Capt Vince Pierleoni

The fall returns to the Niagara have been very weak in recent years despite a pen project and the massive flow that the returnees should have no problem finding. This coincides with the huge uptick of Lakers in the area. The little fingerlings, whether pen held or direct stocked, have to go through a gauntlet at the mouth of the river. No doubt they are being inhaled by the behemoths in big numbers every Spring. There's your cut--courtesy of Mr forktail.

Kudos to Nick, and all of the volunteers and boat owners helping make this worthy cause such a big event. Here's to great fishing for all that day.

Thank you for the kind words. Sodus is a great place for the grand finale of the Pro Am series format. The sense of community and camaraderie is everywhere.

We can "decide" what Jerry? You and I both know the decision has been made. Yeah, and the "conference call", convenient how its strategically scheduled during the prime time of the final day of the RNC. This all politics and all about the current admins in power.

I talked with the Canadian trawl captain while attending the Lake Huron scare session in Port Credit. They still cannot trawl under 200 fow due to tearing up gear and snagging the rough bottom. Its irrelevant anyway, its clear to me what's going on.

But yet they are moving "full speed ahead" to replace the top apex predator-the Chinook Salmon-with the federally funded, federally approved Lake Trout NOW. The new, improved, technology is COMING--but the decision to reduce Chinook stocking will be made quickly and quietly(sound familiar?) BEFORE the new technology comes. The reason there is so much adult bait is because--THE NUMBER OF TOP END PELAGIC PREDATORS HAS BEEN WOEFULLY INADEQUATE to control the alewives in recent years--even with the last 2 hard winters. This has resulted in the large "top heavy" population of older alewives. These older alewives(much like a whitetail deer population) will suppress the "up and coming" year classes of alewives. They know this and that is why they are cramming long lived Lake trout down our throats because they are hoping they can control, if not eradicate the alewife. I'm shocked, Jerry. It was easy for them to take you into the fold.

Always enjoy hearing about the other GREAT lakes, especially its greatest species, the Chinook Salmon. Keep them coming. Long live the King!

Do not install a thru hull in a Fishmaster. Just too much flex. No matter how careful the installation is it will eventually leak. The advice given here is correct, get an airmar transom mount for your unit and mount it to a transom block so you can move it around(until you get satisfactory performance) without making swiss cheese out of your transom. You can mount a poly transom block with quality caulk without even putting a hole in the transom.

I 2nd God blessing Howard Tanner. I'm hoping this situation will change when the current admin changes. NY was going to address the cormorant epidemic--finally using lethal measures. That ended before it started when the Feds said they would sue if that happened. Yes, use OUR money to sue NY for wanting to control an epidemic. WE THE PEOPLE.

I agree Gill-T. I am completely confident that we are headed to problematic excess alewives, especially with another normal to mild winter. It deeply concerns me that once again we are seeing a "rush to judgement" and the Kings are the "big bad wolf", and not the savior that they truly are. The reluctance to admit or discuss the predation by Lake Trout all across the Great Lakes is the telling part. We are now not only seeing the giant old alewife in the fish, but also last years hatch as well.

I did a double take running by you Pro-Am week. You are amazingly talented!

Always a great time. Should be some brutes around.

I don't think everyone knows where each other's point of reference is coming from. There are anglers contributing from both Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan on this thread.