Bigfoot

Jason fished there today and posted a couple of videos on FB. His rainbow program was working. Not sure if he launched North or South.

Back in the day there were many hundreds of people fishing bait in this and other finger lakes derbies, but trollers and jiggers still managed to be competitive. From my experience, I can say that often it's the same bait fishermen that are successful, just like some select trollers seem to consistently rise to the top. Luck helps, but nothing replaces skill.

The derby does not start until 6AM. They could care less when you launch, but fishing before 6 is prohibited.

Long live the "purple dinosaur".

I served on the board of directors for several years as one of the FLTA reps along with Harvey and Joe. It was without a doubt one of the most frustrating things I have ever been involved in. Let me tackle one of the easy points first. The small fish lottery drawing was instituted to help the DEC with their creel census. DEC was only seeing big fish brought to scale and they wanted a broader sample to more accurately measure fish population dynamics. DEC does not typically gill net on Seneca, and while angler diaries provide some info, the data obtained from the Lake Trout Derby remains it's best source to determine the state of the cold water fisheries in Seneca Lake. If you think winning $100 for a landlock salmon is bad, you didn't fish the derby when there wasn't a landlock division at all. Most of the board of directors do not fish and belong to groups like the Geneva Teachers Ass. or a barbershop singing club.....their only interest was "earning" some easy money for their groups. Since the official start time is 6:00 AM on Saturday morning, Mr. Morehouse decided that anyone taking the polygraph test would be asked about their start time and DQ'ed if they fished before 6:00 AM Saturday, even if the fish were caught on Sunday or Monday. Since a virtual armada of boats are on the water and many fishing before 6, I tried to get the start time changed to Midnight or 5AM. I might as well have tried to bail out the lake..... My frustrations were heightened by the fact that I had fished other derbies like the Red Cross Derby which were run by people who didn't fish either- but were smart enough to listen to the people they consulted with (especially Mike Burt Sr) I weighed a fish in at Myers and within minutes it was on the board at Watkins. Years later, this is something that the technology resistant dinosaurs in Geneva haven't figured out. It shouldn't take an entire day to get data from Watkins Glen to Geneva!

It's still listed on his website for tomorrow.

Brad Hammers said that a "significant" number of clipped (stocked) rainbows were sampled.

Although Spring seams a long way off, the DEC has scheduled the spring electroshocking on Naples Creek for Thursday, March 24th.

I am having a Timber Stand Improvement project performed on a 30 acre patch that I own. The foresters marked every single locust (about 50 trees) on the patch for removal. And they are marked as firewood because most logging companies have no market for locust and don't waste their time on them. They consider them weed trees. However, the independent logger that won my bid is willing to split some of them into fence posts for resale; the rest will end up as firewood. Most privately held woodlots in NY are not managed. IMHO this is a huge mistake! Regardless of if your goal is to enhance wildlife habitat or encourage timber production,the money spent on a reputable forester is money well spent.

DEC licensing outlets will be offering leftover DMPs on November 1st while they last. Must apply and pick up in person (no web or internet sales). Limit 2 additional permits. Free to those who have already paid the $10 fee this year or are exempt from the fee. $10 for those that haven't previously applied this year (unless exempt). Permits are available for the following DMUs:1C,3M,3R,3S,7F,7H,7J,8A,8F,8G,8H,8J,8N,8R,9A and 9F.