HB2

And to all the old school patriotic Dems out there , it time to hold the leaders of your party accountable for their decisive socialistic ways .

I have been saying for years that the politics of this nation will affect your lifestyle for those that say this is a sportsman's site . If it's not clear to you by now what is going on with your freedoms , it never will be . We will find out soon what could be in our future . Or as a wise man sang ," ....and I get on my knees and pray , we won't be fooled again ..."

After reading all this, IMO , the best course of action going forward is to re-up the creek lampry treatments . The horse is out of the barn as far as the adults go so let them age out unless it's NOT an effort of futility trying to kill them . Spend the money and concentrate efforts on a new state of the art hatchery . I gave up hunting long ago because I'd rather trib fish and other reasons . But I'd be all in with my 12 gauge 1100 killing as many of those slimy bastards as possible

Got 2 dinks this morning Maybe it's Natural reproduction evolution .

I have landed some big kings the last few weeks . And I have landed a lot of " jacks " also and seen other anglers do the same . More than any other year . I think we all would like better fishing. But if DEC listens to some of the loud voices out there , seemingly most with financial interests , and pack the lake with kings it could be catastrophic. It took decades for Michigan to bounce back from their mistake . I'm 64 , that could be the rest of my life . So I'm in agreement with the " be on the safe side " approach . The bait is not there , they can't make it magically appear .

King salmon are native to the Pacific Northwest from northern California to Alaska in the ocean . They run huge glacial rivers to spawn. A mighty mean environment . They are not dainty by any means . They are extremely strong fish with a strong will to survive . So I think at least some fry survive to return to spawn as adults . Some years better than others . If the eggs hatch , they have a chance . If there is fry at the mouth , how would they ever know if any survive and return . And maybe some of those strays in Hilton spawned years ago and their fry imprinted to that stream and some of those are natural reproduced return fish. Not as far fetched as you might think .

Brian , you can have your opinion , I have mine . We were told way back when that spawning salmon don't bite and they won't natural reproduce . Both were proved wrong . Sandy has the best habitat by far to natural reproduce any fish . There may not be a lot , but I believe there are some . Last year water flows were very high which IMO is good . And please don't tell me about smolt , temp ,etc . These kings are in the creek at 75 degree water . If the eggs hatch , they have a chance and some will survive . That's mother nature's way .

Great assessment of the current king situation Capt Vinny . I agree and have been saying a lot of what you pointed out for a while . I also believe the natural reproduced fish have adapted to the lakes ecosystem and are surviving better . I feel a lot of the fish I have been catching in my trib are nat reproduce . As we were stripped of our pen fish for the greater good . But we can't know that because the stocked fish are not marked . The efficiency of the modern trolling fleet coupled with the many tournaments lake wide depletes many of the larger fish . Back in the day there were 3 times the kings stocked but we did not catch the numbers season long we do now . Also , there is a lot of trib angler bashing on this site . Seems to me with the above post , those trib angles could have a lot to say .

I really don't know what some of you guys expect from this fishery . I caught about a dozen kings yesterday . And one Atlantic about 7# . The run in the Salmon by the people up there is best it's been in a lot of years . So there are fish . Lake fishing for me this year after Aug 1 was not great . Some years are better than others ,that's just the way it is . Can't be lights out every year . The lakes ecosystem will only support so much bait with the clean water . Which dictates amount and size of kings. That's the long and short of it . The Atlantic's program will do absolutely nothing to the overall of the Kings . What difference does it make to the DEC about the amount of Kings stock ? Is there a conspiracy to make the fishing bad ? They are doing what they think is best for the overall fishery . I don't agree with them on some stuff but they do a great job . And 20 % each year over 3 years is probably more like a 50% total .

What do you suggest we do about it? The lakes ecosystem will only support so much bait .

I agree with Yankee Can't remember a year that the surface shimmered silver with dead alwives . And with our antiquated electronics , we would see schools of bait that seem to go in forever . Fish are smaller and seem to be less aggressive , at least this year .

My guess is it's just for the day to work on something I can see them closing the launch for the year but why would they close the parking lot for the year ? But who knows

Annual pike / bass fall trip usually to the ADKs was moved to Fair Haven . Awesome weather with food friends and food . The fishing was great . Not huge numbers but quality fish . Fished the bays over weeds and weed edges with limited success . Tried deeper water near drop offs and found fish . We got about 25 bass , smallmouths mostly . We never got a one smaller than 15" which amazes me . Small crankbaits and Senko style ned rigged were our best

Where are you located ?

I agree with first and last part of day . But you can get hits mid day sometimes. I run a small boat program with 2 riggers one lure each rigger . If I start shallow , I'll run the j plug 50 to 100 ft back and keep the ball just under the surface . But sometimes I run a slide diver .

First light start close and work out . J plugs for me #3 and #4 Glo green or pearl black dot my favorites After first hour or so silver read head among others 35 to 125 ft leads one rigger 10 ft off bottom ( 7 if you are brave ) and one half way down both same leads to avoid tangles . After sun starts to come up try the 35 to 90 ft depth and look for them on the bottom . Spoons and flashers also work but I like my J Plugs .

One of my new to me Walker Tournament riggers had a pice inside the motor break . And it can't be fixed or replaced . In my shoet time of using them , they are the nicest riggers I've used . Small , smooth , fast enough . I need new ones . What do I buy ?