Sk8man

Good thing Rick carefully couches his comments and beats around the bush a lot

Thanks guys....lot of fun on light tackle.... good luck on Keuka John. bandrus- I'm not sure of the reasoning but it has been that way for years.

WTG John! I've had some good pike right there too but never a Landlock.....sweet!

Thanks John. bandrus 2 largemouth bass (and they are in season still in the Fingers ) . Normally I don't keep them but they are good when caught in the cold water.

I went solo today in search of the perch and didn't have a hit from1 PM until 5 and a lot of folks got disgusted and left for home. From 5 -6:15 PM things really took off. I was jigging for perch in 8 ft of water and I had been drilling holes all afternoon and spending a while in each and then moving around looking for signs of life. I finally found one hole that had a spark of life in it and started catching perch one right after another and then a largemouth then a couple more perch and another largemouth some more perch and then my little jigging rod bent over like there was no tomorrow and the 2 lb test line started peeling out with the drag going for about six or seven times...I strongly suspected I had a trout by the feel of it and the fact that it stripped out about half of my line....turned out to be a 24 inch male rainbow all colored up It was worth the wet arm getting him out of the hole too All the fish came out of that single hole and all on the same little jig with spikes and I ended up with 3 or 4 perch after the pic. Anyway glad I ended up staying and waiting it out... the biggest of the largemouths was 19 1/4 inches and the other was 18 inches,. All in all a fun day on the ice. Oh and I have confirmation that there are in fact rainbow smelt still in Canandaigua. I caught two of them on spikes while jigging in 36 ft of water and there was a whole school of them there.

I'm not a fisheries biologist but I.m sure lakers are the SLOWEST growing trout in the Finger Lakes by far and they have the longest life span as well. One of the things I've been wondering about the Atlantic stockings in Lake O is the fact that they (Atlantics) are originally Anadromous (live adult part of their life cycle in salt water) and if the stocked adults in Lake O leave the fresh water as adults and may take the Hudson to the Atlantic via the St. Lawrence as a possible explanation for the relatively poor numbers of adults in the lake from stocking. I've never had an Atlantic that didn't fight like H or that didn't go airborne several times but on the other hand I've had Coho salmon that came right in without doing much of anything.....who knows what is responsible for those individual differences..... maybe the fish was just having a bad day.... I've felt like that recently after trudging through the snow ice fishing

The bush reflection makes it look golden to me

The truth of the matter is that there is actually no such thing as "color". The wavelengths out there in the electromagnetic spectrum are "interpreted" by the receptors of various species and transmitted neurally to the brain and the result is "labeled" by humans as a specific color (merely a label to describe the perception). In humans the color receptors are the cones in our retinas and sometimes there are abnormalities which may lead to specific "color blindness", there can also be abnormalities or even unrecognized damage to the neural pathways or even abnormalities or damage to specific parts of the brain itself leading to color discrimination problems, and then there are also problems with the labeling process itself. For instance various cultures may group colors into different groupings and apply different labels to what they experience. Even within a cuture there may be disagreemant about what color something is for example is aquamarine blue or is it green? There are some animals that are thought not to have color perception as we know it and some have actual absence of color receptors. This is one of the reasons I've been saying all along that color perception in fish results in experiments or anecdotally are highly questionable. They may not be seeing anything like what we are seeing if they are truly seeing color at all. It is also worth noting that humans sample only a very small segment of the electromagnetic spectrum and other animals may be sensitive to other lengths of light that we cannot perceive. It is truly a very complicated relationship and issue.

Thanks JIm

Thanks Chris

For Region 7 here is a way to contact them to sign up for diary cooperator: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/27875.html

For Keuka fishermen here is an excerpt from the summary letter that may suggest the importance of the data collection: "Recent changes in the lake as a result of introduction of aquatic invasive species, decreases in forage abundance, and increases in lake trout abundance may be negatively impacting brown trout and Atlantic salmon. As I have indicated in the recent past, if catch of both species remains low, elimination of one or both of the stocking programs need to be considered as these fish may be more cost effectively used in other water bodies in New York" (Brad E. Hammers, Senior Aquadic Biologist)

Thank you Panfisher!

Cool pics! I'll bet you couldn't wait to get back for this great weather either Mike

Pikefreak you've definitely got it down cold as far as the learning goes and I guess a couple hundred folks that fished the Conesus thing would agree I'm up for the fishing pretty much anytime conditions permit. I'll send you my cell number in a PM. Les

Using tip ups for larger fish like pike and trout first look in the hole to see if the reel is moving and line going out if so let it go until it stops...wait a few seconds and carefully and gradually lift the line until you feel resistance then pull and hand line in carefully. A common mistake that is made is to pull on the fish while he is still running and often the fish has the bait either partially in his mouth or possible even cross ways and the hook may not be engaged so when you pull it does not actually hook him and pulls free. Most trout and pike will stop briefly after running the first time and turn the bait around in their mouth and swallow it and then continue on....that is when you pull on them so that the hook has a better chance of being lodged in their throat or mouth. The same applies to still fishing for them with alewives or smelt or shiners.