Sk8man

I've been sharpening all my fillet knives on my new electric knife sharpener and mulling over the putting together of the new smoker My ice fishing stuff is already in the vehicle

I'm not sure about Lake George but in many of the Finger lakes where landlocks are they tend to congregate in late Fall right through now at the south ends of the lakes and can be found roaming the shallows as well as in the upper levels of deeper water and around creek mouths. At this time of the year the sawbellies go deep and are largely bottom oriented and the lakers often follow them out there in the depth near bottom but the salmon having a diverse diet and roaming "genes" seem to be all over and less predictable than lakers. I have caught them just under the ice in Keuka and rainbows and browns likewise on Canandaigua in water less than 30 ft.deep so they do roam around in shallower water in the winter time. I would be trying small say J7 Rapalas in silver and/or gold, small 2-3 inch spoons trolled at variable speeds (experimenting). The jointed Rapalas seem to tolerate higher speed and speed on turns a little better and just adding a large split shot about 3-4 ft above it can be productive and the floaters can go pretty shallow without problems A single color or two of leadcore can be productive with a red streamer run behind it on a small sized dodger too. It may pay to run lures further back than usual as it will slow them on turns which is in keeping with their metabolism now in the colder water.but don't assume that slow speed per se is totally necessary either because if they see something they view as vulnerable and are hungry they will go after it. I would definitely stay in the small to medium (at most) range for lures. I think you'll be OK with the strategy you mentioned above too. I have been told it is a somewhat fickle lake for silvers so you may have to "work" for them and cover a lot of water Don't be reluctant to try some "start and stops" intermittently along the way either.

X2 I'm with Rick At some point folks have to step back and realize what is best practice for the entire fishery aside from money and special interests.etc. The process of spawning itself should be respected according to species too (e.g. perch in the Fingers). We are often too short sighted in our approach and "blinded" by short term interests which in the long run can really screw us over no matter whether lake or stream is our primary concern.

Doesn't get any better than that! Merry Christmas Tim and family.

Good one Hank Hope you have the best one ever!

probably have to tell her there was a Wall Street journal and glass of NYS Riesling waiting for her if she grabbed the rod.

If it was my wife all that would happen is one eye would open and then she'd go back to sleep

For folks that want more info regarding Rainbow Smelt in Lake O this may clear up some questions: http://www.invadingspecies.com/rainbow-smelt/

And....not just the Great Lakes Finger Lakes as well.....something in common....filtering action of zebras and quagga mussels?

I'd say that the order in which the fish are listed above pretty much captures the answer

Suggestion Move the charge of second violation to felony status forfeit licenses for life. Conviction of felony precludes any possession of firearms for life. Mandatory jail time if caught violating again: case closed.

Those Taughannock "iceberg" shots sure bring back some good memories cold as hell but great fun casting spoons, egg sacks, and frozen dead bait or shiners

Brian I consider you to be a lake Ontario Laker expert and I know the Lake O fishery is different than that of the Finger Lakes etc. but after over 50 years of catching them in both places and salmon since the mid seventies I'm pretty familiar with both species as well, but I am no formally trained biologist either so my opinion probably should be taken with that in mind, but in all those years I have never seen anything other than than alewives (than one instance of what looked like a partially digested cisco) in the Pacific salmon stomach contents. On the other hand I have seen just about everything in the stomach contents of lakers including quite a few surprises such as a rubber worm, a jig, Zebra mussel shells, crayfish. and freshwater clams and also when rainbow smelt were around a lot of them were in the contents along with stonecats (freshwater sculpin). The sculpin ( in the Fingers historically and Lake O as well) are a favorite food source for lakers in the Spring and again in the Fall when they inhabit the shallows. Gobies a more recent addition to the food chain are very similar in appearance so in the earlier years mentioned they may have been probably one of the two varieties of sculpin available I would imagine. In the summer months alewives would naturally become the prime target for most if not all species of adult salmon and trout out in the depths. Not many fishermen fish the winter months in boats for a lot of understandable reasons but the same applies to deep water fishing for lakers at least on the Fingers as the smelt are virtually gone in most places. What I was referencing in my previous post is that at least there is some break in the chowing of alewives with respect to the lakers whereas with the salmon it is virtually constant. Although I have often found multiple alewives in the stomach contents of lakers but I've frequently seen multiple baitfish in the mouths of salmon and browns and in one case 9 sawbellies in the mouth and throat while it still inhaled my spoon suggesting they have very voracious appetites and may be more efficient feeders of alewives. Lakers are often bottom feeders and therefore come into contact with other baitfish species and sources of food while the pelagics are pretty much roamers and feed in the stratified water nearly exclusively where the alewives are most prominent; especially during the warmer months. I guess that is what I was basing that opinion on. I do have a better familiarity with the Finger Lakes dynamics than Lake O with respect to this issue though and that may be more significant than I took into account too.

Nothing like that kind of thing to build strong life long father-son bonding

I very much enjoyed your post Vince and you make a number of well reasoned points worth mulling over. The comment regarding the impact of the cormorants is particularly important to the discussion. I am totally amazed that this bird species is protected by the Feds despite the damage they cause to not just the fisheries where they abound but the environment as well. After frequenting Cape Cod for roughly 40 years I have seen firsthand the impact the populations of cormorants have made there with hundreds of them sitting on the electric and telephone wires everywhere near the freshwater ponds and kettle lakes decimating the baitfish (herring etc.) as well as small fish of any species found there (perch, bass etc.) and they have no predators (including humans). They are constantly polluting these areas by fecal droppings in the water and along the shorelines altering and negatively affecting the ecosystem (in addition to the geese we have here which have been doing so for years now as well but at least there is seasonal hunting to control numbers). In addition to Lake Ontario they have moved into the Finger Lakes region as well and continually grow in numbers competing with the seagulls for available resources and continue to pollute the areas where found, and as they reproduce without and any natural or human intervention the problem continues to get worse and other existing species don't seem to be able to "out-compete" them either. We probably can't do much about the effects of Mother Nature but implementing some control over the cormorants and exerting "pressure" where possible should be of high priority as it may be more of a negative force on our fisheries than fully realized. I am a fan of birds in general but these things need to be controlled in some fashion. Just as a side note regarding some comments made in other postings on here for some time now regarding the comparison of salmon and lake trout impact on the alewife population and the long life of lakers vs. short life of Pacific salmon and its impact on the alewife population. Something to keep in mind is that the (much maligned) lake trout have a diverse diet where salmon nearly exclusively feed on alewives right through the size range of the bait and themselves. The extreme growth rate during the short few years the salmon (and perhaps browns as well) are alive speaks volumes about this relationship, and the slower growth rate of lakers over extended time probably to some degree suggests they are eating things with less nutritional value than alewives. I love the salmon as much as anyone and they are a hell of a lot more fun to catch usually but I think also that blaming the lakers for decimating the baitfish (if it is accurate which is questionable in my mind) may not be totally fair.

Yep. Pats always have something cooking in the second half. Got to keep the pressure going (both sides really) This season has pretty much been mostly about defense for the Bills and the Pats as well.