Gator

We fished it last weekend and only had a few hits and two (lost) fish by 11 am in the deep water jigging. We moved into 22 fow to fish perch and wouldn't you know it started slamming lakers on the Lake Fork plastics. Picked up a quick limit before the school moved out. I don't know if that was a pattern, because we had to leave shortly thereafter.

How about that Syracuse win last night?? I gave up combat trolling in 6 fow. Our boat won't get dumped until May and there's more room on the water. April is too busy with other things anyway.

Some interesting stuff. Here's the nuts and bolts. Others can add their take. Everybody knows that catching was poor last year. The salmon were late to the game, and even then didn't show up in force. Every other species was at or near historic lows. 2012 had an awesome recruitment of alewives. Since then, the survey's indicated a lack of 1 year old fish in the nets. So, two year classes are essentially missing. Coupled with diminishing returns from the 2012 hatch, there could be a problem on the horizon. The best guess is that two hard winters in a row impacted survival. The DEC expressed "concern". Interestingly, there's $4.3 million bucks in Kodak cleanup money that's been allocated to the Genesee River. The fish and wildlife service is administering the funds and accepting project proposals from anybody. These are just proposals, not bids, so you don't get the money automatically if your project is selected. See this site for more information: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/nyfo/ec/GeneseeRiver.htm

I'll second the Bushnell Trophy series. They're not Reconyx, but for the $$$ they work fine. You should be able to get them under $100 if you look for sales and rebates. However, I did notice that the reviews at Cabelas on their new series generally suck. I have the 6 and 8 MP low glow and black light cameras, not the new Ninja or Aggressors. Something to think about...

With this weather, I expect to see you at the docks soon Glad to hear that you're doing well!

We went down for redfish in December and fished the Marshes; the guide service was great, but he's not an offshore guy. He fishes the Venice side when the river's not running crazy. I guess they wallop some hogs over there. But I'm with you on the reds. We flyfished for them in murky water and it was a Southern version of duck and chuck. The fall season is when the bull reds show up hard.

That's a silly price for plastic replacements. Listen to Yankee. And if you can afford it, go with the 580G. It's orders of magnitude better.

I bought my Lund Mr. Pike off Walleyecentral (http://www.walleyecentral.com/classified/searchresults) six or seven years ago and I couldn't be happier. There's a few boats on there now that might fit the bill for you. Most of them are in the mid-West though. Just a thought.

And there's very little time left to comment. I can't imagine that there's a hunter out there who doesn't want to be heard. So it must be that we haven't done enough to spread the word...tell your friends! Comments are only being solicited on several proposed changes as indicated in the thread above, but you can sing your heart out if you want on other issues, too. At least you know they'll read it.

Jason's a competitor...you know he's fighting, coma or no. My faith and prayers are with him.

And I can't stand whippy light rods Les has got it right, it's about personal preference. My preference is short rods with some backbone to them. I'm all for going light when the conditions favor it...I own 2 and 3-wt rods for fly fishing the Oatka,..but I hate feeling like I can't gain line against the boat's moving and I like the maneuverability of a short rod when the fish is close. I'd love to stop and fight fish from a standstill, but with 10+ rods out, that's not always possible. Still, light stuff is fun... We run Talora 7' rods on the riggers, and 8' / 9 1/2' for the inside and outside wires. But for years our go-to was the ole' reliable TDR, 8' M or ML, and they were bulletproof. And cheap.

We've used him for years. Great service!

C'mon guys! Let's hear more of your input. Two weeks to flood DEC with letters! Let's let them know how we feel. I'm not going to push my agenda; all opinions are welcome. It's important that we take an active hand in this process, though. I wish they'd given us more time so that the Sporting News couple publish instructions...counter to my belief, I guess not everyone is on LOU So tell your hunting buddies that the Superbowl isn't for another week, use the time wisely and mail DEC their opinions.

I posted comments this morning. Here's what I said, if anybody's interested. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I am 48 years old and a landowner, with ~42 acres adjacent to Northampton Park in Monroe County. I would like to convey my sense of disappointment this past season, my first owning the property, when I found out that I would not be able to hunt for several large bucks that I’d patterned over the summer until after October 15th. This put quite a damper on my first season there. I always shoot doe; I am a Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester and my graduate students are always hungry! However, I do not shoot doe when it’s 70F out. In general, I harvest them later in the gun season and during muzzleloader season to allow the cool temperatures to do their work. Hence, I wasn’t in the woods the first two weeks of season. I firmly believe based upon interactions with many, many other bowhunters that the new regulation was not only ineffective, it was counterproductive and alienated your stakeholders. Moreover, I’m not sure that I understand how a small fraction of the hunting community such as bowhunters is expected to make enough of a dent in the doe population to be considered an effective management tool. I would like to clearly state my opinion that this rule should be rescinded. I would also like to provide some input from the perspective of a landowner near a high density deer area that doesn’t allow hunting. My neighbors and I (there are five groups in total that say in touch who own large parcels near Northampton) all commented on the lack of doe this year. Their numbers were so low that I asked my friends hunting on my property NOT to shoot doe, just so the bucks would have a couple to chase during the rut. This is in dramatic contrast to other areas I hunted where the numbers were somewhat lower than previous years, but not virtually non-existing. I came to find out that a local fruit farmer had shot at last count 73 doe on nuisance permits. Yes, 73 doe means he had a deer problem, I suspect. But the local impact was devastating. There needs to be reins on how many permits are distributed in a small area, even an area that’s considered to be high density. Again, my expectations as a first year landowner came to a crushing halt. My neighbors uniformly mirrored my opinion…there were just no doe around. Nuisance permits need to be more carefully handled and limits on local distribution need to be in place. Finally, although I understand the need for management tools, putting muzzleloader season in the middle of bow season is a very bad idea. Rifles and guys in trees wearing camo do not mix well. We don’t need another “opening day†in the woods to kick the deer into hiding. I know that everyone I speak to would like to harvest an extra doe for themselves or one of their co-workers. It’s not that they don’t have the tags. It’s not that they don’t have the time. They just don’t have the opportunity. For whatever reasons (I favor a lack of access and the prevalence of leasing), the guys I know either harvest all the doe that they want if they’re lucky enough to have spots or they simply don’t see deer (generally if they’re limited in where they can hunt and they burn that spot). Muzzleloader season during bow might change when the deer are harvested, but I sincerely feel that it won’t change overall harvest numbers. Finally, even if this regulation should come to pass, there will be no muzzleloader hunting on my land. We enjoy bow too much and we spend too much money in taxes to have our passion ruined in this way.

That's the first report I've heard from Oneida. The talk on Iceshanty is that only Big Bay is safe. I'm sure that's changing constantly as this winter weather (finally!!) keeps up, but I know there was a bunch of snow there recently, too, and there's probably only limited safe access. I guess it's good to know somebody is getting them...