HB2

I fish off my seawall at Sandy quite a,bit and can concur with the lack of fish . I use skein or mostly small jigs under a float . In the last , let's say 8 times out I have had a total of 2 hits and had one on . Years past I have averaged 1 to 2 fish each time out . Maybe it's me not being able to get them to hit but it's been bad . Late October for about 2 weeks was good , the it died .

Is anyone surprised about any of this ? Getting back, I hope the high water is good for the bottom of the food chain so there is more bait . I guess we will wait and see .

A nice Case 6" folding knife next to a king gutpile A 10x Gore tex jacket floating down the Oak ( fished the rest of the day and nobody came to find it ) Jigging bass off the Niagara bar, A full 10 color , spinny and fly I use. A Dam Quick spinning combo off the ladders at the Oak About 6 + boat bumpers Probably 75 + floats , some real nice ones the guys loose upstream. I got a nice collection . Back in the beginning , a whole bunch of J plugs and stickbaits before guys learned the dive rate to keep them off the bottom . I use to have a long Handle small net on the boat when I was,combat fishing just for them .

Last year was the third year I attended the Sandy creek pen meeting. Decided when I bought our cottage to get involved . Prior to that , I put money in the jars at the bait stores,. I guess I did not know what I was,getting into . I am there to work hard to do my part to ensure a good fishery ,which I enjoy . I walked into the meeting and Sat down . I don't know most by name. A man came in shortly after me I have never seen before and Sat down right next to me . Turned out it was Dave and his wife . Rob started the meeting and shortly into it we were told that we would only be penning kings as the other pen that was on loan from the Oak ,would not be available If it was to be used for steelhead . A protest of sorts by The Oak guys. We were informed the reasoning was in protest to the proposed regs , which I knew nothing about. A discussion was had and Dave explained to us the reasoning why for the proposal , and how the DEC was going to manage the fishery going forward . A back and forth was had, some over the pen at which time I asked and said " so this is being done to be vindictive? " it seemed many in the room supported the protest at which time I voiced I was not . I watched the state of the lake on line and Genny reps there said if the regs are passed they would not do steelhead either . This is my knowledge as I remember it . Some are stating that if this passes they will box or kill every steelhead they catch . All I know is if I were head of the DEC and knew of the turmoil this was causing and the efforts of some to strongarm them in their decision making my new policy would be this : " We,have decided to keep all stocks at the hatchery for the full term and direct stock all until further notice . We appreciate the efforts of the volunteers but there has,been some confusion on the availability of the pens .

All good points ,and they may be true . But These are we my observations : The water this year in my area this spring , early summer the water was as green as I have seen it since the 80s . I comment to a few others who said they noticed it also . The king fishery has been lights out the past 2 years and average size was up this past year. Like the mid 80s The year before last was the first high water . So maybe the high water has nothing to do with this and it is coincidental. Then again , maybe it's not . As I stated, let's wait and see. Weather or not plan 2014 is good for property owners , the lake shore line ,etc and if they should be letting out more water was not my point of this post .

Any fertilizer that is applied to any lawns in the LO watershed is going to be washed into the lake by snow melt or rain. That doesn't matter how high or low the lake is . Maybe the wetlands got "rinsed" by the high water and any retained chemicals washed out into the lake , thus the green water. I all ways thought the wetlands,were a filter for the main lake . Use to be a lot of phosphates / etc way back when that caused a lot of plankton and the alwives to overpopulated the lake . Which is why we have the Salmon . Remember all the weeds back in the 60s And 70s ? The phosphates have since been removed . When the zebras cleaned up the lake and took the bottom of the food chain away , some in Lake Erie considered pumping raw sewage into the lake to make up for it. And crap is certainly not modern fertilizer. We have had,winters with high temps and no snow or ice cover and the lake has survived. I thought we get alwives die off when the lake gets to cold . This is all just speculation and maybe just " B.S. " Nobody knows for sure how all this stuff working together will affect the lakes ecosystem. I guess we all will have to wait and see .

There is LOTSA And charter boat associations , or am I wrong . These to me are Special interest groups . Just sayin

Predator/ prey impact due to reduced trips and a healthy baitfish environment are two different conversations . I wonder about the latter.

On the contrary . I think this was well thought out . The profiteers used the enviromentalists to get the plan implemented for hydro and shipping interests . Without the enviromentalists , this plan would not have been passed .

And furthermore , if they had not done the Seaway project , there would be no alwives , or am I wrong on this . And this board and the fish would be non existent .

I understand all that . But if you take the emotion out of it , is this high water improving the ecosystem ? I don't like what is going on damage wise either . But if this in fact is the new normal as stated by the Gov . And if this is improving water quality bait fish wise . That part is a good thing . I want to know if the enviromentalists were right on their reasoning .

To clarify I'm not a fan of policy and all the damage / etc of 2014 And I think the enviromentalists we're used by profiteers to pass the law with ulterior motives for hydro power and shipping But is the high water maybe helping the LO ecosystem like the enviromentalists predicted ?

Yes

I'm not a fan either . But the water sure was green this year . Maybe it's just a a coincidence .

With the baitfish assessment not being great , there may be hope . With the high water this past year , I haven't seen green water like that since the early 90s . Green water means healthy water . Good bottom of the food chain water . Like it use to be . So maybe the IJC Is helping us out They did say the reason for implementing the 2014 plan was for environmental reasons . And maybe they are right . We can only hope . That being said , the water sure looks high for this time of year .

Now that's the spirit ! Nice to know we can count on you to do the right thing .

As a matter of fact.......

Once you get out past 150 ft , the steelhead come into play .that being said , I caught a fair amount in less than 100 ft this year , so they are lake wide . They hit the same things the Kings hit , or at least they do for me . I don't target them but I do catch them . Being a byproduct catch really doesn't matter . I don't target skippers , but I catch them . Also to say they are a drain on the bait pop and need to be harvested is a weak argument at best . They are in the creek 1/4 to 1/2 their life span , not eating alwives. Kings and Lakers are the biggest eaters out there by far . I don't think there is a good solution to this . The long line methods of today combined with the knowledge and success rate of today's anglers will tax the sportfish population . Lake catch and release survival rates using those methods compared to trib anglers are not as,high a some might think . When I am fishing around boats , I see fish floating . To compare trib and lake C & R is like comparing apples to oranges . Maybe the best solution is to put more steelhead in .

Even if I used bags , I would still use my buckets for minor speed adjustment .

I have a 16 ft alumacraft side console similar to yours . Here is my setup and I love it . Very safe and efficient to deploy / adjust riggers . I like the board to sit on , or lean on . I do quite well out of it . Four screws and it comes off for bass and pike .