King Davy

Yeah I know the hatchery product has been suspect at times. I helped clip them spring of 2022 and it was so cold in March in the tank room there was five inches of ice on the tank pipes. We had to bring propane heaters in to thaw out our hands about every 10 minutes. Tough environment to raise these fish in. Yet the ones I catch and see in the finger lakes are great fish. Hopefully the Federal product will be much more consistent.

Gambler did it look like the fins may have been clipped. The adult fish being caught now are from the ADK hatchery and all LO fish were clipped adapose and or both Adapose and a vent clip. ( those raised in pens). Now all the LO fish are out of VT. DEC has brokered a management plan with Federal hatcheries to obtain Salar hopefully in greater numbers. I heard the lake creel census showed an increase in landlocks caught . I know of a couple captains out of Oswego who’ve never had the opportunity to check in with the creel boat who’ve caught dozens of salar. The trib creel census showed a high catch in our Sandy creek and Oak orchard. So it would seem they are becoming a part of the targets one can hope/expect to catch both on the Lake and tribs.

Fish was down 101 feet in 41 degree water. Deepest and coldest I’ve ever caught one on the lake. Also caught a laker WITH and adipose fin. So could have been a wild. Always fun out west.

Yeah old Marge is passed and her sons haven’t kept up the Marina. So we dock next door. I started trolling the lake in 1971, started guiding in 1979 through 2001. We didn’t have all this social media stuff back in those days. My only claim to fame back in the day was writing for the original Great Lakes fishermen mag on their staff. We generated lots of great information on catching trout and salmon in the Great Lakes. The fish are still in the same places, and Gratson and I still laugh all day long and catch fish.

Over 40 years fishing the Wilson area in the Spring 30 of it with great friend Gratson and his son new Capt Collin, and daughter Meg. Friday was a 30 bite start, Saturday we went looking for bigger fish and the bite was slower from 300 feet into the shallower depths. Everything from Kings, Coho’s, Lakers and an Atlantic salmon taken 100 foot down in cold water. Spoons flies and meat all took fish.

Honestly Rick I simply called the DEC and asked. I doubt they’ll publicly share the actual comments and expose people’s personal email addresses.

Fern Driftwood it’s all good. I’m sure the future will be bright with us all rowing together to make the entire fishery as world class as it is today

As far as the regs making steelhead fishing better I totally disagree. Before the die off in 2014 from the late 1990’ steelhead were getting hammered on both the lake and tribs due to the fact the 1993 salmon stocking reduction put way more pressure on rainbows. And much tougher king fishing. The reg change in 2004 steelhead fishing right up to the 2014/2015 die off was spectacular, and I can’t speak for others but in that time frame I had four legitimate 20 pound plus fish three out of the Genny. Since the die off we also have bait fish issues and as king salmon sizes have dropped since that 2010 time frame so have the steelhead. But with the regs we now see many more year classes of fish in one season. I will say since the late 90’s serious trib anglers stopped killing steelhead. Trib anglers today don’t harvest nearly as many fish as 20 years ago. Including brown trout and even king salmon. The census results have painted that picture for years. Trib anglers want to manage that fishery much differently than the lake anglers. There is nothing wrong with that. As much as you want to I can tell you a majority of the folks I know that fish the LO tribs have never blamed poor fishing on the lake anglers killing all the fish. They focus on how those fish are treated in rivers from September through the following May. And look to regulate accordingly. Last thing I’ll say is this. Where ever you fish, open lake, LO tribs, inland tribs (which are now open year round)….. have a safe fun and successful season what ever that may be to all who have the passion to be fishermen.

Brian you seem so paranoid about TU. I know how the comment tally ended up. Number one there wasn’t nearly as many comments from any particular group as you seem to imagine. I have two theory’s why DEC made a reg change on the lake. I also sat on the bi-national stakeholder group and in listening to MNR and DEC there were/are routinely looking to have standard regs including creel limits. At the time the Canadians had recently dropped their steelhead lake creel to two. The second factor that I know was discussed internally between mangers was the original architected plan that Bill Pearce put together back in the 60’s. I know because one of my very good friends working for DEC at the time helped bring that to the discussion. King and Coho salmon along with brown trout and lake trout were to be the staple fish for the lake, and steelhead were the icing on the cake. Since steelhead spend as much if not more months in a tributary and Bill and his team of biologists and managers stated that steelhead would be the trib staple and the other fish icing on the cake since their river presence was far more limited. So maybe that’s why they made the change.

We are once again going to try and find a place to raise steelhead on the Genny. There is a keen interest from fishermen to do so. Hopefully we can work something out with a location to house the pens. DEC supports this 100% and will provide the materials to build them. And fisherman from all interests have volunteered to take care of them.

There are other factors. One, most of the discussion around LO and alerts to pen rearing is done on this site. Most tributary fishermen that I know and have known forever never ever heard of LOU. I had my boat at Sandy until 2001 and knew Bob S since I had been the president of the then western Lake Ontario Charter Boat Association, and helped on pens at the Oak and Sandy and at the Genny when Frank Sanza ran that operation. I was always a trib angler and I can tell you several that I fished with joined those efforts. We just didn’t announce how or where we fished. Cause who cares. Let’s just raise these fish and set them free. Organizations like Trout Unlimited are not now nor have they ever been a threat to any cold water fishery. They work on every type of water that supports cold water species. Any success story of cold water species being supported by anglers is in their play book. Regulations are meant to sustain sport fishing. And there will never be a regulation amendment or change that makes everyone happy. But in the end where has any of this truly ruined anyone’s life or lively hood? Support them or hate them I can’t imagine anyone walked away from fishing the lake or the tribs due to a fishing creel regulation.

Yup I was asked to present that to the state council and in attendance was Steve Hurst who also supported the presentation. At the end of it the council wanted to make a TU position statement in support of the two new reg changes to the tribs , and had no statement in any changes to any regs for the lake. And in front of Hurst and the council I said NO. Individual anglers need to decide on their own on if they support these reg changes, and comment back to the DEC. So New York State TU did not make an organized position statement to DEC to the comment period. And I know that Lake clubs and Charter boat groups also discussed these reg changes during the comment period back then as well they should. So what’s the big deal if groups of concerned anglers discuss matters of the fishery? Yesterday while loading one of the chinook pens at the Oak a section of pipe broke loose and hundreds of salmon par spilled out on the ground. Do you think the trib guys for which there were at least a dozen just sat there and said well these are chinooks flopping around dying in the dirt let the lake guys pick them up? No everybody scrambled to get these beautiful little fish into the water. And by the end they had all been put in and I didn’t see a single dead par laying on the surface. Brian it’s time to stop all this us vs them BS. We all love this fishery no matter where and how we fish it.

Here’s the truth about what happened at the Genny with Steelhead pens. First let me comment on regulation changes three years ago. The original stakeholder committee was involved in offering regs changes. The members of that committee addressing the tributary fishery offered a 1 one brown trout limit reg change ONLY in the tribs and a 25 inch limit for steelhead. The trib steelhead creel limit was changed from 3 to 1 in 2004. That was it. Never did that group seek a creel reduction for the lake creel on steelhead. They did want to see a universal 25 inch limit open waters and trib. That request was refused at the committee level after discussions and the lake size would remain at 21. There was no push back from lake anglers on the two reg changes to the tribs. That was it. The DEC through their own discussions made that change. It had nothing to do with any tributary group. Call the DEC in Albany or Cape Vincent and ask them if you don’t believe what I’m writing. Ask them why? Two years ago a group of 30 volunteers both trib and lake anglers to include a few charter boat Captains worked with DEC, a private welder to get materials, funding and permission from Skip Shumway to put two new steelhead pens at the Genny. The Order for materials to be shipped to the welder was being finalized, when Skip called me since I had secured his agreement to let us bring steelhead back to the genny and said and I quote. A few charter boat captains approached me to say they didn’t get along with tributary anglers. I can’t have any trouble on my property so I have to rescind my permission to have them put here. This friction between fisherman is childish. Today at the Oak, lake anglers including charter captains and trib anglers worked side by side to load 127k salmon and 10k steelhead. Wednesday this week a group of lake and trib anglers like they did last Saturday will join each other to load 10k steelhead into their Sandy creek pens. So why can’t that happen at the Genny where both lake and trib anglers enjoy catching steelhead in both the open waters of the lake and the river?