FISH

[brucehookedup]

Reading these reports and talking to many people thru out the lake we all agree as to what has to happen .Bottom line gentleman and ladies we need to get our beloved state to put more fish in Lake Ontario. It will take EVERYONE to bring things back as it is needs to be. 

[Sweet Caroline]

Did DEC do the trawls this year? Curious to see what there findings were on bait numbers. Lakers are going to get hammered this year which will lead to even more bait abundance in the coming years as those fish exit the system. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by A-Lure-A

[Chuck Smth]

Bruce, yesterday was a tough one for sure. We went 0 for 1.  Fished 60 to 150 off of Lewis Shoal and it wasn't for a lack of effort. Full spread, 10 colors, 5 colors, dipseys, riggers etc.,  tried downsizing, upsizing, you name it. Inside was particularly frustrating as we were all over fish and bait in perfect colored water. I wonder if they're just so well fed they're getting picky? Fish we caught last week were puking up small alewives. Haven't seen bait clouds like this since the eighties. 

 

One thing I did notice was the temperature break inside was pretty severe. It dropped from around 60 on the surface to 45 down 35' . Ah, the joys of sustained south winds - guaranteed to mess up the fishing.

 

It was pretty calm and that didn't help either.  

 

Did anybody go search for the thermal bar? 

 

This year will take some work for sure. PM me your number if you want to collaborate. See you pulling out past us most mornings. 

 

Chuck

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Chuck Smth
Update

[thork9]

I know there’s fish in there cause I saw them at the hatchery and they said they were putting them in the lake, huh or the Canadians caught them all I’m sure.

[shawn393]

Agreed it is time to up the stocking #'s. They went too far with the stocking cuts in the first place. I could understand their logic behind the the 1st round of cuts but then they cut again. They can start by bringing the king pen project back to sandy

[copperpin]

 On Friday there was a lot of dead alewives floating around near the Genny and I bay. We were marking bait like mad schools ten feet thick.

[Mrm31790]

The one major thing I know everyone agrees with.... cormorants. They literally eat all the stock fish coming out of the tanks. The numbers have exploded. Early duck season every year will prove this. Ran by a flock feeding on a bait ball last weekend. Had to be 200-300 birds. All diving and eating. Every population needs control. Canada figured it out. 

[brucehookedup]

Hey chuck, the thermo bar is non existent for the most part. The best you can do is look for colder water up high on your down temp, mother nature is boning us again, flat water high sun. I have not seen the cormys around recently like usual but we need to take care of that issue for sure. We are raising fish for bird feed.  Not sure where they are feeding now. Thork9, just because you saw them in the hatchery doesn't mean they were put where they should be. AlureA there is a major abundance of 1 yr alewives for sure, and you are right the lakers are taking a major hit based on the other species not available to catch. It will take all of us to speak up with these issues.

[thork9]

No I agree I’m being sarcastic. They use propaganda, I know lakes in Adirondacks that I fish stocking reports state many fish stocked but not rally ,I can tell because you would connect on little 9 in fish, go to different part of lake catch bigger ones, did this for years, Now you don’t catch many and when you do there 20 in were are all the little ones, it’s been going down for the past five years, I know a person in the know and he states they report what they stock and where, only 1/2 is true, Lake Ontario I’m sure it’s the same. Coumo wants the money elsewhere .

[GAMBLER]

Before they start stocking more, lets take care of the biggest issue first.  CORMORANTS!  These birds are doing more damage than the stocking cuts.  They can stock more fish but as long as the cormorants are not controlled, the stockers will be decimated.  

[Mrm31790]

19 minutes ago, GAMBLER said:

Before they start stocking more, lets take care of the biggest issue first.  CORMORANTS!  These birds are doing more damage than the stocking cuts.  They can stock more fish but as long as the cormorants are not controlled, the stockers will be decimated.  

How do we get the ball rolling? Can we all meet with the dnr? Anyone know? 

[GAMBLER]

20 minutes ago, Mrm31790 said:

How do we get the ball rolling? Can we all meet with the dnr? Anyone know? 

I'm not sure what we need to do.  Lawsuit?  We have brought it up to the DEC for years and they say its out of their hands.  

[Yankee Troller]

It's never gonna happen with our current bait fish problem. We don't have the biomass of adult alewife to warrant those numbers anymore. I'll take tough fishing vs no fishing if they overstock and crash the lake. If you want to catch fish consistently you may have to travel a little bit now. We go through these cycles all the time of great fishing and slow fishing. It's the way mother nature works.

 

I am for doing something with these damn cormorants and releasing of hatchery fish. Between them and the Turin's those fish take a beating. All that hard work by the hatchery and they go down into a stupid birds gullet. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Yankee Troller

[jckjr8]

This graph from a study on lake Huron shows pretty good correlation. Time to get the birds in check.

[shawn393]

With all the dead and dying alewives around all we are doing is supporting a healthy bird population.  Salmon were originally stocked to make sure there wouldn't be massive bait fish die off

Edited May 24, 2021 by shawn393

[Yankee Troller]

16 minutes ago, shawn393 said:

With all the dead and dying alewives around all we are doing is supporting a healthy bird population.  Salmon were originally stocked to make sure there wouldn't be massive bait fish die off

 

That's not atypical, but we haven't seen much of that in recent years. According to the biologist that year class of small alewife is so big it's off the charts. We'll find out more at Tuesdays Lake Ontario Charter Boat Association meeting. It's open to the public and will be a Q & A session with the guy who leads our baitfish study. Meeting will start 7pm sharp.

[CopperJohn]

Years ago when DEC first got permission to oil the eggs of cormorants, they reported on their website the work they where doing, oiled  X thousand eggs on this island at a cost of y thousand dollars,  they reported this for each island except one island had no nesting cormorants on it but they observed a raccoon on the island. I commented about the report on a thread at the time, DEC removed the reports.

 

I don’t know if a raccoon swam out to the island or a good old boy dumped one out of a live trap but it reduced the cormorant nesting on the lake.

 

If DEC made an agreement with local animal control officers in the Henderson Harbor area to put a raccoon on selected islands they could effectively reduce the cormorant population and save taxpayers x thousands of dollars.

[Bad_Influence]

54 minutes ago, CopperJohn said:

Years ago when DEC first got permission to oil the eggs of cormorants, they reported on their website the work they where doing, oiled  X thousand eggs on this island at a cost of y thousand dollars,  they reported this for each island except one island had no nesting cormorants on it but they observed a raccoon on the island. I commented about the report on a thread at the time, DEC removed the reports.

 

I don’t know if a raccoon swam out to the island or a good old boy dumped one out of a live trap but it reduced the cormorant nesting on the lake.

 

If DEC made an agreement with local animal control officers in the Henderson Harbor area to put a raccoon on selected islands they could effectively reduce the cormorant population and save taxpayers x thousands of dollars.

Sounds viable to me , worth looking into!

[rolmops]

Maybe we could quietly put a few raccoons on more than one island. I have a hunch that the DEC will look the other way.

Some raccoons may start doing what we can’t do.

 

 

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[Mrm31790]

Maybe!! Not a bad idea. Or we could get loud and have a island party with unplugged 12ga. All dead birds could be ground up and made into pellets for our hatcherys to feed.... saved money will give our wonderful politicians more money to give themselves anyway.. win win

[UNREEL]

I was told the  oiling of the eggs worked great on ground nests like Gallou and Stoney Islands years ago because the birds killed all the trees and they had no choice where to nest. Given the opportunity to nest high in trees like we’ve seen in Irondequoit Bay and other islands, the birds will nest there,  which makes oiling and raccoon predation impossible.

A fire fighting boat with a high pressure water cannon would be my choice of weapon. 

[brucehookedup]

I was told the  oiling of the eggs worked great on ground nests like Gallou and Stoney Islands years ago because the birds killed all the trees and they had no choice where to nest. Given the opportunity to nest high in trees like we’ve seen in Irondequoit Bay and other islands, the birds will nest there,  which makes oiling and raccoon predation impossible.
A fire fighting boat with a high pressure water cannon would be my choice of weapon. 

Coons and hoses LMAO


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[CopperJohn]

9 hours ago, UNREEL said:

I was told the  oiling of the eggs worked great on ground nests like Gallou and Stoney Islands years ago because the birds killed all the trees and they had no choice where to nest. Given the opportunity to nest high in trees like we’ve seen in Irondequoit Bay and other islands, the birds will nest there,  which makes oiling and raccoon predation impossible.

A fire fighting boat with a high pressure water cannon would be my choice of weapon. 

I got news for you, raccoons are excellent tree climbers.

[Bad_Influence]

40 minutes ago, CopperJohn said:

I got news for you, raccoons are excellent tree climbers.

...considering that's where they spend 90% of their lives.   

 

 

[UNREEL]

I take back the raccoon statement. Got a little carried away there talking about the nest oiling.   

Bottom line is something needs to be done about those damn birds. The USFWS needs to expand the permits to put a dent in the NE population.