2012 Lake Ontario Summary

[FISHIN AGAIN?]

I just wanted to let you guys know that the Fisheries Program Highlights have been posted on the DEC website. In general the fishing remains great and the Alewife populations seems to be doing well. Preliminary results indicated that 56% of harvested Chinook are wild.  

[BALLS DEEP]

Great news. Thanks for sharing.

[Sk8man]

Cool thanks.

[GAMBLER]

Here is a link to the report.  http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/lou2012hilights.pdf

 

Things are looking up for the alewives for sure!  The other thing that is good is cormorants are eating tons of gobies and leaving alewives, bass and perch alone compared to years ago. 

[Chas0218]

When I was looking through the graphs about half way thru (page 5) the Chinook salmon size for males dropped significantly.  Anyone see a reason why? I might have missed it but seems strange when comparing it to the previous years.

 

 

Never mind answered my own question. 

Edited March 6, 2013 by Chas0218

[GAMBLER]

I think a lot of the salmon size was lost due to early staging.  The salmon started to get dark and their stomachs were tight really early last season.  We caught a bunch of dark kings in early August instead of mid to late August.  They started to burn the fat reserves early therefore the weighed less by the time they hit the hatchery. 

[rdebadts]

Fully agree with gambler on the salmon size issue. I was catching dark fish in JULY, and mid August fishing felt like September, in the fact that every king I caught had a small tight empty stomach despite absurd amounts of bait around...

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

When they live in warm water the weight just "falls off of them", so good observations. Every year it seems more and more of the monsters are caught earlier. With the "wild card" natural contribution impossible to count on year to year, it's hard to say what the crop will be like this year but they should be big.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Capt Vince Pierleoni

[LongLine]

From what I'm reading the natuals are slightly smaller up to a certain point then they pack on the pounds like the stockers & catch up.  However, warm water will do a number on all of them like Vince said.  I imagine we'd also shed a few pounds if we lived in a sauna for a month or so.  It does seem that dark ones were showing up a little early last year.

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[Gill-T]

Good to see those bait figures.  I was worried about the YOY alewives but a canadian captain told me of a massive school of YOYs on the surface out in the blue zone of the Niagara eddy that went for miles last august.  Considering there is still 40 degree water at the fence line, the bait picture should remain healthy.

[Gill-T]

I noticed the Atlantic Salmon stocking figures went up.....Hmmmmmm wonder what is going on here!  A little birdie told me there has been some misinformation that is being passed on from the Canadian atlantic program directors to the NYDEC.  It seems the Canadian Bios have been touting the "success" of their atlantic restoration when in fact it has been a complete failure.  We need to keep an eye on this!!!  Armed with their information touting over 50% natural reproduction.........the DEC may use the information to decrease Chinook stocking and increase atlantic stocking.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Gill-T

[Jolly II]

At the State of the Lake meeting on Tuesday here in Rochester they did address the smaller sized males that they were getting in the hatchery.  Because of low reservoir levels they kept the river flow at base water flow of 185CFS, instead of increasing water flows on Sept. 1st to help spread out the fish and ensure fair catch practices.  But with base flow many anglers were able to sight fish, and specifically target the larger fish, taking those out of the equation.  The average sized male actually weighed less than the average female, something that is unusual on the chart.

 

As for fish condition of a 36" fish, the condition was good, and right on target where they like to see it.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Jolly II