rolmops

I was watching the fishermen down by the bridge today. One steelhead and one brown both nice ones were caught and released . They were caught under the bridge

All these 2 year olds spawning over the past few years made me think about other species reproduction systems. A long time ago I had about a hundred acres of cotton and in order to increase production we would stop irrigating. This caused the plants to start producing flowers.Elephant herds that are under heavy poaching pressure start reproducing at a much younger age. Waterfleas reproduce by cloning but when the pools start drying up they start producing males and the reproduction changes from cloning to sexual reproduction. So what does that have to do with salmon reproducing at a younger age you may ask. Most species that feel their survival threatened react by increased reproduction effort which in turn also increases possible mutations and improves the chances of survival of the species by speeding up the reproduction cycle in order to produce a next generation. Could it be that somewhere in our hatchery system, we trigger a similar response? One possibility may be that from a very early age there is an abundance of food available which does not require a lot of effort to get, but upon release into the lake this horn of plenty is no longer there and now the fish have to work a lot harder to feed themselves, often to the point where their survival is at stake. Could this trigger an accelerated sexual maturity response and thereby produce sexually mature fish at a younger age? Is there an alarm going off in the salmon heads? If all of this makes any sense might there be a way to find out which gene causes this alarm and how it might be deactivated, adding a chemical in the water maybe? Truth be told, all of this is way above my pay grade, but I want to throw it out there, because maybe somebody who reads this can toy with it and who knows, there may be a simple solution .

Maybe , we can try and make a list of all the things that changed in Lake Ontario and in the water that comes down from Lake Eerie, roughly since the time that Caledonia stopped doing salmon. Possibly Caledonia itself has nothing to do with the issue at hand, but a combination of other changes may have caused an overall situation to change. The DEC probably has long lists of info about changes in the water over the years. Maybe that info needs to be shifted through in order to find trigger points. For example: Did the quaqua mussel shell building use of calcium lower the PH in certain areas, or did the oxygen content of the water get less. Maybe the overall current direction from the Niagara river has changed ever so slightly causing the nutrient rich water to go to the center of the lake and not the coast line. Or, and this is a big one, the quaqua mussel depletes the near shore of nutrients, but the offshore water with its much greater depth remains relatively nutrient rich and as such is more attractive for salmon. during certain time periods. I'm sure that all the info is there, but I'm not so sure that this info has been used in specific research about movement of biomass. It may be time to dump all that info into an AI enabled computer and see what it spits out

That sir, has nothing to do with how the lake is managed. If you do not like a comment because you suspect a political agenda, then please explain what makes it political and why it is bad. As for yesterday, if you mean is what I think you mean, I would suggest that you clear your mind and go fishing for browns. I am even willing to tell you where my very sweet November spot is.

I looked into the HDPE. Admittedly, it is a very attractive option and it will probably outlast the boat and me. But it takes away from the putter instinct in me.Funny though it sounds, I spend more time playing ,fixing and changing things in my boat, than I spend on the water. I would put it in and three or four years from now, the putterer in me will rip it out and try something else. That is why I am currently interested in the EVA material. One can glue it on and in a few years try something else again. All of that without breaking the bank and without buyers regret.

Even though I did it only 2 years ago, I don't like the looks of my deck flooring and I am considering to cover the floor with a different material. I remember having a hard time gluing the previous material, Marideck I think it is called, to the wood. After reading some stuff about EVA flooring with 3M glue backing I am warming up to the idea, but There are some questions on my mind. Like how will this stuff stick to other flooring. and can it be done in near freezing weather. If you have any experience using this EVA material , please let me hear your opinion about how it worked out for you.

Not so odd If you dig a bit deeper. The chemical makeup of the Niagara river is quite different from the Salmon river and because of that the imprinting would be at least as strong as the Salmon river imprinting. This would cause more salmon to stay in the west end of the lake and that would potentially hurt the east end fishery and the very much needed tourism along with it. Sometimes local politicians stir this pot in order to direct more income/votes in their own area of influence. I wonder if the private fly fishing Salmon river area would ever have come into being if more salmon would stay near the Niagara river. Pulaski and its imprinting is a big tourism magnet and until the wild spawning started it had a monopoly on the fall salmon fishery..

I have a similar aluminum setup in Lake Ontario and this year I switched to a cleaner called "Slimy Grimy" . It comes as a powder and you mix 2/3 of a cup with one gallon of hot water. I went and bought a weed sprayer tank a Harbor freight, sprayed it on and let it sit for a minute. Then first with a power washer , but later also just hosed it down and it did miracles. It made me decide to not put bottom paint on the boat.

Today I saw an absolutely amazing beautiful white deer right in the middle of Brighton. It is in a place where I have walked every day for the past year and although there are a lot of deer in that place, there never was this white one before.. It either traveled north out of the the Seneca army depot or it has/had a human owner who decided to let it go. I suspect the latter. I'll try to get a few pictures if I see it again tomorrow.

The peanut butter?

It has to be Amish made and organic !

Gambler , it sounds like you would be open to the idea, while at the same time you point out the difficulties that come with the idea. You rightfully point out the weather factor. To solve it for Sandy would require some bubblers and a few barriers set up in a protected area with easy access. Or, do it only when weather dependent it is feasible. Anyway so far, I am only throwing ideas around hoping that other people , smarter than me, will either pick them up and run with them or come up with better ideas.

The idea that l offered is not a true hatchery, but rather a pen project where the fry is introduced to the creek/river at a very early stage in their lives and the fry would be in these pens much earlier and quite a bit longer than now. This would probably have to be under DEC supervision and with very dedicated volunteers. That way the fry will be properly imprinted on their home stream and that should improve their chances of returning there.

I would rather not have answered this, but some explanation is required. It is not the cleaning of the raceways that is of consequence. It is the virus that may have penetrated well above the intake of the raceways. In Pulasky the raceways are fed with water that is pumped up out of the ground and is virus free because of that. ( the same goes for the Powder Mill hatchery). Prevention of potential infection is a lot cheaper than having to deal with the effects of infection specially when alternatives are available. don't take it from me, ask Schreckstof. Besides, a policy becomes part of investment planning. The hatchery in Pulasky underwent some serious improvements the last few years. Hopefully lowering mishap events. Besides , I have helped with the pens and I have also driven back and forth feeding the fish while they were in the pens. Another alternative might be further cleaning of Irondequoit Creek making it more hospitable for natural reproduction, which is already happening there. A good alternative to the current pen projects could be something that went on for years in the Credit river. Over there in Canada a group of fly fishermen had their own little hatchery like setup right in the river. They got the fry at a quite early age and had them in round pens where they were kept until release. These were steelhead. I remember catching tagged steelhead from there. A similar project could take shape here, potentially bringing stream and lake fisherman together taking care of the pens.

Today was my last hurray for the season. I got three mature kings in around 60 foot of water out Sandy. Now I am in the middle of cleaning the bottom of my boat with something called Slimy Grimy. It seems to work fine.

Claiming that the Caledonia hatchery will do the trick does not offer a solution. It brings the chance of a nasty virus returning right back at our doorstep. It may be time to move the pens upstream to the area where "Spirit Of Rochester" is slowly rotting away. There are docks there. That might give the smolting fingerlings more exposure to the Genny's unique makeup. With just a little bit more current and without the influence of eastern and northern winds that push lake water into the pen area and dilute the Genny "taste", things might look different. This would also neutralize the influence of all the nasty chemicals that were exposed when the new marina was dug on the west side. This just a suggestion based on trying to point out things that may have changed or might be changed. If it was just a matter of all other things being equal, you might have a point. But not all other things are equal.

That is a great boat! And for free! Now before you take your kids out on the water, you should really take it over to either a professional or a very good amateur to check it out for loose rivets, blown engine, rotten hoses, rotten transom and so on. Even if you have to pour a couple of1000s into it, you still got yourself a great boat for very cheap. The Sylvan is almost a total copy of the Starcraft of that size. If you go to I-Boats you can find a veritable treasure of information about these boats.

I don’t play basketball or football. My meanderings centered around genetics and the influence of genetic potential which may be mistaken for mutations.