LongLine

Sounds like you're making the case that her entire dept should be the first to go and that she hired a lot of people at the high end of the scale. I hope she makes it to retirement. Treasury dept says highest paying gov't jobs are medical, lawyers & auditors. Also, that total payroll (excluding military) is 300 billion. (Which is a drop in the bucket compared to federal budget). The buyout letter stated that those affected could get better paying jobs in private sector. Kind of makes you want to do some research into federal salaries. This is what PEW research says (excluding military & WH): I doubt very much that the new federal hires (who are probationary hires) are making the big bucks. It doesn't work like the private sector. One starts low and moves up with longevity. State projects, pork barrels and overruns are where the big bucks are. As to hiring "friends and relatives", we all know who does/has done that. Which news outlet are you referring to? Maybe we should all subscribe.

Back to original post, the question is whether the state or the fed should control that land. Additionally, who is more responsive and responsible for the state' needs? Others have stated that every tax expenditure/project should be scrutinized. So here's one to think about. Search "states dependent on federal support" and "state tax rates." You'll find that NYS rates #28 on the list of states most dependent on Fed support. New Yorkers contribute almost $4 in Fed income tax for every $1 in Fed support NY receives. (It would probably contribute more if we didn't have as many tax cheats.) NY state tax rate progresses from 4% to 11%, which we think is obscene. (4% for $8.5K income to 11% for 25M in income) State taxes support expenditures/projects within that state. So why or why is it that NY fed taxpayers pay for Fed expenditures/projects in other states whose state income taxes are much less or in those states that have no income taxes? They don't sufficiently support their own state needs? Utah has a 4.5% flat state income tax. Why do NY taxpayers have to support management of Utah lands? I say let Utah have control of that land AND they pay for it, not NY'rs. Let them raise their state income tax to support it and keep any profits they can make off of it. (i.e mining or drilling leases, etc) Not manu NY'rs are going to use that land for any great length of time. Texas is more dependent on Fed $ than NY and has no state income tax. What did Texas give NY other than busloads of illegal immigrants for which NY'rs have to pay to support and now round up? Don't get me wrong, I'll gladly chip in for projects that cross multiple state lines and/or can benefit everyone, however NY'rs paying for a bridge that only Alabamans will use is ridiculous! (Their state income tax is only 2%) Let the states pay for their own corruption. If you don't like the laws, then move. If you don't like state taxes, then move. If you don't like the weather, then move. Federal pork barrel spending is where the real money is, not in salaries. Think Spring!

According to fiscaldata.treasury.gov the total 2024 compensation for non-military gov't employees was three hundred billion dollars. The total gov't budget was 6.5 trillion dollars. If successful in reducing the salary by 10%, that's just a "drop in the bucket" of the total budget. i.e 0.45% (zero point four five) Of course cutting 10% of employees doesn't mean cutting 10% of salaries. Frivolous spending needs to stop. Projects/programs should be evaluated on the "most bang for the buck" and not on who "screams the loudest" which it looks, to me, like where we're heading. THINK SPRING!

Gill-T: I think we may be saying the same thing. HB2: I agree but instead of watching dimes, they should be watching dollars. We've all heard about the 900 dollar hammers and 1200 dollar toilet seats. It's companies screwing the gov't, not the salaries of new employees. It was stated in the buyout letter that those affected could earn a lot more in the private sector than they could working for the gov't. What about the 400 million dollar commitment to buy Teslas? How about the Air Force 1 flight to the super bowl? AF1 doesn't fly alone rather it is accompanied by a "decoy" plane plus 2 fighters and the entire Gulf defense system placed on alert to monitor it. (His team got clobbered and he left by half time anyways, making that a pretty expensive photo-shoot.) Why not charter 737s rather than use C-17s for immigrants? C-17 is one of the most expensive planes in the world to operate. How much is DOJ going to spend defending against all the lawsuits? Congress could do the same thing for pennies and without the lawsuits and wasted money. I hope I get my tax refund...I really want to go fishing this year. Even if successful, Fed taxes will never go down. Proposed tax cuts keep the same level we're at now. States will have to pick up the tab for shortfalls to FEMA, Medicaid, parks, school aid, etc plus unemployment., so you know where state & local taxes will go. (UP)

I can understand the fear of gov't actions, however that article says Utah wants to preserve the public lands as public. It also says BLM is leasing some of that land for mining, grazing & recreation. Researching "mining in Utah" shows USGS has record of over 6,000 mines there being leased by feds. USGS says over 2,000 are outcropping or pit mines. (uranium, copper & silver) The fee is $165 for a 20 acre mine plot. Utah (mining) says resource removal (mining & oil) is a $6.5 Billion dollar industry. My gosh, did we miss our calling! Sounds like we should have traded in our fishing rods for shovels. I'm afraid to look at the oil numbers and where they'll go with the "drill, baby, drill" philosophy.

I don't get it. Utah wants to make and keep all that land public. Fed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is leasing it out for mining as well as some for recreation. Current admin wants to open all fed lands to development. ie mining, drilling, lumbering, etc. Why would sportsmen root for the feds? They already sliced up Fed Parks & Recreation dept as well as taken chunks out of the EPA. Lamprey control & preyfish survey aren't the only items that are federally funded. USGS websites lists over 8,000 projects/programs concerning the great lakes. Not to mention the USF&WS entities such as Tunison Lab, Alleghany & Saratoga hatcheries. Lot of sportsmen on this site are concerned with fish diseases, lake trout and are rooting for the bloater. Another dept under scrutiny is NOAA. (All the Sharpie pens in the world won't warn us of gale winds or flooding) BTW: who controls the lake's water level? .

answers:

Merry Christmas!

This one's a little harder:

Guess the next one has to be a little harder.

Here's some fish:

My wife lets me have all the fishing gear I can hide.

Something to work on while we wait for the snow...

HB - Don't take that as an insult. Off topic from the subject of this thread, but there's a difference between "actively feeding" and "hitting." Back in the 70's I caught a female while balancing on a rock, 1/3rd of way out the east side of the Oak Orchard channel on a very dismal October evening. (rainy, windy, freaking cold) Casting a CD5 Rapala. Poor cast with a lot of slack. Fish hit it as soon as I reeled in the slack. Never saw fish till it was a couple feet from the rock. Very dark and dropping eggs after I landed her. She had both trebles in her mouth. I thought it was great to catch 28# Salmon feeding under those condition. However, her guts were shriveled up and hard to distinguish which was what. (Totally empty stomach) I then thought that the lure settled directly in front of her, scared her so she grabbed it. Since then, I've seen a lot of underwater videos of spawning fish. Pre and post spawning smallmouth chase anything away from their nests. (Which is why the closed season) I've also seen underwater videos of Salmon runs. In addition to discoloration, hooked jaws and deformed bodies, I've noticed (in most of them) the frequency of their mouth and gill movement. Spawning is very stressful and exhausting for Salmon so I can't help thinking these fish are gasping for breath. I.E. Sucking in a lot of water to get more oxygen. Just like any animal's respiration rate increasing when stressed or exhausted. Bottom line: Did that fish take the lure because it landed so close that she instinctively grabbed it. Was she being protective? Did she just suck it in during one of her deep breaths? She was a spawner, hit a lure but definitely was not "actively feeding."

Believe what you want. Personally, I believe statistical sampling a lot more than anecdotal fish stories. There's an age old saying that "all fishermen are liars except you and me, but sometimes I'm not too sure about you."

I agree with Whaler but note regulations can change every year. I'm sure many members remember when the Salomine limit was 5 and not 3 in combination with only 2 Stlhd over 21." Also the years before the slot limit on Lakers; and years when the limit on bass was 10" with 6 per day; just to name a few. I don't remember when they initiated the timed closing of the Little Sandy (Oswego) nor when they initiated the section of the SR to fly fishing only. I really don't see why a new one of a "max length slot" type one can't be initiated in the General Lake Ontario and Tributary regulation section. (I.E. Harvest one King over "X" length per angler per day) According to the 2022 angler surveys: 51,864 Kings were harvested by boats over 169 days, (5+ months) yet 30,968 Kings were caught in the SR in the month of October alone. We don't know how many of the boat caught fish would have gone to the SR but we do know the benefit of Pen rearing regarding returns and according to same report, 62% of those boat caught Kings were on the west end. We also do know that the 30,968 Kings were in the SR at spawning time. As to enforcement, what keeps anyone within the laws? Actually getting caught? The threat of getting caught? Upbringing as a "law abiding" citizen? Knowing that DEC is counting cars and doing angler surveys?

Let me 1st say I'm an open water guy. Tried tribs twice in my life. 1st time (early 80's) I saw guys snagging huge salmon and thought it was criminal. 2nd time, slipped on my butt & nearly drowned...so scrow that! But I'm also a Data guy. It's not a matter of what I'd like to believe. As to the Sandy Pens, someone contributed the size issue to discontinuing those pens yet here is the data from the Chinooks measured at the SR over years: Pens were at Sandy Creek in 2017. Size decline showed up well before 2017. Here are the pen numbers from 2017 report: As to why they discontinued pens there, published strategy was that they wanted to spread them out more based on the tagging/marking studies that Chinooks caught in the open water could have originated from anywhere and to spread out the trib runs somewhat evenly across all 4 regions of Big-O. They also did away with Little Sodus (Fair Haven) Sodus and 12 Mile. Here's the numbers for the 2022 stocking: (note they increased the numbers in the pens and did away with the direct stocking. They did have a small surplus but unknown where they went) As to closing the river, I'm not against that however, it's not going to happen. Angler survey estimated 870,000 effort hours spent on the open water in a whole season and 747,000 on the SR. On the SR, 373,000 hours from shore estimated to occur during the month of October. That'd be a lot of pizzed off trib guys and a lot of potential economic loss for the east end. As proposed before, I'm all in favor of some kind of daily max length per angler for open water and tribs. I.E. keep only 1 over a certain length per angler. I don't know how that affects tournaments (But don't they require all legal fish must count in box?) Maybee some tourney guys can chime in on their rules? There's no doubt in my mind that Pen Rearing helps survival and growth so here's an "off the wall" idea. I believe the DEC and OMNR coordinate efforts (sometimes "friendly" competition). Could a deal be made where some of the Chinook SF in our pens are Canadian SF? Maybe 10% or so in each pen? Maybe over a few years?

Per the 2017 L.O. annual report: On 4/21/17 64,000 Chinooks were put in pens on Sandy Cr at 113/Lb (4g) at 50F temperature. They were released on 4/27/17 at 4g weight. (6 days) Per the 2022 L.O. report: On 4/13/22, 18,800 Atlantic Ylg and on 4/15/22, 17,000 Rainbows Ylg were direct stocked at Sandy Creek. Given the short pen-time in 2017 for Chinook SF and that Atlantics Ylg & Rainbows Ylg were stocked there in 2022, I'd guess that Sandy Creek is believed to currently have a temperature regime that is not as conducive to Chinook survival as other sites. I read somewhere that the mortality rate for Chinooks of that size greatly increases about 52-53F.