Regulation change to steelhead limit on Lake Ontario

[reelxite]

After a conversation with the DEC to clarify the format of the input they would like as to the regulation changes, they do want you to comment as to your position, why you oppose the new reg and your rational to support it.  So KIngDavey, I stand corrected and your previous post on this matter was correct. But it does not mean that input as far as a simple agreement/dis-agreement with these changes does not or cannot have a political impact. As you and I know the DEC is monitoring this thread, as they always have monitored this board to stay up to date on the fishery.

I as well as you have been attending these meetings what seems like forever, and I have seen the science and in the past we have all questioned some of it and agreed with some of it . The science according to DEC supported raising the size limit on steelhead to 21 inches to increase survival and returns to the streams, and according to the science lowering the limit to 2 from 3 will continue to support this. The data used to support these changes is received via surveys both open lake and tributary, which is contributed by anglers, so it depends on that quality of that input.  But where the science in my opinion falls apart is, no matter how many fish are released there is no data to assess release survival open lake. From my own personal experience I have released many steelhead having them swim away for a short distance only to have them surface, this then gets counted as a released fish, but did it really survive. I don't know and neither does the DEC, there is no way to get the data. So that leaves a big undefined variable in the equation. 

Some further personal experience with catch and release, from the Salmon perspective I have caught many salmon, that I believe had been caught before mostly as skippers (1 year olds) the evidence to support this is disfigure mouths on these fish due to poor release practices. I believe that supports the catch and release survival of the skippers only.

But I never see steelhead with the same evidence of catch and release survival.

 

Some further information the comment period officially began Oct.16, it is a 60 day period so there is plenty of time to comment on it, I still stand opposed to this new regulation. Please take the time to get your input to the DEC.

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by reelxite

[King Davy]

Yeah Bob that’s why I made my original statement to make sure nobody’s effort was left unused.

We can debate this till the cows come home. My experiences are different from yours and ours might be different from others.

Each of our levels of buying into the science or not are different. For me in this particular situation of forage assessment I believe in the 80/20 rule. I think they are on the 80 side. And in science making a case that usually works. Nobody wants to see stocking cuts. My current position is the regs proposed during this difficult time will help us keep all fisheries flush.

[john1947]

I have seen people catch many steelhead and dump them back into the creek without helping the fish recover.What kind of regulation might correct this practice.maybe it would be better to keep what we catch regardless size and stop at limit

[GAMBLER]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 8:28 AM, Lucky13 said:

 

 

" Unless the Bait rebounds."  Well, at least one angler out there supports and believes the science even when it is not reporting the story you want to hear.  Maybe you can talk to Captain Perlioni about that.

 

.

I do believe bait numbers are down some due to the two bad year classes but not as drastic as the trawls show.  When the trawls changed from 10 minute to 5 minute trawls, I believe you can not compare that data anymore.  Once it changed to 5 minute trawls, you should only compare data to 5 minute trawl data IMO.  We did see a good amount of bait all over this summer.  I can remember in the 90's and it was a miracle to see a bait cloud on a trip.  If you did, the bait ball was covered with fish on the graph.  We saw huge bait clouds and marked nothing on them at times this summer.