Sk8man

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.

If Allen can get his pass accuracy where it is supposed to be, hold onto the ball more carefully,get rid of the ball faster, and the Bills defense lives up to potential and put Brady off his game They stand a chance. Brady is not the same QB as he used to be (despite the naysayers)and is starting to show his age. He is afraid of getting hit, can't run or scramble for crap and stays in that protected pocket all the time so if the defense can rush him to throw off his passing game, overrun his "protectors" and they protect against Gilmore the Bills may do some harm.....whole lot of "ifs" but possible.If the Pats had Drew Brees the Bills would probably be screwed.

Geez Brian....it is a wonder that boat still floats with all those lures back there

Yeah Flexseal is not great especially where a surface gets contacted and it is affected by UV rays too.

That right there is at the heart of it. Have to put vested interests aside and work together. Unfortunately we have only to look at the functioning of our dysfunctional state and federal governments in terms of the probability of that happening. It is sad.

It was an exciting thread even for guys like me that no longer hunt....felt as though I was right out there.....pretty cool

Good luck with it

Oxbow. With everything said taken into consideration you may be able to use the Anglers Pals but if so use safety lines to your rods and make sure you tighten down the bases real good and check them frequently to make sure that they don't loosen up from the combination of wave action and the weight of the torque on the rods. You may have to turn the holder in the base such that the slot that fits on the ball is not in a downward position and it may not give you exactly the rod position you wish but may be safer

shawn is giving you good advice. It is one of the things in life that you don't want to "cheap out" on Ciscos, Cannon's, Berts, or Traxtec are what you want to take a look at.

How disapointing. Here all my life I have believed what my parents told me about the storks dropping the babies off. I did ask them once "Where did the storks get the babies?" though and they had a puzzled look on their faces

Anglers pal holders. They came in a couple sizes the larger about 12 inches? and are OK for most lighter stuff but you can only tighten them down just so far and they can slip in the very narrow base when under great stress. The allen head screw on the base can loosen without it being obvious too I know folks that have used them for heavier set-ups but they use safety lines on their rods too (just in case). They would be fine for top lines and walleye trolling and that sort of thing but kinda risky for wire setups and risky for kings