Sweet Caroline

Lake Ontario water level

Thought I read it on this forum somewhere. Can't find it. Maybe I imagined it:)

Thought I heard water levels were going to be raised 2nd week of Oct to allow boats to be pulled. Anybody know if there is any truth to that?

Was out this afternoon off Ibay and east. Temps 80-90 down now. Decent brown bite with some small salmon mixed in.

My guess is they spread out pretty quick as soon as they hit the lake and end up in the most fertile water where that may be.

Small kings were in with browns I-bay to Webster Park last September. 40-60 fow. They were in the 6 to 8 inch range. Caught a dozen or so throughout the month in that area. All released as gently as possible. Hope that helps.

Last year seemed to be a good year for survival. I started catching these small kings last fall and also caught a ton of small browns. Given that last year was our peak low for king stocking numbers, logically you would think there would be less small salmon around. I feel that the environmental conditions can sometimes be more important then the number of fish stocked when it comes to overall numbers that survive. For instance, last year we had a huge crop of 2020 YOY alewife around which could have helped alleviate predation on our stocked fish by cormorants and other fish. I know in years of clear, cold water in the spring that stocked browns get pretty decimated. Anybody know preliminary results on the bait trawls from this year? Interested to see how last years YOY made out.

Went for a hike today, Letchworth, east side. Probably saw 50 deer including two bucks still with antlers. Seems to be a good population in that area. Out during the day too and didn’t seem too troubled by human activity.

I like that the DEC is making use of the great alewife hatch we had in 2020 and stocking some more kings. Always thought it was a good idea to follow the hatch instead of stocking the same amount every year. Anecdotal info but there seemed to be an insane amount of of small browns out there late season. 1-3 lb fish which I believe would be fish that were stocked in spring 2020. I think I recall they had some surplus browns in 2020 that were stocked. Looks like a lot actually made the gauntlet. I also heard there may be a shortage in 2022 due to flooding at Rome this year. Any word on that? Thanks all for sharing. Interesting stuff.

Not uncommon for salmon to stray. On the pacific coast, studies have shown up to 10% of a salmon population will stray up to 100 miles of their native trib. They theorize that this is a life strategy in that if their is a catastrophe at the home trib, the species can repopulate elsewhere.

King Davy, Interesting on replacing domestics with more browns. Do you know how many more browns will be stocked? Although it doesn’t really matter if they stock them on a clear, calm day with cormorants around.

Just getting around to rigging this. Bought 65lb power pro. Is 300 yds of 65lb enough to fill a standard size reel I.e daiwa saltist 30? Or do I need to add some backing? been 15 years since I’ve rigged a slide diver:)