Ronix 51

Absolutely Larry, 12" stocked would be ideal and maybe do around 500 or so per year and see the numbers even out more

I love conesus it has big fish of both species in it but as you and everyone else have noticed its LOADED with way more average/hammer handle pike than tiger muskie. That being said there is a decent population of them in there but they are tricky to figure out.

Last season most of my tigers came throughout may and early june before the weeds really grew in. Then in July I would see a lot of really nice sized follows and then after the first week of july they disappeared on me and i didnt see another one in that lake the rest of the season. I think all but 2 came on grandmas casted and jerk retrieved the others came on phantom soft tails

jcole ive fished certain stretches of it before but was targeting northerns and tigers, ive fished the cross lake section and where it meets with the oneida river. Im looking to fish other sections as well specifically towards the onondaga outlet but as you may have noticed finding a map showing launches is pretty difficult. I too would also like to know if anyone else knows of several places to launch boats on the system

come on guys! stick a couple of pigs

good thing you have like 19 other perch prowlers haha! what baits did you get those two misses on?

Ill see what I can put together as far as lures larry

throw on 10" bright lunges and big sexys and start swinging for the fences guys! you need 3 50s to get on the board!!

reading the updates on muskiefirst apparently people are killing it right now...15 fish caught so far a few teams have doubled up and one put their 5th fish in the net...you guys better get in on that!

whats the first bait in the water??

just checked it out, great site! those euro pike are slobs I wish we had northerns like that here

interesting...I have no heard of that before. I know tigers find there way in there but as zach said and as you echoed thats gotta be a suprise to anyone. ...tell all your walleye and bass buddies to keep letting them grow haha

dunwright dancer! nice! the place looks awesome, we expect an update prior to each cast stay on top of things chad no pressure haha

Well less than 2 weeks now! Im definitely pumped to get out after some big tigers. Anyone got any updated plans yet?

May be trying the seneca river on sunday after otisco on saturday, anyone ever target the seneca purely for tigers? They dumped an ass load in there last year and have been putting at least 14,000 in the system (not including cross lake) for years now, there have to be some brutes in there.

haha the kat! May 9th can work for me

what week are we thinking? id cram in there if thats what we got no problem. give me a heads up on time I start working on a spawning survey on the 10th down on the niagara and wont be back for over a week.

Good luck guys!

Larry I wonder if the pike in conesus would even affect the muskie during the spawn season? Predation of stocked fingerlings would be a big issue but most of the fish stocked from pendergast have <5% natural reproduction in the lakes (including chautauqua) they are stocked into.

As for why they switched to pures, from what I have heard it was more than likely a money issue. The tigers come from the Ostelic hatchery all the way South East of Syracuse to findley...big gas $$$. Whereas the pendergast hatchery is right there so it makes more sense travel wise.

+1 on increasing the size limit on both pures and tigers...hell maybe even a slot limit on pike too. Smaller bodies of water that get hammered I know that many fisherman will take 37-45" fish for dinner. A 48" limit for pures, 40-45" for tigers would be a good start.

In terms of where else to stock pures, has anyone considered oneida? Its a massive body of water, more productive than seneca, great food sources, the only thing is that it connects to oswego/seneca via the oneida river so theres a chance they can make there way into ontario and the last thing wed want is that strain mixing with great lakes strain.

If there are other positions we need filled I may be interested as well. Let me know what we need!

Let me know when and where guys, any research articles we need to help focus our ideas into scientifically backed arguments just let me know ive got a great resource at ESF with a bunch of guys who focus entirely on pike/muskie and they are all really good guys too.

I will be attempting to do some research of my own this summer on lamoka and gather some info that could possibly be useful somewhere in this organization!

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Theres a really informative video on what the mixing of genetic strains can do. Dr. Brian Sloss is a leading authority on muskie genetics and really gives a great presentation, he takes a very complicated topic like genetics and discusses it in ways that are much easier to understand.

This video is also important because there are some that feel the st lawrence should be supplementally stocked to maintain population but as Dr. Sloss points out in the video it can be very detrimental if you go messing with gene pools.

I definitely agree on extending the season, if not open year round at least have it close later. I also agree on focusing on the resources we have and keeping those fisheries in good shape instead of trying to make new pure waters. There are some places though that i think some of the fish from chautauqua would be better put instead of some of the random places they dump them.

one thing you gotta take into account though too is which lakes are being stocked and with which strain fish...theres a lot of research being looked at with mill lacs because theyve been breeding fish mixed with random strains and ruining the gene pools of those true mill lacs giants...the fish arent growing as fast or as large there now because of mixing genetics. We have to always take those things into consideration too. Theres a presentation video somewhere of a leading authority biologist from wisconsin who discusses it ill try and find it

Thats a Rud, its an invasive cyprinide from europe. theyre a pretty big concern for fish restoration and fish spawning in the niagara/lake erie system

I think that would be a great idea larry, really keeps it competitive

youre right...with a quick search a bunch of stuff about them came up, I always figured there might be a couple in there but it appears theyve almost established themselves there I didnt know that!

Im not surprised at all that northerns find their way into honeoye I bet there are a lot of guys who get them from conesus or surrounding waters and toss 'em in there.

I am, however, a little skeptical to believe that they're upwards of 50"....any pics of these things? its hard enough to find 40" northerns anymore in NY let alone anything pushing 50, but I suppose if they were anywhere it would be in a place where no one fishes for them...

pshhh...these lures dont ever work

haha youre cleaning house Dan!