&R in the tribs makes sense. I remember catching the same brown trout in various holes in the western tribs for two months straight. If I’m catching the same fish multiple times in a season I can only image how many times others have as well. They fought just the same each time and if I wasn’t in the know I would have thought that was the first time the fish was caught. Even if the fish dies at the end of the season (which the jury is out that they actually do) that fish was enjoyed many times by multiple individuals. Once that fish is caught and kept it is enjoyed once and by one person. Sure there will be those that abuse the fishery. No regulation is going to stop that so arguing about it is in vain anyway. Side note. I’m a huge proponent of our brown trout fishery as I think they bring a good benefit to the fishery as a whole. They are a good filler in the trib fishery when steelhead can be sporadic at times. They C&R very well. They are good for the open lake fisherman in that they are accesible year round to the small boat owners and are good for charters to target when younger fisherman are involved or when the salmon bite is off. They also have a balanced diet so they aren’t as susceptible to the boom and bust of any given bait population. They pretty much provide a year round fishery as well. My two cents

Been a while since I’ve changed my dipsey rods. Any recommendations on the glue to use to attach the twili tip on my new dipsey rods? Would super glue work? Thanks for everyone’s help with all my questions.

I’ll be rigging a 5,7, and 10 color set up. I usually run 27lb of whatever brand is available. Haven’t really gave much thought of the brand or considered a different size. Would be interested to hear others preference on brand and size? Also, I’m usually trolling with spoons at 2.5 to 2.8mph. Based on your suggestion, what approximate depth would I achieve at those speeds? I know rule of thumb is 5ft per color at 2.0mph, but what would the depth be at higher speeds and/or different weight cores. Any folks with Fish TD May be able to provide some insight? Thanks in advance

Thanks Rich. How much braid will fit on the 30 with a 5 color?