Stillwater

St. Lawrence River Navionics maps? I picked up a new Hook 5 chart / sonar unit with Navionics+ east chip. Downloaded the maps for New York, Ohio, etc. including the SLR. Question for those who have Navionics+ for the river... Do you find there are stretches of the river where the contour lines are broken and uneven? I find that along from about Rock Island east to before Ogdensberg the map contour line quality changes a few times. Some stretches have smooth contours and others have choppy broken and more geometric looking lines. Also my mobile phone app has better quality map content and shows details like ship wrecks, etc. that my download to chip does not pick up. Interested in what other people have experienced in terms of contour line detail and quality. Thanks.

Thank you for the update Kevin. Another effort seems to be in order! Marty.

How has the fishing been in August so far? Thinking about trying again sometime between now and mid September. Thanks in advance for any reports.

Edit to my last post... Captain Bob Flavin. (no within same post edit using phone from what I can see). Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I interpreted their reference of it to a "feel good" stocking program to be sort of a high brow put down of the great work being done by concerned sportsmen. From some of the background history I have read about Captain Bob Flavia and Mr. Bouchard the DEC resisted them since the beginning in 1989. Not surprising they are not praising it now. Reluctant participation is better than none... I guess. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Hat's off to all the SLR walleye stocking pioneers and volunteers. Unless some other data is shared it appears that the primary cause for the walleye population growth is this "feel good" stocking program. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Thanks for sharing this. Learning a lot of great things about them. Roaming must be in their DNA? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

According to the SLR Valley Sportsmen's Clubs face book page they have stocked about 1 million walleye total so far. That has got to have made a major contribution to the overall population in the upper and lower river sections. Fish naturally love to swim upstream against the current. Ogdensburg stocked fish are probably migrating up river. Kevin's proposal for a tagging study would be able to confirm this for sure. Neat pictures of netting walleye to collect eggs. https://www.facebook.com/St-Lawrence-Valley-Sportsmens-Club-218012358215701/

I have done a little looking on the DEC website and found a related "St Lawrence River Fish Communities" page. At the bottom of this page there are 3 links to .pdf documents. Take a look at the middle one labeled "2015 St. Lawrence River Fisheries Update". This contains graphs showing population trends for the major game fish species. It is interesting that the Walleye population really grew in the last 15 years. It peaked in 2009 and is currently looking like it is on the increase again. This may be in line with the stocking efforts for the SLRWA that has been underway. Glad to find this information. Looks like their are a couple more links within this .pdf with more background as well. Good rainy day reading. Good luck everyone. I hope to fish the river again in late August or September. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/102945.html

Maybe someone from SUNY ESF would like to take it up as a masters or Phd thesis project. You would think that the DEC fisheries at the Cape Vincent research site and world class research boats and equipment would jump all over this one. To me the walleye is a very unique and valuable game fish that still has a lot of unknowns surrounding it. This is an example of the gap in available science / information. The US and State government spends a lot of money to study many things that are far less useful and even wasteful. If you look at the DEC fisheries website they post their annual research and fisheries updates. This would be higher on the list than many that I have seen. Oh well. I did read that they were slow to get on board with the SLRWA efforts to help boost the walleye. Maybe a not invented here view?

Hi EsoxAC3, A group dedicated to SLR walleye propagation, research, education and sport fishing exists. Google st Lawrence river walleye association. Pretty interesting group that has done a lot from what it says. Maybe folks on here would be interested in joining. They may have some population data. Looks like they are farther east primarily. Marty. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Hi Kevin, With the increase in fishing pressure have you experienced a drop in your catches vs prior seasons? If the regular experts on the river start to see a catch rate decline then I think some protective change would be worth trying. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Lake Ontario United mobile app