pvelyk

Here is my understanding, feel free to correct any inaccuracies as I may of interpreted something wrong or have a bad memory. Short story is catch rates were above long term average. Rates for Kings were overall above average but depending on were and when you were fishing you could have poor rates, with middle of summer being on the low side. I believe in all cases of salmon and trout species while the catch rate was above long term averages the body condition of all species was below those of the last few years. In other words if 4 years ago a 25 inch king had a weight of 8lbs this year a it was 7lbs (Not exact numbers just number to give you an idea of what they mean). They also estimated wild production of Kings to be in the high 40% range and that certain areas of the lake having higher and lower wild reproduction than other, with highest being around Salmon River. I also believe they said surprisingly that few wild salmon make it into the hatchery ponds. Stocking numbers in general where at targets with the exception of Coho's and Steelhead/rainbow trout. I believe for steelhead they mentioned that three incubators (250,000 steelhead) had water issues that caused no flow to the incubators and the steelhead in them were lost. The DEC was able to get some fish from PA and Vermont that were/would be stocked towards the Lake Erie supply. Once that was done the NY State Surviving Steelhead would be divided by some method between Lake Ontario and Erie. Gist I got was numbers would not meet target but would not catastrophically low. They brought up that between browns, steelhead and Kings that last few years there have been surpluss put into the system so long term averages they are still "hitting their goals." Cohoes eye up this year was around 25% up from 17 year before. This means better numbers than last year to stock but still lower than target. They discussed several things they did to increase the 17% to 25% such as less Thiamine in bath but higher grade, less density of eggs in trays. They also did one to one male to female fertization vs pooling of eggs and milt and collection of eggs closer to ideal water temperature in the river. Lamprey Control has been positive and they went over methods and streams/rivers they plan on treating this year. Baitfish (Alewives) numbers of 1 year old are lower with body condition poorer. They see this as a result of weather and higher number of older alewives making food competition higher. This according to them is consistent with the cycle alewife numbers seem to follow since water became cleaner and less nutrient rich. For those wondering they define the Great Lakes being more nutrient rich around the time of the Cleveland river fires and not the pre/post zebra/quagga mussels. They believe the clean water act to be a bigger factor on nutrients than the mussels. Overall they see the alewives as being in a normal cycle but with poorer body condition. That body conditioning being important for the steelhead issues this winter. In regards to the steelhead die off and acting weird. All tests have come back and they blame these issues with Thiamine issue. Tissue tests confirm this as well as the recovery of fish treated with Thiamine at the hatchery and there recover. Because the test that actually confirming the deficiency taking so long they used this event to see some other tests they did themselves that are much quicker had results that could correlate to Thiamine deficiency. This means in the future they will still have to wait for actual test result for deficiency, they have tests they believe will strongly be able to indicate deficiency is a problem thus being able to more quickly react to the situation. The reaction being to give adult fish a manual a shot of Thiamine. They believe that because of the alewife population and condition that Steelhead were having to eat more alewives to get the food they needed. These smaller alewives not only made the steelhead eat more but had a higher concentration of Thiamanese causing the deficiency issue. Because of this winter being similar or worse than last year they see alewife body condition being similar to last year so this problem has the potential to happen again. They talked again about hopeful improvements to the Salmon river hatchery to improve water quality and flow to the hatchery. This includes rehabbing the wells as well as a recirculating system that would reuse water and require less flow of new water from wells. Potential fromm 1000+ gallons a minute to under 300 I believe. They talked about the pen rearing ongoing study. Early studies point to the fish in pens being twice the contribution to the fishery as lake released fish. These fish also are at about a eighty percent higher or more to returning to the pens rivers and stream as opposed to straying to the Salmon River. There are still a few more years of the study before they make a full conclusion. When asked what would happen if the study finished similar to the result so far, they said they would most likely increase the pen rearing stocking percentage but still maintain a direct lake stocking so that not all the eggs were in one basket. Cisco stocking study was still continuing but as of right now nothing notable to finding or that they in anyways had a significance to the fishery from being a contribution to the bait fish forage base for salmoniods. Basically the numbers being stocked were to small in the big scheme of this to be significant forage. Sure there is more but that is what comes to mind immediately.

I have been doing the smoking thing for awhile as a hobby and the cheap sub $700 offset smokers are complete junk. The short of it is the metal used in these cheap offset is too thin for them to be properly used as smokers, which causes all types of issues with temp control and you doing a lot of fire management to achieve even somewhat mediocre results. Really your to best options sub $500 is the Weber Smokey Mountain or a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker). The UDS is basically a 55 gallon drum that you modify at home to make a smoker. These are not cutting a drum in half like you see in a lot of chicken BBQ's but leaving them intact, creating a venting system on the bottom and top of drum, adding a charcoal ring and round grate holders. If you are interested in more info I can point you to several websites or answer any question.

Curious, not sure if I missed it the report or if anyone has any knowledge as to why coho fry survival rate is so low in the hatchery the last few years despite what looks like successful collection. Other species collected don't seem to show such dismal survival rates.

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I thought they moved to Henreitta in October, they still have a website and facebook page.

Ethanol is bad, its corrosive on rubber found in most engines hoses and gaskets. Most manufactures switched materials recently that better handle that effect but there is a lot of equipment out there that still have the older materials. Ethanol also really attracts water and once it gets enough in the fuel the gas, ethanol and water separate causing the gas to get really thick and gum up carbs and injectors. Even if you use the gas up quick once you buy it you still have no idea how much water it gained from storage tanks at refineries, transport trucks and gas station tanks. Forget it if you let it sit for awhile. That is why most people see problems quick with small engines like lawn mowers because that 5 gallon tank you have takes a while to use up with smaller engines. Avoid it if you can. As far as premium vs regular without ethanol I would follow your engines manufacturers recommendation on which is best to use on your equipment.

I will try to give a quick stab at the highlights. 1.) Lt. Lochen DEC Enforcement a.)Discussed short terms enforcement plans for the next month or so around tribs. Basically a lot of two man teams covering area tribs looking for gross violations. b.)Discussed Convictions rates vs tickets. Rochester is dismal at best, other towns and counties in Region 8 better. c.)Discussed the fact that we need to lobby our government reps for better court follow through and upping penalties to a true deterrence. d.)Discussed how he and his officers need our help point out of the way lesser know places being abused by snaggers e.)Discussed that reporting of incidents to DEC need to be immediate any time of the day vs complaining next day or later. He gave his work Cell but I can't find it right now. f.) Discussed using some peer pressure and gentle tlaks to try to turn some people away from illegal practices but warned of Fisherman harassment laws doing it. 2.) NY State Sea Grant a.) Talked about how out of place Lake temperatures were this spring and up till mid summer. b.) Showed animated lake maps of surface and subsurface temperature compared to "Normal years" c.) Talked about some possible new weather information NOAA maybe coming out with and possible water temperature prediction as potentially part of that. 3.) DEC Great Lakes Dept. a.) Large discussion on bait fish population and condition (Condition being fish health and weight) this year. There official stance based upon the netting is this years had less mature alewives being produced and the condition was not as good as previous years that have been on a large upswing. b.)Another Large discussion on creel data with this year being another above average year as a whole. This number reflects the whole lake and not any specific ports and reflects all samoniod species not any one in particular. Individual species were somewhat broken down with Kings being a center of attention. The said there were gigantic swings of Kings catch rates based on time periods and again size class was not really broken down. In all cases this was considered above average compared to historic data. c.) Discussed survival rates of year classes. (Maybe someone could better use there memory for this portion) d.)Discussed a study from Canada this year mapping surface temp the last number of years verse size of winning fish in Tourneys. This study shows a correlation were surface water temperature affects winning fish size. Colder water = smaller fish. e.)Discussed Salmon River Water issues. New wells have been more a less a bust, pipe from reservoir needs to be cleaned as buildup is causing decreased flow to the hatchery and that it can only be done in June as it's the only time that the decreased water availability caused by the cleaning could be tolerated by the hatchery. Plans are to hopefully do it this year. I beleive the numbers bear out that currently the Hatchery is only getting about 50% of what it ideally wants flowing through it right now. Realistically they are now looking at recirculation systems as the potential big stick to up this number but at best that is 2 years away. f.)Pen projects were discussed, especially in concerns with possible late deliveries next spring because of possible late egg collection because this years runs and the lake system seemingly a consistent one month behind. g.)Fish clipping and tagging studies. Studies of Steelhead in Erie tribs regarding size of stockings in relation to release at trib mouth verse miles upstream and return rates of adults. Limitations of tagging being used in steelhead studies due to limited data being able to be collected because fish heads needed and release rates being so high in tribs for steelhead. Studies for Steelies relies on fin and wand activated tags. Studies of Coho's when there stocking gets back on track. h.)Asian Carp update. NYState has the abilty to test water samples for presence of carp in that water area, all samples negative so far and that NY state is taking part in drills and communications with states closer to problem. That's my brain dump, please feel free to correct any wrong information due to bad memory or elaborate more. I apologize for typos and spelling.

Depends on where and when you are fishing for them. Rods are not just for fighting the fish but a tool for proper presentation. River fishing tends to lend itself to longer rods for better presentation so you can control your drifts and mend your line. Piers lend themselves to a greater variety of rods and trolling you have some play too. Also consider crowds and fight times. Bringing a noodle rod and 4 lbs test may not make you many friends on a river during a salmon run when everybody is waiting for you to fight the fish out for before they can get there next cast in. Plus going to light and exhausting the fish in a long fight decrease the chance of a successful release if that's you thing. But having said that I have seen salmon landed on some pretty varied tackle including bass rods with bait casting reels.

I absolutely love the Dinosaurs pickle recipe from there cookbook, which I don't have handy right now. But here is another good one I got from a BBQ site, people rave over them and the guy sells them in quarts at his restaurant. Prized Pig Pickles INGREDIENTS• 4-6 medium cucumbers, or 8-10 small pickling cucumbers • 4 cups water • 2 cups white vinegar • 8-12 cloves of garlic • 6 tablespoons of pickling/canning salt or non-iodized kosher salt • A few sprigs of fresh dill, or substitute with 2 tablespoons of dill seed • 1 teaspoon coriander seed • 1 teaspoon celery seed • 1 teaspoon mustard seed • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns • 2 Hungarian hot wax peppers INSTRUCTIONS Start by bringing the water to a simmer in a saucepan. While the water is heating, peel the garlic. For a subtle garlic flavor, use 8 cloves (4 in each jar). Use more for a stronger garlic flavor. Leave the cloves whole. Once the water is up to a simmer you can add the garlic and cook for about five minutes. While the garlic is cooking, prepare your cucumbers by slicing into quarters lengthwise for spears, or cut thin chips. After the garlic has cooked for five minutes, add the vinegar and salt and bring to a boil until the salt is dissolved and then remove from the heat. In two one-quart canning jars (wide-mouth jars work best for this) add the fresh sprigs of dill and remove the garlic from the pan and distribute equally in both jars. Then divide the remaining spices between the two jars. If you want a touch of heat, add one Hungarian hot pepper, halved lengthwise, to each jar. Next, take the cucumbers and pack them tightly into each jar. Bring the brine back up to a boil and pour immediately into both jars, filling very close to the very top so that the cucumbers are completely covered. Let cool to room temp and then refrigerate overnight. They are really good after sitting overnight, but amazing after another day or two. NOTEShis is my home sized recipe that makes two quart jars or so.

Actually the last time I was at the Henrietta Fastrac (Chalkins Rd and West Henrietta Rd) they switched the pumps with E80 out with 87 ethanol free. It was about twenty cents more expensive than 87 with 10% ethanol, I think that day it was $4.04 a gallon. Not sure about other Fastracs.

I have been out of the game for awhile and I am now just starting to get back in but I do have some advice from my first time around. You are getting a lot of great answers and everyone of them is accurate and great information and is provided by successful fisherman, but there is a trap you can fall into here. That trap is that everyone has there own system of what they do to catch fish, some are similar and some are counter to what others do. My suggestion and advice is to pick one system of fishing the lake and stick to it, worse thing you could do is everyday drastically change what you are doing because you heard someone else did great that day with that particular setup or system. Once you get a system that consistently works for you, even if its modest numbers, then start changing one variable until you find it consistently gives you better results, then throw the next variable in. There is nothing like success and confidence to improve your fishing, every time you have success out there you are much more confident with the next change and it just keeps building. Good luck.

Even smaller lakes take time to give up there victims. I know of one case where a body was found around a year after a person drowned in Conesus Lake so if this is a human remain is could have been there for quite awhile and originated from a good distance. As far as the joking people tend to do here on this subject, I agree that people need to be respectful but joking is a mechanism a lot of us use for subjects like this as a bit of a defense, sometimes without thinking it through. Fishing the Big Lake especially reminds all of us that we could be that body in the water. No matter how much you watch the weather reports, watch the sky, buy quality safety equipment or try to be really cautious ,we are at the mercy out there of a unpredictable and unforgiving big lake and despite all efforts is punishes the smallest mistakes. So I am sure that now disrespect was meant, it's a good group of people here that would hate to think of thier family, friends or themselves in that position.

I could do Sunday if you are still looking.