Gator

I was actually out in my kayak until the wind picked up, but on the ponds rather than the lake. It looked great out there.

Somebody playing hooky lol? Nice morning, nice fish.

Awesome reporting, Pete. Thank you.

Nice pics! And Happy Birthday. I was torn yesterday between hitting the lake or Honeoye. Chose the later and didn't regret it

I hope there's resolution soon and not too many folks are impacted.

Disagree about The Fish Thief. IMHO, they did a great job. Many interviews with families that historically made a living fishing. I wasn't watching explicitly for anti-fishing sentiment, but usually that sort of thing would set off my radar pretty quickly. I mean, they even talked about how king salmon were the savior of the lake after the alewives got so bad they needed to use bulldozers to clean up the beaches. Anyway, I went in thinking it would be schlock and ended up really enjoying it. Everybody should watch it and figure out for themselves what they think!

x2! I think I'd mentioned at some point here or elsewhere that the lampricide belongs to a class of chemicals that was used as weight loss drugs in the last century - until folks started dying from heat exhaustion! Dinitrophenol uncouples your mitochondria and wastes energy in the form of heat. Makes them work harder, ergo the weight loss, but - just like non-shivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue - generates heat instead. Lovely. The things people do. At least they're used now to exploit a selective vulnerability in lamprey. Still toxic to other species at high enough doses though. Interestingly, these drugs are currently being applied at very low doses in therapeutic trials to combat Parkinson's disease, since they can elicit a mitochondrial stress response that helps prevent the consequences of a problematic quality control system. Cool, right?

All good points! I was of course just using hyperbole to illustrate the point that it's always easier to offload the burden on someone else's shoulders. We are all in this together. And I, like you, think that the national debt is one of the largest problems facing us. But I want to make sure before hack and slash cuts that we are actually making the problem better not worse. I think that one of the words in DOGE is "efficiency", but I'm not seeing it. There's a great article in NY Outdoor News regarding the recent cuts to the Park Service. I agreed with the final take that the intent is to limit services to the point where privatization becomes necessary. And there goes the neighborhood. Our National Park system is the envy of the world. It would be a shame to lose it.

Put your money where your mouth is and donate your retirement to reducing the debt. After all, you are asking that other folks shoulder the burden by taking away the future that they've worked their whole lives for. Do it!! I still won't agree with you, but at least I will respect that you back up your opinion with action.

1. If we wait for a problem to become a problem, then we will be behind the eight ball in formulating a solution. Got to think ahead. 2. Some solutions are too extreme, no matter the debt we owe. Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half the population of the universe, silly as that was, in Avengers. See my leadoff statement. We need to weigh juice for the squeeze and minimize collateral damage. 3. A big thanks to those posting information rather than opinions. I will contact my representatives.

I give a sh$t. It's a fascinating scientific issue, and there's a wealth of theories. Unfortunately, with grant funding declining and the cuts reaching far, even NOAA, I suspect that it will remain a topic for conversation on this board for a long time. Just not enough juice for the squeeze. Maybe when I retire next year I will spearhead an initiative. My guess is that it's a lack of manpower and resources. Fisheries isn't my game (despite having worked in a Cornell ADK field station during college), but you're either always learning or never learning.

brown

Some St. Croix rods are made in Wisconsin, but many are manufactured in Mexico, as are all RodGeek blanks, which is their custom counterpart. Still, better than most rod makers. Many are made in Asia, with a few still located in the States, but sourcing materials and outsourcing production of certain runs - Loomis comes to mind. Unless it's from a small custom manufacturer, the most recognized brands are all part of multinationals. And I can confirm Gambler Rigs are made in America. IMHO, he should recruit some "child labor" to help him; make the kid earn his keep lol.

FYI, good article in the latest issue of Outdoor News on the impact of COVID on lamprey populations. It wasn't good.

Love the terms. TDS, libtards, woke left. Can't folks have a simple exchange of ideas without trying to belittle or demonize the other side? These things started out as a snickering kind of loopy joke, Now they're buzz terms used mainly by folks who didn't seem to get that it was a joke in the first place. And don't start telling me how the left does the same thing. It does. MAGA republicans. Huge insult lol Somehow I manage to have conversations with my right wing friends, many of them on here, without feeling like my opinions are totally dismissed and I'm a dumb ass. And I hope that I in return never make them feel that way. And at the end of the day, it's all about where we're fishing or hunting tomorrow. Maybe it's just that the interweb sucks. Ignore me - I'm just watching years of work go up in flames. Meli-frickin-ora.

Thanks for clarifying. Hopefully the same holds true as we move forward.

"Undeniable facts from past experience"? This is not a political statement: your experience amounts to a case study. The truth of your experience may differ greatly from mine. Or are you claiming to have experience with funneling money to illegal aliens lol? I just don't see how politics plays a part in decisions to fund an ecological project - nor citing substantiated, published research. Educate me. Without inserting politics into the mix. What is it you are objecting to?

All items are gone. Meliora!

I'll second Gill's Outdoor News recommendation! It's a great way to stay on top of local news, and it's plugged into a larger network. Their online presence is also tight.

Apologies for the hijack. Myself and colleagues at the local and international level are in deep crisis, but that's not what this thread is about. I really, really appreciate that those with alternative viewpoints, which I respect, aren't piling on. Thank you. I watched The Fish Thief on Amazon yesterday as was recommended via a different thread here, and I learned a bunch of new stuff about the lamprey control program in the Great Lakes. It's a bit slow to start, but narration by JK Simmons fills the gaps. As a researcher, I'm amazed that they simply tested thousands of compounds by putting them into a vat containing two fish and two lamprey, then assessed selectivity by how quickly it killed each species. And the chemical they came up with, TFM (3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol), is still used to this day. As an aside for anyone who's interested, nitrophenols uncouple mitochondria so they waste energy, which dissipates as heat. 50 years ago, dinitrophenol was hailed as a weight loss drug for this reason, until folks started keeling over from heat exhaustion and stroke!!! Today, DNP is being tested to treat many neurodegenerative diseases that have a mitochondrial basis such as Parkinson's, obviously at much, much lower doses. The results actually look promising. From lamprey's to Parkinson's. Amazing. The primary reason I mention this is that many of the federally funded aquatic research programs such as the one that discovered TFM are at risk now. Contact your legislator and state your position if you want to have an impact.

It's not a question of reducing funding. There's no doubt that fiscal responsibility means cutting costs. What's alarming is the haphazard way this is being accomplished. When you get a sinus infection, do you cut off your head? This administration is creating a power vacuum by demanding the resignation of highly trained folks, many of who've done a fantastic job over the years. Congressional appropriations? Most scientists don't have a clue. They're just concerned about being able keep the lights on, and this multi-pronged attack on science (forced resignations, indiscriminate layoffs, and a blanket 15% F&A cap) means they won't. It's like Thanos in the Endgame... with the premise that if you eliminate half the universe's population, the problem is instantly solved. But maybe it's not that simple. What if you're throwing the baby away with the bathwater? Could it be that there's some unknown reason this is happening? IDK... Great intention, horrible flawed execution.