flyrod2

The lack of respect has hit the sporting community with a bang. It seems as fishing was the last to get hit with the "me" mentality. Could go on forever. As far as sale of perch, we had legislation drafted at one point to change this but it was shot down. I think it can happen again with support. The one thing we need to keep out of it is Lake Ontario and Erie. That is one reason it was shot down in past. I have no problem drafting a letter to all powers to be to fight this fight again. DEC knows these guys go from lake to lake and when Lake O is rough the head south. Conservation Council and the New York State FIsh WIldlife Management Board a good start. Many counties have a fish advisory board as well. As for the outrageous behavior, you know the saying "you can't fix", but you can numb it with a 2x4!!! Thanks for the topic Les. D

Cayuga Lake Lake Trout netting – Sampling is underway to assess relative abundance, condition, and lamprey wounding rates of Lake Trout in Cayuga Lake. Data will be analyzed and summarized later this year but observations to date indicate that the Lake Trout population remains high, all trout and salmon caught appear to be in excellent condition, and very few fish have lamprey fresh scars. Hope this helps and yes they had a small older looking trawler I think blue and white.They were out most of last week.

Here is an update from Canal Corp.

Treaman State Park Marina on South end usually has open spots(15 min to Miliken), although not where you were interested in. Town of Lansing/Myers Park is usually full. They may have spots or dry dock space left. Or private marina mentioned above. http://www.lansingrec.com/camping-marina

While rain stopped DEC a couple hours short, they feel confident that it was a success. Saw lots dead lamprey and many struggling on bottom shortly after they started. Hopefully a good start for a rebound in the lake.

DEC starting lamprey treatment today and finish tomorrow. They were rained out last week.

Couple issues with Cayuga. Due to the flood May16th/17th they feel lamprey got over the fishway to the lake and some adults got up into the inlet. They will delay treating until August so that any eggs laid will hatch so they can kill everything(doesn't kill the eggs). They did handle over 5000 in the fishway this spring. The wounding rate on rainbows in the fishway were high, about 33% of the targeted length rainbows.

If you are interested in getting the word out it would be good to post and attach a word document flyer with all the information. I would be happy to distribute to a number of sportsmans organizations to donate. This would make it easier for people to understand and contribute.

Just putting out ideas. I would be willing to help with a chicken BBQ could have it at park or up at Lansing town hall. They can make decent money.Not the end all, but something. Should hit up the area sporting organizations etc. as well. I will try the couple I belong to!

Believe me, I am well aware of the funding issues as the boards I am on deal with it all the time, but it still goes beyond that. The diary program which I am on in R7 is certainly a great start, but not the the whole answer. The biologists use catch rates to help them look at the social efforts, but they will be the first to say that catch rates are not a good indicator as a snapshot of the fishery or even stocking rates to a point. It is survival rates that are important. Onieda lake is a great example of that. DEC has a great hold on the total number of walleye in the lake do to intense studies and it has been stable, yet the catch rates are all over the map in past 20 years most often due to availability of bait fish. They need to be out gill netting for everything possible and developing management plans based on real numbers, diet analyses and so on. That is where the money constraints come in. When the biologist do not have these tools it is often a best guess on what is going on in these lakes. Then you add invasive species, crashes in bait etc and the whole thing falls apart as it has. I think with our support we can make it work and give the fisheries program what they need. The hatchery improvements have been a long time coming and were a separate issue within the Governors budgets. The governor needs to be continually reminded of how many dollars fishing pumps into the states economy.

Sk8man, I was hoping to make the long drive for me and attend and it is a whiteout at my house right now, but thankfully you have summarized and started a much needed discussion. I am disappointed though that what you say, not much really took place. Region 8 crew would not do a meeting last year like the R7 crew did because they said they did not have enough time to prepare. One year later and what? My original intent of requesting these meetings which started with the Eastern last year was to pull together concerns for the entire Finger Lake system. Although each lake has some unique challenges many similarities are out there that should be looked at as a whole. First while I do not know the R8 Fisheries crew like I do the R7 I do see a disconnect in the way each region approaches management of the Lakes, but that is systemic in DEC as a whole. I really think it needs to be more cohesive in order to work. Then in each region I see little "teamwork" when looking at all the lakes. Often one biologist has the difficult task of managing each lake and do not have the resources to work as a team on the whole system and they often are lacking the number of biologist needed to really study the lakes as they should. With the help of all those that obviously care about the health of the fisheries I would like to compile a list of directions we would like to see the Lakes take. What are the similarities and what are unique then attack each. I have the ability to take this through the proper channels at DEC and other groups. If many are interested I am willing to give out my email, compile a constructive list of thoughts, concerns as well as positive directions and then disseminate any and all information I can get from DEC and other resources. I really think that we will continue to follow the same path unless we all get involved, but we need to start somewhere. If I am wrong let me know and I will simply go fishing, otherwise I am very willing to be a part of the solution.