chinook35

You had a vhf ?

Salmonoid fishing on Lake O has a huge learning curve. Not like throwing a jig and slip bobber for perch Most people don’t have the time to be able to learn then there’s the fickle weather for years I fished a 19’ cuddy and spend a lot of time at the launch watching the waves crash over the breakwall before going to breakfast people that travel long distances to fish get discovered when they are only able to get out 3 days of a week long trip it is a fishery that I will always revere , but as I get older I like simpler better then there are your fishing partners. My man passed 2 years ago and I haven’t found any one to fill his shoes some are along for the ride Can’t rig , can’t steer the boat and have a problem kicking in for fuel ⛽️ nothing like having the newbie steer while you set the spread , only to have him do a tight 180 and tangle everything. Start over 😂

I started fishing the salmonoids on Lake O in the late ‘70’s things were much simpler then and more fun small boats dragging drop sinkers or if you were lucky a couple of Riviera downriggers thumper rods with 1# balls dragging Luhr-Jensen dodgers with squid ( hoochies ) or little cleo spoons lowrance flasher depth finders , then paper graphs some of the guys got into Loran for position No such thing as GPS then cut bait was a great introduction caught several tons of fish dragging flashers / twinkies and Rhys -Davis cut bait NOW chartplotters , military grade sonar , auto pilots for setting trolling patterns, downriggers that do everything but chose the lure for you , down temp , speed and light , planer boards that allow you to have a 300’+ wide boat to let people dodge, trolling spoon selection in the thousand range ,it goes on and on with new , hot products coming out daily the only thing lacking is the ability to pay for all this stuff I will always love trolling on Lake O , but a lot of the fun is gone maybe that is the reason for the decline in participation in both fishing and the derbies

I totally agree with that the requirement to not be able to fish solo seems like a big money grab lie detector tests are required and sworn statements should be enough. there are a number of rules and limitations that have turned me off to the LOC derbies. Seems like it’s turned into a big money maker for the promoter

Memories I fished the old ESLO derbies for many years starting in the late ‘70’s the LOC can’t start to compare We would look out over the water from our camp on Sandy pond and try and count the navigation lights on the boats long before dawn. Hundreds of boats in Mexico bay lines from Mexico pt boat launch all the way out to rt 104 fish in the high 30 lb class were common. the costs have made salmon fishing out of reach for many people

Cormorants are a very wary bird getting them In shotgun range consistently would be a challenge. I believe the only way to make a dent in the population is to do what the charter captains out of Henderson did in the ‘80’s they surrounded their nesting island ( little Galoo) and had a turkey shoot some went to jail over it , but it brought attention to the problem the DEC had a program to oil the eggs so they wouldn’t hatch. That program needs to be re established they have spread to all the inland lakes in central NY. Oneida is full of the critters Something needs to be done and soon

I can’t help but remember the die offs in the 50’s -60’s -70’s Our camp on the lake side of Sandy Pond had “ mooneyes “ ankle deep in the beaches. We would rake them into piles and burn them That was before the introduction of the Pacific salmon Can this die off be an effect of salmon stocking being cut back ? I realize that the yearly die off is a natural occurrence, but it was almost non existent for many years after the salmon introduction

One less cormorant. Yay 😀