jperch

HB2, I will play devil's advocate here. If, during say an average 25 year career, the state plus employee put 12% away invested and did not touch it, that pension would likely be covered for with average market conditions. But there is risk, the money must be managed, and government has the desire to "borrow" funds during tough times. As you say, now the bill must be paid and people are living longer, the population of NYS is not growing much if at all. I think the pension system will eventually be replaced with the private company 401k model for new state employees. And I don't think it's a bad thing really.

Gill-T, I agree. In the end the contracts that all the state unions receive are pretty similar when you look carefully at them. I am about to retire after a 40+ year career as a state employee. As I previously mentioned, no pension plan for our union. I think that is the model that most private companies are moving to, away from pensions and toward 401K plans. It relieves the state of long term responsibility but puts the burden on the individual to do long term planning for their retirement. Another issue with state employees is that in the past overall job conditions were more attractive. For example, school teachers (I am not one) were much more respected than they are now. There is going to be a severe shortage of qualified teachers in NYS, especially in areas such as science and math. My best bud is a supervisor for DOT. He often tells me that he can not hire qualified people these days. My advice for younger folks, and I know it's hard for those with families, is to try to make a plan to save early for retirement and keep to your plan.

NYS has for years been decreasing retirement benefits and health care benefits across the board for state employees. And contract negotiations are often prolonged. Our union does not have a pension system but a 401K plan. Out health care plan costs have increased dramatically, especially for family plans. Costs are going up, we all hate our NY taxes, I understand the state trying to control expenses. But fair is fair, the DEC should have the same pension benefits as other police agency unions.

There is also an eel farming industry. That is, many of those glass eels end up being raised overseas to become larger eels for consumption. There used to be a whole other species, the European Eel, that was similar and I think also spawned in the Sargasso, that species has been wiped out. At least that is what I remember reading in the past. (When I was in high school I wanted to be a fish biologist and read every book I could find about fish. My high school counselor urged me to choose a different path.)

Actually I recall those rascals have choppers, though small. I have a friend who is a great lakes fish biologist and I talked to him about the decline of the American Eel population. He said the nature of their life cycle makes it difficult to pin down. That is, to complete their long life cycle they most reach adulthood, migrate bake to the ocean, make their way to the Sargasso Sea, spawn, have their larvae drift back along the Gulf Stream, etc. So many things could go wrong. Over fishing probably has played a role, there may be other causes as well such as changes in ocean currents, temperatures, who knows.

I think you are right about the contaminants Lucky.

I think, but am not sure, that they are still fished for commercially on the Canadian side. We probably didn't know the proper way to cook an eel. I remember I nailed it to a telephone pole, skinned it, chunked it up and fried it. I recall that the pieces jumped when I put them in the frying pan! It was just too rich tasting for me. We were kids, used to eating panfish like perch and sunfish. As you apparently know, the life cycle of the American eel is truly amazing! And believe me, the size of the eels we encountered in Lake O while snorkeling was quite impressive.

I live in Oswego and have snorkeled and SCUBA dived near shore often. I can tell you that American eels were very abundant up until a decade or two ago. When snorkeling, we played a game called "eel tickling". Basically you swam along the surface until you spotted an eel in the cracks of the rocks and would try to dive down and touch it before it bolted, you got a point if successful. Now the water is much clearer (mussels) and we rarely see eels. When I was a kid in the sixties we fished in the lake during the spring for bullheads, it was common to catch eels. I recall we tried to eat one. Once.

Nice pike and picture, congratulations! The pike in Conesus have nice coloring.

I don't think gps works underwater, at least not at those depths. I am surprised that there are not redundant communication systems, apparently communication problems were a fairly regular occurrence.

Unfortunately I have not seen any poults. There was a hen close to the house that I thought might have a nest nearby but so far no poults seen. This is is northern Oswego and northern Cayuga Counties.

Yeah, it really just does not make sense. Some bass will still be on beds until the start of July. And a lot of bass guys get upset if someone keeps a couple bass for the table. I don't personally find them all that good to eat, especially bigger ones. I'll take perch all day over a bass. Anyway, the damage done in taking one bass off a bed is probably worse than keeping a limit later in the year. When I was a kid the size limit was 10 inches and the limit was 6. A three pound bass would have been a trophy back then. And, as I recall, the ten inchers were tasty.

Nice hooks on your gobbler and also very nice family picture fisherman 21.

Congratulations, awesome experience with your wife!