fisherman777

On 3/30/2024 at 1:17 PM, dremarquis said:

now THAT's cool!!!!

what did you catch it on?

It hit a moonshine casting spoon

Caught this one 4 years ago in oswego harbor at night fishing for kings. Peeled drag off at first like it was a 20 pound chinook. 

17 hours ago, idn713 said:

That’s shocking. I break 4-5 a year fishing the tribs and that’s all on new baits. 

Man I've never broken a j9 or j11 lip on the old or new ones. The j13s on the other hand...

10 hours ago, Gill-T said:

I am assuming this was a live score tracker event or was it after June opener?

It was a major league fishing (mlf) tournament with the catch weigh release format, so they were allowed to fish it before the traditional opener. Not without its issues as multiple anglers were penalized in that tournament for foul hooking fish off beds, catching the same fish more than once, etc. Maybe tourney fishing during the spawn in any format isn't the best idea...

I think a lot of the problem isn't necessarily fishing for spawning fish as it is catching a spawning fish, then taking it off it's bed down the river 10-20 miles to a weigh in, or taking it home to eat. All those eggs are Goby food unless the bass gets released back right away to guard its bed. The catch and release season has been in place a while now on lake erie without the population crashing, so one would think the st. lawrence would have something similar and maybe extend it till July as the spawn is later up there. 

3 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Perhaps the answer is to only close the season from mid/ May through June 30th. 

Would be a great idea. Canadian side already does this. Catch and release season from January 1st-May 10th, then closed to no fishing until first Saturday in July...makes a lot more sense to protect spawning fish up there as the majority spawn from mid may to mid june on the river.

Like others have said, get a musky sized bump board if you are consistently measuring bigger pike 40" plus. It will make your life so much easier and the fish won't flop off the board if you have a good grip on its gill plate. 

As far as girth measurements go, I just don't take them. Most musky guys talk in terms of length anyway. A 50 incher is a 50 incher regardless of how fat it is and I can live without knowing the exact weight on a fish. I'd rather handle it as minimally as possible. 

For solo pictures, invest in a tripod for your phone and have it set to a timer. Or better yet, get a new gopro that has the front camera screen. Hit record and hold the fish up for a quick video, then pull still photos from the video later on. I do this for all my solo musky shots and they turn out great. 

23 hours ago, Morgan-E said:

Well, I thought that the exploitation of the salmon under the guise of ceremonial practices might be over with no new reports of spearing over the weekend, but as of 5:15AM this morning there were nets strung across the river at Pineville and three drift boats could not launch until the nets were moved.  The nets were being manned by a group that were described as looking like the same group of people who had been spearing the salmon.

DEC was notified as well ad prominent politicians who are trying to help preserve the resource for everyone.  Remember that the DEC's new management strategy is to depend on the natural reproduction as the primary source of Pacific salmon and that the hatchery will supplement those numbers on a one year lag system.  What is done this spawning season will directly affect the return three and four years form now. 

 

The dec's strategy is not changing to rely on wild reproduction of chinooks to support the fishery. Stocking numbers are adjusted accordingly depending on bait levels and estimates of natural reproduction of chinooks but the fishery is still reliant on stocking. 

Nice fish BTW lowjack12

2 hours ago, muskiedreams said:

Very nice! It would be nice if The DEC were to manage regulations in at least some waters in the state for the purpose of producing trophy pike like that more consistently. With the current regulations and fishing pressure on them in most statewide waters, Pike just don't have a chance to become trophy size. With the right management in select lakes or rivers, Upper 30s and 40" plus fish could become relatively common.

This would be great. A simple slot of no kill for 30-35 inch fish or something similar could accomplish this in a lot of places. 

3 hours ago, idn713 said:

Out of curiosity why doesn’t this thiamine issue affect kings as much? Up to 97 percent of Ontario Chinook diet is alewife, and yet they aren’t death spiraling or looking unhealthy at all. So obviously it would affect natural repro but that doesn’t really make a difference as the fishery is entirely supported by stocking. 
 

So maybe the powers that be are thinking that just more Atlantic’s in general will provide a good lifespan of 4-5 years of a healthy fish and more trib opportunities? Maybe it’s less about establishing a reoccurring population but just using stocking to support a different element to the fishery?
 

Not saying it’s right (the king clearly is the fishery) but maybe the natural reproduction element is a lot less critical to this than we all tend to think about. 

It does affect them. Chinook and steelhead eggs are treated at the salmon river hatchery with thiamine during the egg take process to counter some of the effects of the parent fishes' diets. Before eggs were treated with thiamine, many of the hatched fry would experience developmental deformities in their early life stages. 

That being said, Chinook and steelhead seem to survive better in the lake eating an alewife based diet than atlantics do. Different fish and different tolerance to thiamine deficiency. All salmonid species out there are affected by thiamine deficiency though to some extent. 

From shore, there is decent public access on Onondaga lake at the parks and around the state launch. Big tigers and pike in there and you'll also likely catch a lot of nice bass. Short drive from ESF. Also little further drive but all the lake ontario bays and creeks/rivers have a lot of pike and some have pretty good shore access spots. A kayak would do a lot of good on those bodies of water for you.

Look into joining the ESF bassmasters club too. A lot of really good multi species fishermen in that club. Enjoy..you picked a great school.

On 8/18/2021 at 10:52 AM, King Davy said:

Brian actually while I agree Domestics played a huge role in filling the gap from salmon to the trout runs on Sandy, they were prolific on the Oak, Irondequoit, Maxwell, salmon creek in pultneyville, and even Mill creek.

But my point is by losing kings, steelhead and domestics at Sandy… Sandy took the biggest hit of all of the stocking restructuring.

Sandy has become a true destination brown trout fishery, it will get even more browns but losing these other fish while I’m sure stragglers will show up will change the face of that stream. And certainly the open water near shore fishery in the fall.

But losing domestics is going to impact several watersheds.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Sandy didn't lose their steelhead...kings and bows yes but Sandy received more steelhead in 2020 than in 2019.

Pen projects have more to do with survival after release than imprinting. Imprinting is a secondary benefit. That being said, I think it will have a lower return in years to come. A lot of fish lost by taking away those pens. 

Who knows though...the trade off to cutting Sandy kings and a few other smaller tribs around the lake was so more fish could be put into the pens of the larger ports in response to the overall stocking cut. Genny and Oak pen fish don't have a far ways to go to stray into Sandy. But I wouldn't necessarily bank on it being like it's always been...definitely make sure to appreciate the next few seasons...

I'd be more concerned about the loss of domestic bows since that has always been a significant part of the "steelhead" catch at sandy from my experience.

1) Night is usually better for the pier in my experience, but guys catch them in the daytime successfully too. Early in the run, it depends a lot on different factors like cloud cover, wind speed and direction, water temperature, water clarity, etc. Of these factors, I'd argue that water clarity and temperature are the most important. Dirty water with poor visibility never seems to be as productive for me, and too warm of water temperatures also create a tough bite. As the run progresses into October and more fish come in close, you can pretty much go out there whenever and catch them as long as you're patient. 

2) Yes those are good salmon lures and will catch fish off the pier, but they're not the best for distance. Often, the longer the cast, the more water you cover and the more likely your lure is to pass in front of an angry fish. But if you feel fish are in very close to the pier, start chucking those. Also, you noted you use Cleo's in different glow patterns, but if those aren't working, try some other glow spoons. Moonshine brand casting spoons are super popular for pier casting now, and several other spoon types also come in glow patterns (ko wobblers, kastmasters, krocodiles, yecks, just to name a few). 

3) Focus on getting out as much as possible. It varies considerably day to day. One night everyone on the pier will be hooking up left and right and the next night, fish will be jumping everywhere and not biting for anyone. It's a guessing game sometimes, and the best pier guys go all through September into October functioning on little, if any sleep. Everyone gets skunked out there eventually too so don't get discouraged if a guy next to you is hooking up and you're not. Your time will come. Hope this helps. 

Seen the same condition in several steelhead I caught this year. 
Fresh lamprey mark as well on this poor guy!

It's called a shortened operculum. Pretty common in salmonids raised in hatchery environments. A variety of factors are thought to be responsible for it. Here's a quick article I found describing it. 

http://www.tinaportman.ca/2017/05/02/the-mystery-of-missing-gill-covers-part-2/

Nice fish btw Legacy!

State park launch is open and branchport is ice free. Good luck.

Just a heads up, the DEC doesn't post a lot of seasonal jobs on their actual website. Most are posted on the NY State jobs website statejobsny.com and they get posted throughout the year depending on when/where fish and wildlife techs/seasonal biologists are needed. Just something for him to keep in mind as he's looking for jobs in New York in the future. Also, keep on the lookout for civil service examinations. Most permanant jobs with the DEC tend to require a specific test, though not all.  Best of luck to him in his search. 

Corey

No trebles from the 104 bridge to the falls except on floating lures. From the mouth till then trebles are good to go. 

Except for Images Like This~

http://www.thesunnews.net/sports/854-Outdoors_Column_Chautauqua_Lake_a_fishing_haven.html

Some people are still living in the past. Stuck in the time when it was cool to kill a big muskie and hang it on the wall.

So much opportunity is at the fingertips of those who are in the media, those who profess what the present state of our sport is and the general public takes what they print as acceptable for today, "this is A-O.K"... The general public looks up to those who write such columns professionally as voices of authority who speak only of what is the current state of affairs so everything they print must of course be the gospel truth. An image such as this sends the wrong message in 2012. So many have worked so hard for so long to educate the public as the truths of the fragile ecology of the muskellunge is learned more and more. Most of us are well aware that the loss of a fish like that, a 25 year old hen, is a massive blow to the fishery.

I for one know exactly what happens with the media covering fish catches like this because my dad is the sports/outdoors writer for the D and C. Last year, he wrote a column on a bass fisherman who caught a 45-50" musky in the St. Lawrence and unfortunately killed the fish. I thought that my dad was wrong to write that story and paint the guy as a hero when in fact he was just some idiot too uneducated to see how precious a fish like that is to the fishery. My dad told me he felt it was wrong too but the paper sees big fish stories as a way to sell, no matter what happens to the fish in the end. He got a lot of angry emails after the story ran from a lot of musky anglers and also a lot of emails of people saying how great a fish story that was and that they were going to try to catch a musky now because of it. I think the non-fishing public in general still doesn't completely get catch-and-release the way a majority of anglers do. Most of my relatives at family get-togethers still ask how a fish tasted when they see a picture on my wall and I always have to go through the process of telling them that I let it go. There certainly needs to be more work done educating the general public on catch and release and its benefits, especially with species like the musky.

You guys have it easy. My dad covers them (sportswriter). All 17 years of my life have seen very depressing fall Sunday afternoons (until I found trib fishing of course )

The only thing that should (and is) kept secret are trib names and locations. Other than that, this site has been great for me, especially with info on all of the finger lakes. I don't get out much with my dad so when we do go, it is nice to have some current knowledge of what's biting on what where . And one thing I have learned from this site is that just because one guy posts a trip report saying how he went out and hammered them at this one spot this many feet down on this particular one lure, it doesn't mean your going to go do exactly what he did and hammer them too. But seeing successful reports from others keeps you going back at it, even when you start to think that there are no fish in the entire lake (which happens to me a lot!). Oh and BTW, every time we go out in the summer, we usually see about five boats tops fishing the same multi-mile stretch of water. I wouldn't exactly call that crowded But I don't know; I can't seem to catch a laker for my life lately . Maybe these lakes are too crowded then.

We were out there the same day and marked a lot of fish off the bluff and I had a hunch they could be bass because they were not deeper than 20 feet. Were you using a deep diver or just a stick bait?

The first fish was on a 4 inch rebel stickbait that the fish hit as we were letting out line to set up the downrigger. The second was on a rapala dt thug that goes down about 10-15 feet that we set out after catching the first one thinking we might be on to something.

The big smalley phenomenon over deep water happens every year late summer and into the Fall, not only on Keuka, but I suspect all the lakes with alewife populations. The smallies start going on an alewife binge. Wherever you find schools of alewives suspended near deep water points and dropoffs, wolf packs of smallies shouldn't be far away. I caught this, my largest smallie ever, 2 years ago over a 100' f.o.w. while jigging lakers. He smashed my tube jig about 30' down below the boat as I retrieved it from the depths. There are some trophy class smallies in there....

Nice fish Fish Junkie. Did you get a weight on it? Your alewife theory makes perfect sense. All week when we were there, we never caught even smaller fish in less than 40 feet. Last year, my dad caught another giant out of there. It really is an awesome bass lake.

Its worth it. Hopefully u brought the riggers. I'll pm u with info.