Gill-T

Brian, I told Steve LePan it has to go both ways. I warned if we didn't see increases in King stocking with better alewife numbers the public will fry him given the paranoia already out there. I think he understands this to be true. We ask our lake managers to manage the lake so I am willing to allow the cuts without too much yelling. With the hole in the alewife population I would be questioning their leadership if they didn't consider the cuts. I also realize my perspective as a West-end fisherman is slightly skewed because we never have a shortage of bait. With the warming trend starting anew and the plankton community healthy this is a temporary blip. I also think we are going to be king heavy from natural reproduction from 2013,'14 so if they are going to make cuts they have to do it this spring.

Well I guess the cat is out of the bag. Yes both the DEC and OMNR are advising cuts starting with next years spring stocking allocations lakewide. The cuts are designed to get ahead of the apparent two year hole where we lost our YOY alewife class due to back to back historically bad winters. There is nothing wrong with the food web so these cuts will be temporary. Discussions about cutting lake trout plants are being considered. Hopefully they wait to see if we have a run of fish with the drought as we may have our own cut on naturals via Mother Nature.

Looks like a tyee to me

I almost sacrificed my lunch in those waves Friday!

Great work Nick, Teresa, the volunteers, and donors! Thank you Arney's. Great event. Never gets old getting a vet their first King. Look forward to next year! Now go take a nap.

Too bad you didn't get a weight but she looks over 5 for sure. Nice bass.

I saw some 10' rollers out there with a nasty cross chop in close

Well it got to last years 6-10's. Made the slow slog to 280' and made one troll in with waves. 4 releases and zero fish. No bait or marks. Cold water still inside 120' where we picked up

Hey Nick I can see white caps crashing over pier. You should rename the Friday event to "big-wave Friday". How big is the surf?

To your point Jerry, everything I have heard from LePan at the state-of-lake meetings is that funding is a non-issue for stocking program.

Yep, went to school in Michigan. The stamp was an easy non-issue that is easy to enforce similar to a duck stamp. If there is a will there is a way.

Jerry, who shot down the salmon stamp idea? If it was government agencies and biologists it would sure indicate that the powers in control are anti-Pacifics. Not liking the tone of this discussion. Some people need to get their heads out of their arses. Looks like time to organize boys.

Jerry it is not that I "don't care" about the new fertilizer laws enacted but rather I believe they will have little effect as they are not enforcible. There will not be any "fertilizer police" hiding in the bushes hoping to catch a farmers fertilizing before a rain event.

Are we going to see a little dip in the adult alewife population within the next two years? Probably. Was there too much bait prior to the '13 + '14 winters? Yep. Did we have a mild winter? Yep. Are the fish healthy looking? Yep. To me it is a wash. If anything we needed a reduction in alewives from 2012 levels to get things back in balance. The lake has not lost it's fertility and won't any time soon......I don't care what regulations they enacted on farmers in Ohio. It is a wash. Keep current stocking levels the same and REDUCE Lake Trout stocking numbers. The goal of the Lake Trout restoration project was to have a naturally reproducing population. This has already been proven on the Niagara spawners. A decision needs to be made to see if the species will make it on it's own. If PERMENANT conditions such as pollution or gobies eating eggs or thiaminase toxicity are not allowing natural reproduction then why keep cramming long-lived chemically laden fish down our throats for public consumption?.........the problem will always persist, stop the madness. You need money DEC for King stocking programs?....put out a Great Lakes $10.00 stamp requirement for us fishermen and I will gladly pay it!

They come in from Huron. The only viable population of Pinks breed in Sault Ste. Marie. Doesn't take much to have them flushed into Erie. Cohos are stockers from Huron or Michigan. I have hooked into some Kings on the Catt. All these cases are rare on Erie so you could not call it a "fishery". http://www.landbigfish.com/articles/default.cfm?ID=373