Lamphrey on a stick bait

[Frisco]

While looking through the archives from last winter I came across this pic of Mark (Lil Jake) with a Lamphrey that tried to latch on to a green Challenger stickbait.

 

Incredible.......... I have Eels attached to dipseys this year.

 

This was on Cayuga of course!

 

 

[Frisco]

Sorry here's the pic

[Nautitroller]

I would be more inclined to say a fish with a lamphrey on its side slashed at the bait and the lamphery was caught......  I had a nice laker on this year that came off for an instant but my slider lure caught the lamphrey on the side of the fish, (rehooking the eel)  ended up landing the laker with the hook in the eel... Wow  either way too many of these parasites this year in Cayuga!!!  Help DEC!!!

[bulletbob]

 Cayuga needs the lamprey problem attended to.. They are destroying the fishery there,,, DEC doesn't seem to care... Long as they have Ontario to stock with salmon for the tourists to catch.. Why  bother with cayuga? No money to be made there..

[Sk8man]

The lampreys are certainly a very serious problem on Cayuga that needs attention and soon. With that said the DEC folks are very dedicated people working under a very difficult staffing situation (gutted in recent years and with King Cuomo holding up funding) and they have  faced strenuous opposition from well intentioned but "emotional" and active environmentalists" (especially at the Ithaca end of the lake) so they have been very conservative and cautious in their recent attention to the lake so these nasty parasites have gained the upper hand in recent years with the intermittent flooding of  barriers to their spawning habitat.

[Frisco]

The situation there has chased me off the lake, it's going to take years to recover!

[justtracytrolling]

So lets do something about this!  If all of the guys in just the finger lakes section start writing emails and lobbying for SOME action maybe things will get better.  Im not very knowledgable about this situation, but Ill send emails.  Im not much of a trout fisherman, but I am a finger lakes guy.  If one or more of you put together a list of email addresses of the right DEC people and or politicians, and come up with the basic context of the email in a non argumentative format, its pretty simple for each of us to send roughly the same email to the same distribution list.  Then its just a matter of all of us getting other members to do their part.  We have 13000 members on this site and every member has friends that are capable of sending 1 email once a week till they do something.  Complaining wont get it done.   Joining together we can make a difference.  

justin

[lavarock64]

The decline in salmonids has been depressing.  We actually bought a camp on cayuga 3 year's ago partly because of the great fishery - now the salmonids fishery is in the gutter!  I will gladly send e-mails in concern of this issue - Could someone please post up the contact address? 

 

Also, is the DEC still planning treatment in the inlet in the spring of 2014? (Our office was loosley involved during the treatment in the early 80's and the environmentalists were supportive of the application at that time)

[Trouthunter]

REGION 7 FISHERIES AT [email protected]  or 607-753-3095

[Sk8man]

After working for the state for much of my adult life I know that the pressure has to come from the outside and above (Area legislative representatives and DEC Directors and Commissioner) because the folks at the "implementation" point in the hierarchy  have no control over any of it. An additional factor at present is that King Cuomo has been holding on to the conservation funds....probably thinking he can divert them toward paying for the bridge renovations on the Hudson.

[justtracytrolling]

Exactly Les, we need contact info for politicians and DEC key people above the region 7 level.  The region 7 guys, Dave Lemon, Scott Prindle, and Ian Blackburn, are already working for us and do excellent work.  Im not saying we shouldn't include them on the distribution list just that we need email addresses from higher up the food chain.  Les start us a new thread on this issue with a headline that will get people involved.  We need a call to arms so to speak.   I called Ian Blackburn to see if he will help and am waiting for him to return my call.  This issue should be our top priority this winter.

justin

[Bigfoot]

I don't see where writing letters/emails will make a shred of difference at this point- DEC has been aware of the problem for some time and has a plan for dealing with it.

 

The cost of treating the entire lake is cost prohibitive and is not really an option.

 

Next spring the adult lampreys in Cayuga will leave the lake to spawn. DEC believes that about 90% of the lampreys in Cayuga use the inlet for spawning-unless there is a high water event, nearly all of these will be captured at the fishway and destroyed. The lampracide treatment that is planned for the inlet next Summer will kill a large number of the young lampreys produced in recent years. As a result, wounding rates on trout and salmon should return to acceptable levels.

 

Yes, it will take time for the fishery to recover.....