Gill-T

By your own admission that the fish are probably stopping and spawning on the DSR then what you are describing in not a lot of fish. The run of kings should be 100,000 fish strong. If only 500 fish move up after every rain and gives life to the river for a few days you might be talking about a run of MAYBE 5,000 kings? Not enough to support the fishery's historical number of fishermen. There are 300,000 kings stocked every year in the Salmon River. From the DEC numbers, 76% of Kings caught in the Salmon River by trib anglers are wild so add them to the mix. Add 2 year old early spawners. We are missing fish. There has to be a way with some sort of tripped light-sensor technology that could be placed in rivers to get a crude head count of fish moving up a tributary. It would be nice to put scientific numbers ahead of opinions.

I would have expected a good push of late fish up the Salmon River as it gets stocked the heaviest and there is natural reproduction. The question still is where are the stocked fish in the other tributaries? We have tons of unaccounted-for salmon.

It is a good thing you shot the second one as he probably would be waiting for you the next time you came around LOL. Crazy story.

I like his shows but I often wonder if Charles moonlights as Captain Obvious on those Hotels.com ads. What's this? Late October full moon best time to hunt???? What is this strange phenomenon you speak of? I can't believe he gets paid for this stuff. You be the judge.

So why did they stop? Was there a mortality issue from transport?

How do you guys cook hares? I tried one once and fed the rest to my dog. Cottontails are delicious.

I have thought about this a lot. Getting the babies out into the blue zone where bug life is greatest would be beneficial. Not having to run the gauntlet of browns, cohos and laker predators in the spring would be beneficial. Moving the fish from 60 degree harbor water into 40 degree lake water might just kill them all. Better to hide in the brown shore water with the other bait seems to be the best scenario.

In every trail picture I have seen this year I have noticed the racks this year are more spindly/lacking mass. I am sure the past two winters have taken its toll on antler mass. I have lowered my expectations.

Agreed!!! They should only be stripping late October and November fish and I am glad there are some fish running! Good rains last night.

I have no doubt the Salmon will continue to have fish as there is natural reproduction there. The problems is all the other south shore ports that rely on stocking.

Steve LaPan is up on the issues with Lake Ontario. The interviewer's questions are what many of us have been discussing. I accept most of what he says EXCEPT the part where he stated the Canadian salmon runs are experiencing the same low returns that our salmon runs are experiencing as if it is a lake-wide issue. I would comment that the Canadian runs on the East end have been full of fish. The West end of Canada ARE having similar poor returns on streams there. Therefore, problems with the warm tributaries with no natural reproduction which are reliant on the stocking programs to foster fishable salmon runs (which are getting a failing grade the past two years) points to a potential problem with the stocking program. Natural born kings on the East end of Canada are thriving. Right now we are doing something wrong for the current conditions of Lake Ontario.

Stan have you invented carbon fibered "stealth downrigger balls" over there in silicon valley? Torpedo-style weights are about as low profile as you can get...however, you can't make them completely invisible.

The "Medusa Buck"

Congrats!!

Tough to tell as early September their coats can be a little patchy yet and temps were still hitting in the 80's at time of photo.

I would like to report one coyote with a large patch of missing/shaved hair.

I see they recommend matching a right helical vane set-up to match a right bevel for those steelforce-type of heads.

Beautiful detail on that sheephead Paul!

I like the idea of stocking rats on the colonies.

Rollie, many of us have been working "with" the DEC by voicing our concerns at the state-of-the-lake meetings.....what else can we do? At the meeting this spring in Lockport I started talking to DEC official about the LOLA report that accesses the food web on Lake Ontario and is published every four years. I could tell after awhile by the fact that the gentleman's eyes started swim a little that he had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he know what the LOLA report was and he admitted he had no clue. Really there are only a select few that are running the show. The rest of the DEC just follow along and keep their nose clean. The "select few" like to think they know best and discount the opinions of stakeholders that are on the water most of the year. It is with the "select few" that our source of frustration lies. Give us reasonable governance of the resource and this thread does not exist. Believe me I have much better things to do with my time than dealing with this issue.

Rollie, the DEC has based it's Alewife census on Lake Ontario based on the same trolling transects that were used when the census began....in 1975? FACT meaning they are running the exact same GPS/loran coordinates year after year for population comparison. FACT The food web has changed in the great lakes due to invasive species negative effects. FACT The food web in Lake Ontario is more concentrated in the Niagara flow due to the Eutrophic water coming from Lake Erie. FACT The majority of Alewife are concentrated in the band of productive "green water" flowing along the south shore for most of the year. FACT By following traditional netting transects, the DEC/FWS/OMNR have been underestimating the population of Alewife in Lake Ontario because they are spending too much time netting in water without alewives for much of the season. FACT After bringing this matter to the attention to Steve LaPan/DEC and FWS employees at the state-of-the-lake meeting this spring they stated on the record they had to remain true to the original netting transects. FACT After the meeting concluded, I spoke to a few officials and off the record they agreed the lake has changed and the trolling census was not as reflective of the alewife population today. FACT Fish are not making it to maturity as shown by historically poor numbers caught off the piers, in the rivers. FACT The DEC are reactive and not proactive. FACT We aim to change that. FACT