Sk8man

Gee what a shame Stan....but the downside may be that the home owner may be charged with manslaughter or a civil suit lodged against him by the goody goodies knowing how things go out there as well as here in New York State.

I think the state probably figures that we ice fishermen are so freaking crazy that its not worth messing with us

Seems to me it is a bit like the horse is already out of the barn for most places I'm familiar with but I guess late may be a little better than never.

Thanks Dennis....certainly food for thought (and hopefully action). One of the things I'd like to make special note of that is not necessarily covered in any data collection and that is the the concept of specific species "vulnerability". There is a lot of understandable concern about the vulnerability of trout and salmon to the illegal actions of poachers, snaggers or lifters while the fish are in the streams under low water conditions or during the spawning cycle and the concern for potential drastic drops in the populations of these fish. This "vulnerability" is somewhat different with respect to panfish and perch in particular because they very frequently clump together in contained schools that are densely packed in very tight or in contained or confined areas (e.g. marinas or small shallow baysand/or under the ice) during the most vulnerable periods and often in shallow water. What this means is that they are highly susceptible to being taken in large numbers often very quickly by individuals familiar with their habits and recent innovations and improvements in technology has radically "improved" this ability. For example some perch fishermen are using underwater cameras to select out the largest perch (often gravid females) routinely as well as during "derbies" (and even scout them out days in advance) as well as the largest schools and then decimate their numbers day after day and the fact that perch often stay in or about the same area while feeding doesn't help either. Entire schools are taken out this way and those fishermen pay absolutely no attention to regulated "limits" either.. There are also some very greedy people that live right on some of the bodies of water and they continue to take limit after limit when they locate a large school and this goes on day after day all season long and because there is profit involved they have no regard whatsoever for future generations or the present fishermen for that matter and enforcement efforts are either totally lacking (most cases) or their transgressions very difficult to detect. Given all the other concerns such as invasive species, water pollution, predation over harvesting is not only a concern but rather a reality and the days of watching of kids with joyful expressions on their faces while catching panfish from a dock are nearly gone and in some places already a sorry fact of life. Something to think about whether a pan fisherman or not.....

I'd contact the Regional Office of DEC and talk with the fisheries biologist.

Sean you have a PM

I believe that there is a proposal in the works to address the issues and it could serve as a "springboard" to initiate action on the part of the DEC but it will require our support and I sincerely hope that the pan fishermen on LOU will be behind it when it materializes. We will need to put pressure on our legislature representatives then too. If the proposal recommendations are incorporated into the existing regulations it may be possible to save some panfish for future generations and I think that is something we could all be happy about and proud of the effort.

Very cool Dre....unreal photography too.

I wonder if he realizes that the ring is a more effective form of celibacy than any other

I'm no mechanic but it would seem SAFER to change batteries (potential for sparks etc.) than to jump start. I keep jumpers on the boat too but they are thought of as "last resort".

If you need to keep it tilted (I do to get out of the steep driveway on the way to storage barn) put it all the way down and make sure all water is out and then put a heavy duty garbage bag over the prop and place a bungi cord tightly around it.

Some of the problem with perch fishing in particular is that it is highly subject to the "herd mentality" so people rather than fishing a multitude of spots or bodies of water "cluster" together whether on the ice or open water based on rumor and/or "secretly" shared information. Despite the legendary nature of Seneca's "jumbos" a number of the other Finger Lakes have them as well but it is a matter of locating them and adhering to good sportsmanship practices to maintain populations of them and most humans are lazy by nature. I honestly think it is about time that the DEC limits the take to 25 and prohibits their commercial sale, and fishing for them during the spawning period too. I know this would piss off a majority of people reading this but something needs to be done and soon if we are to have any perch fishing for future generations of fishermen. We can't continue to be so short sighted and still have a viable fishery.

Billy it is also some of the local folks who do it as well. The unfortunate central thing that is happening with this and our culture in general is GREED. There are a lot of folks out there now that I'm certain had "Doesn't play well with others" on their kindergarten report cards It is really too bad that there are so many dishonest and greedy people out there these days pretending to be "sportsmen" and selfishly taking resources away from the environment, and from other people and especially future generations. They seem to be operating under the premise that whatever is mine is mine and whatever is yours is mine too". A big difference in sharing info on perch and crappies etc. versus trout/salmon on here is that when you locate them they are "school fish" and it is much easier to decimate the population by greedy people. I for one am done sharing any info publicly about these species because the potential negative effects far outweigh the positives when considering the large scale impact of the Internet and our changing societal values.

I believe the weight limit is 10 lbs on them but I know that some folks exceed that

Tony I sent you a PM with phone numbers

Dre - I honestly don't know what the specific process would be but probably the quickest easiest thing would be to reclassify them as a "game fish" despite the possible absurdity