salmonboy41

I think that's the big difference. Around here in NY the Hawks and Owls do a huge number on the game bird populations I think.

I bet within a week we could do noticeable clean up on those thinks.

King Davy, Thanks for the update on the Hatchery its good to hear that they will be able to reach all of the egg collection goals. But your reports on how good the fishing is and the number of fish seem to be contradictory of what the DSR itself as here are the reports from the last couple of days and non of them sound all that great and the reports from previous days don't sound any better then these. Another Slow Day 10/18/2015 Fishing on the DSR today was very slow, most anglers reported hooking in to only one or two fish on most of the run. However there were a few spots that seemed to do a bit better on the upper half of the run, but just a few decent pockets of fish. Slower Than Yesterday 10/17/2015 The fishing on the DSR today was relatively slow throughout the run. Most of the fish caught were Steelhead with a few Kings here and there. The middle of the run to the lower clay hole seemed to fish the best, however still no big pushes of fish moving through the river, and the pods we were seeing yesterday seemed to be fewer and farther between. A Steady Day 10/16/2015 Throughout the day we had small pods of Steelhead and Kings moving through the DSR at a fairly regular pace, not a run but fishing was steady enough that most fishermen had no complaints. The Steelhead were mostly in the lower half of the river, below the meadow, while most of the kings that were caught were more near the upper half of the river.

we defiantly need a wire count on several Key rivers other wise how are we going to truly know if our salmon numbers are up or down? Wait for the DEC to tell us? Cause we all know they will claim greatest year ever no matter how few salmon there are.

Bassets are awesome from my experience as they have an amazing sense of smell and unlike Beagles they only bark and howl when there hot on a rabbit.

I run rabbits and hairs with a basset hound mix best hunting dog I ever seen a little stubborn tho.

I don't disagree that the numbers I gave above seem odd, but per my notes that's what the DEC stated at the state of the lake meeting in 2014. I do know they say they have documented some natural reproduction of lake trout in the Niagara river.

I've also heard that one of the issues with Lake Trout reproduction on Lake Ontario is the fact that the average lake T only live to 5 and half years due to the lampreys and they need to survive to 7 and half to have a sustainable population.

Actually I believe the target rate for kings is around 1.75 Million so the increase in kings was 150K. Also this wasn't do to lower Lake Trout stocking but was due to the fact that they where well short of there target goal for Coho stocking, because the DEC is only having around 16 to 20% eye up rates on Coho's, which I think is a good example of the need for fresh eggs from the west coast to freshen up the genetics in our lake. As it seems we are creating sterile fish at least when it comes to Cohos. So long story short the DEC has no intention or atleast has shown no intention of decrease in lake trout increase in kings.

This summer I talked to some ppl form the DEC that where taking water samples in Wilson Harbor and I told them that I thought the Harbor may have a water issue because pan fish population in the Harbor is WAY down. After telling them this, they told me that the issue is the cormorants are cleaning out all of the Harbors on Lake Ontario.

Darn it Gill-T you beat me to the enter button on my post. eventhough yours is way more detailed. needless to say I totally agree, and I think the ideas that have been posted on the this thread could greatly help to reduce the possibility of what is currently happening from happening in the future.

There are a lot of great ideas on this thread that should be looked into as many of these ideas can greatly help the Fishery. Personally I'm starting to wonder if the issue is tied to the fact that lake wide populations of Smelt and emerald shiners are WAY down. Which could cause issues for the young fish as the emeralds and smaller smelt would provide food for the young fish when there in that inbetween stage, where insects and such are not enough or to small and the Alewives are to big for them to eat. This would cause a gap in food chain for the fish, then compile that with the harsh winters and you have even less for them to eat which would cause lower survival rates of yearling fish which leads to less mature fish like we are currently seeing. This would also explain the thymine issue in the steelhead as well if the theory is correct.

dying no. Changing yes. you have to remember this is a relatively new fishery so what your seeing in a lot of ways is just a stabilization/evolution with the changes to the lake. My very first memory was of my dad taking me steelhead fishing in the spring at 3 years old he had a fly rod and I had a spinning rod with a bobber. I can still see all of those steelhead swimming in that creek.

There are a couple of lakes in the ADKS that they stock them in, been meaning to fish for them up there just haven't gotten to it yet. I used to go up around Timmins and there where lakes that you could only get to by snowmobile that where full of them.

I've had pickerel and it isn't bad, never tried Sheephead though. personally I prefer Walleyes, pan fish, trout and salmon minus Lake trout as I've never had one that tasted very good even the smaller ones from the AKD's. I think the greatest tasting fish I've ever had was splake.

Can't be any worse then trying to eat a lake trout.

That's true about Rochester, and I believe your thinking about the water temp is correct, but having that ice water from the river screwed up the fishing in Niagara County, as it didn't let the lake warm up in front of the river until after the that week which is when I started catching kings with any kind of consistency. So while I agree that just because the boom is in doesn't mean there isn't fish to catch it does make things different that what we are normally used to(if you can say Lake O has a norm)

I agree Storm Warning II last when they pulled it on April 29 it totally messed up everything for the whole week of the WHI and LOC.