ELOSTA Meeting 10-21-15

[Tall Tails]

Just a reminder that the ELOSTA meeting is at the Salmon River Hatchery, Wednesday Evening October 21 at 7pm.

 

We will have the Region 7 Fisheries guys available for a question and answer session.  We also will be introduced to the New Hatchery Manager and hear what his future plans for the hatchery are and hopefully we will have an update on the egg take that has started today.  Remember it is very important to be present at these meetings so they understand what our issues are.

 

You don't have to be a member to attend.  I would love to have a standing room only crowd that night.

 

Hope to see you then,

 

Brian

Edited October 14, 2015 by Tall Tails

[Rich D]

I will see you there Brian, and please guys/gals spread the word, let's fill the hatchery!!! They need to see we do care about our fishery and we want to be involved!!!

Capt Rich

NY Guide Service

Lake Ontario Charters

Salmon River Drift Boat trips

Waterfowl Hunting.

[Gill-T]

Micromanagement Minute:  Remember to ask about the 1/2 gill plates missing on Kings.

[d_balm24]

I will see you there Brian, and please guys/gals spread the word, let's fill the hatchery!!! They need to see we do care about our fishery and we want to be involved!!!

Capt Rich

NY Guide Service

Lake Ontario Charters

Salmon River Drift Boat trips

Waterfowl Hunting.

THANKS fellas

[Big Dave]

Should be interesting !!

[troubles]

I'll be there Brian

[Tall Tails]

See you all then! 

[Rich D]

Well the meeting was pretty good, but the turnout was far from steelar!!! A lot of guys on the lake and tribs have no problem going on social media and Monday morning quarterbacking the Staff at the hatchery, but when they are given the chance address these same people, where are they??

Those that attended, going to say 85-90% were lake guys, the only guys I saw that fish the tribs were fellow guides. But yet the creek census tells us the tribs are utilized far more by people than the lake. It would have been very nice to have a packed room for this meeting, but oh well, as usual.

The new hatchery manager was introduced, and he gave us some very good incite to what could possibly be one of the issues with eye up. Time will tell if this is the actual problem. There was some very good questions and statements from our fellow peers, and hopefully some of these will taken into consideration, but only time will tell.

I want to Thank Brian and the rest of the ELOSTA staff for getting this meeting setup, and I can't wait till the SOTL meetings in late Feb or March.

Capt Rich

[troubles]

Actually I counted 43 people but that includes the hatchery and associated people! So yes not a large turnout! 

 

A few statements and discussions with region 7 people:

 

3.5 million Chinook eggs taken so far. They plan to take more a little later. They modified the check they do on the male sperm by checking all that they will use this year to make sure it's good.

 

They are presently taking Coho eggs and mentioned that the male sperm has issues and are trying to find out why they are shooting blanks ! Their term not mine.

 

They realize that there were issues with Chinook numbers and size this year. Didn't mention anything about last 2 winters as a cause for reduced catch numbers.

 

Made statements regarding the Cormorant control only on Oneida lake that they do. Birds are getting smarter and avoiding their boat. Said they weren't a part of any  other area control. 

 

Apparently they stocked brown trout without the barge do to weather conditions at scriba Launch and they were decimated by the birds. 

 

Other items discussed briefly were Lamprey control and possible vitamin issues.

 

Jump in if I missed something guys !

[ifishy]

did anyone ask about the half gill plates?

[BrokeOff]

Just to expand a bit on the lampreys: they said that the lamprey were below target #s on lake trout.  however the fisherman fired back with what they have seen on the lake.  A huge # of scars or actual lampreys on the salmon and especially the brown trout.  Seems the brown trout get hammered b/c they come in shallow in the spring and the fresh lampreys are coming into the lake around this time.  They beleive they have found more spawning areas the lamprey use than ever and have effectively treated majority of these areas.

 

Someone pointed out that the salmon 'just dont fight like they used to' and that they pretty much give up quickly these days.  Also saying that the browns and steelheads 'dont fight'.  Steve Lapan thinks this is due to the thiamine deficiency affecting all species of fish.  He stated that some of the steelhead do not even have enough energy to make it up the river to spawn.

 

Bringing in a new strain of chinook from the west coast was brought up.  But pretty much shot down.  They don't think our returning fish have been 'dumbed down' and they don't see any reason why a new strain would do better in the lake than what we already have.

 

Using natural spawning salmon for egg take (upriver of the hatchery) was brought up, but they made it sound like that would be too much work to catch these fish in the #s they needed.

 

The water issues the hatchery faces routinely are still big problems it sounds like.  They need cold water for trout and salmon and the water they recieve is always going to be warm from the reservoir.  They are working on a plan for some kind of water re-circulating system (but sounds far off).

 

The hatchery also has a new egg picker which will be able to weed out the bad eggs (that turn white) 3x as fast as the old machine.

 

As Greg reported they are seeing lots of sterile male coho salmon this year, for unkown reason. Coho egg take was at 800k if I remember right.  Also they are using more male fish in their ration 3 males to one female I think and they even upped it to 4:1 one day.

 

Cormorants were talked about quite a bit.  Seems out of the 164 they did stomach analysis on in August/Sept on Oneida lake it was found they were eating mostly game species.  They did also point out there has been a huge hatch of gobys on Oneida and populations are really starting to increase. Fishermen stated they haven't seen this many cormorants on Lake Ontario in 10 yrs.

 

The half gill plates were not brought up.

 

Their creel survey guy was not at this meeting.

 

The 3 rod rule is still not permanent! and they have no pull on this issue.  I think someone stated they heard it is only good thru the end of 2016.

Edited October 22, 2015 by BrokeOff

[pvelyk]

Not sure what they mean dumbed down for our salmon.  Seems like in a closed system over 40 years would lead to some inbreeding and giving a shot of fresh eggs would mitigate that some.  

 

Thanks for posting notes from the meeting.  

Edited October 22, 2015 by pvelyk

[Sk8man]

Thanks for sharing the information guys.

[Dreams Come True Charters]

I didn't know about this meeting until the night before and I had to work that night. Sounds like I some big issues. Wish I was able to attend. To bad there can't be a list you can sign up for to get posts in an email on its stuff. Hope we figure this stuff out quickly!!

[Big Dave]

I didn't know about this meeting until the night before and I had to work that night. Sounds like I some big issues. Wish I was able to attend. To bad there can't be a list you can sign up for to get posts in an email on its stuff. Hope we figure this stuff out quickly!!

Join ELOSTA !!  They send out news letters and are working on the website

[Yankee Troller]

Someone pointed out that the salmon 'just dont fight like they used to' and that they pretty much give up quickly these days.  Also saying that the browns and steelheads 'dont fight'.  Steve Lapan thinks this is due to the thiamine deficiency affecting all species of fish.  He stated that some of the steelhead do not even have enough energy to make it up the river to spawn.

 

 

I've mentioned this in the past, but go to the North shore during the Summer and you'll get close to being spooled. Seriously! I think the colder water they have over there, and a better product they put in (or maybe it's natural reproduced fish) is the reason why. Look at their derby leaderboard and watch how many 30lb fish get weighed in. Even the past two Summers were producing many. We struggle on the south shore to get 30lb fish. Personally, I haven't had one in 2 seasons.

 

Let's also not forget as recent as 10-15yrs ago Copper was a non factor. Downriggers and dipsey divers caught everything. Copper and core destroy the fights. We have better drags in our reels too. I think our equipment is starting to get to a point where we can tire them faster.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Yankee Troller

[GAMBLER]

They have the perfect solution to the water temp issue at the Hatchery but they will not do it.  Caledonia hatchery........

[Yankee Troller]

They have the perfect solution to the water temp issue at the Hatchery but they will not do it.  Caledonia hatchery........

 

GET OVER IT! YOU WILL NEVER SEE CALEDONIA ONLINE FOR SALMON EVER AGAIN!

 

Time to pick another battle bud.