ifishy

I've seen video where spoons dipped in the bilge still took fish joy dish soap also has scent that should repel just as much as human scent. All that said I also believe in a hot box I keep a small box for what's working and I believe lures in that box become more attractive and I have to believe scent is a part of that but lure action I think is the biggest key and repeating that action via down speed. I will say I never dismiss the wisdom of experience that we get on this site over the years I have changed some of my opinions and methods from what I read here

Anyone try out of buffalo harbor yet? Got to fish the spring derby 4 days this year had a lot of fun caught more teens kings than any year previous and a Lakers on the board for about an hour but now looking forward to erie again last year was my first real attempts and wondering if the eyes are I. The east end heavy again. Won't get out till after memorial day but would love to see the thread be active

Non porous things like spoons scent washes off very fast porous things like soft plastic hold much better there are other important factors, current, water clarity, speed, species,scent has its place but spoons and hard baits any scent is washed off very quickly and likely not worth significant effort

You dont need to be 10 miles offshore all the time and my point was todays salmon boats can get out there on good weather days reasonably well

A possible contributing factor is that in the lake they are top of the food chain. In the ocean there are orca sharks and others so when gathered in mass bigger fish maybe faster or to big to eat or whatever so they get favored that pressure doesn't exist in the lake in fact its the opposite as fisherman target the bigger fish so 2 year old have a higher survival to spawn rate and over time we get more and more 2 year olds I think I remember an article on growth rates where lake o is some of the faster growth rates I do think there is a good potential study to be done to selectively breed the oldest largest fish and tag the off spring to see if they are more likely to go 3 years.

UIA big factor to consider is the clean water act mussels get a lot of attention but that policy change has done far more to reduce pollution and yes that includes nutrients over the years and it is a cumulative effect the overall carrying capacity of the lake is just less than it was that also means less fish so less overflow from. Prime waters and less kings in the rest of the trib I also call bs on kings only accessible in Aug and Sept there are far more kings close to shore in the spring on the west end than any other time of the year and the are around sandy has access to kings for a huge Utrecht and with modern boats if you can get a mile offshore you can get 5 with good weather and many salmon fisherman have the boats to do it. And smaller boats have trailers go to the fish and if not there are other options Caledonia is not the answer and the cost to others waters would be to high to try it

There are hatcherys on the north shore so not great for the south shore fall run but means there is no all eggs one basket argument. Yes eggs can be sterilized for some known disease but not any and all anyone who has run any aquaculture can confirm this I have worked in some research sized fish farms and retail sized fish keeping disease spread is not something to take lightly so protocols that are overly strict are a good thing and should not be compromised. Always have to look at the bigger picture ny is more than just lake o and lake o is more than just ny. I haven't heard about a niagara hatchery I would love to see the articles I struggle to think that it was shut down by Pulaski tourism but politics can be that dirty

It's not that they won't listen its that they are tired of repeating themselves to people that won't listen Caledonia will not stock lake o fish it would cross protocols meant to prevent disease spread and thus hurt to many other state waters that are supplied from Caledonia. The current mission of the dec does not involve runs of kings in every creek they are managing for steelhead runs in in tribs and that also helps reduce some of the shenanigans that happen with kings and Concentrates effort In fewer locations making at least a chance for enforcement the dec I doing exactly what they said they would and its driving what they are pushing for

And and all hatcheries run constant risk of disease lake o gets exposed to a lot more than many smaller inland lakes vhs is the one that gets headlines it is not the only one. Managing for the lake means they stopped direct stocking every where and just some in each region they do as many as possible in pens for survival the do pens at large ports that can accommodate them if they did it all in one spot than there would be risk of losing a whole year class if something bad happened it also spreads out the risk of predation. Like it or not staging kings are tied to spawning runs so yeah its tied management strategy. If your not happy with fishing stages there are other fish out there that are not staging to say that all matures are staging by mid August is a straight up lie. There also seems to be a tendency to ignore weather patterns we had to warm water around the genny and it was stable that is preventative to big runs as far as what things were 20 years ago well so what its not the same lake and it keeps changing saying it was that way than so it should be that way now is the same thought process that says it used to be atlantics so it should be again the science behind many of the decisions the dec makes is sound.just because fishing isn't always easy doesn't mean its a conspiracy against you

Managed for the lake means the goal of king stocking is for the open lake fishery not tributaries. I understand you are fishing in the lake but are targeting mature fish returning to a tributary to spawn so it is directly a result of the goals of the dec pen stocking is about higher survival which the studies showed it is not about higher spawning returns which the studies were not conclusive on the fact that the open water fish are from multiple stocking sites just reinforces that they are meeting the goals they set out to achieve. It is also a fallacy that all lake o fish return to there spawning site there is a very significant amount of straying as was shown during the last tagging studies. They manage steelhead as the primary base of tributary fishing they stay there longer and offer more angling opportunities so it makes sense and everyone complains and rightly so about snagging and other crap that happens in the tribs so limiting the number of places with big runs could reduce that (dont know if its helped)

Salmon are managed for the lake not the rivers so low runs in the west are not the driver also the west end typically has more kings all spring and much of the summer so complaining that you dont have the best of the lake every single day doesn't hold a lot of weight I have also seen reports of excellent fishing offshore in the rochester basin all summer meaning that managing kings for the lake is working. As far as Caledonia the risk of disease from lake o is the driver believe it or not the dec has to manage more than just lake o and Caledonia plays a role for those other waters they have to look at the bigger picture and they do