HB2

I was looking forward to meeting you Yankee at the Niagara show as I need a new depth finder setup and was looking for your insight and knowledge on what to get on my megar budget and the show specials you had . Sorry to here you won't be there .

I have to figure I catch as many of those Sandy Bass as anyone the amount of times I fish . Some years it's lights out , some it's not . I will say I get a good amount of smaller fish mixed in with the bigger ones and always have since I have been down there .

Ya think........

The Bass fishing was fantastic untill the gobies arrived . Then there came VHS which hit the population hard . There has been a rebound .There are less fish but average size is bigger. Because of the cleaner water from zebras , they summer deeper . Which makes them harder to catch . Southern Bass lakes are a shadow of what they use to be from tourney pressure and boat and electronic advancements . There was a major bass tourney during the height of spawning season on Cayuga lake last year . They state and locals must have approved it so I don't think they care much . $$$$$$$

Better watch yourself Brian You might get canceled for not thinking the right way . Might lose your job and your pension . And might sic the IRS on you . It's not like it hasn't been done before .

Make no mistakes about it , they are coming for us .

So my friend and I straight out from Green Harbor 150 ft on a slight chop mid morning. I see a boat we were coming up on and as we got closer i see it was dead in the water and no body was in it . I figured it broke loose from moring and drifted out overnight as the breeze was offshore . We trolled right up to it and as we got close I saw a guy stand up quick and sit down fast . I was about 100 ft away and I asked if everything was OK . He said I'm fine and seemed real embarrassed . I looked at the boat and am saw another guy laying on the floor hiding . Saw them both at the ramp putting their boat on the trailer . I don't know what was happening our there but I have my suspicions .

All this stuff ( riggers ,rods , reels ,electronics ) are tools to catch fish, that's how I look at it . All this stuff does the same thing . Some better than others . I would pick the ones that you have the most confidence in . The ones that are most reliable , and user friendly for you . You say you have 4 Penns and will be mounting 2 . I would go that route, if you like them . If one goes down , just grab another and fix the bad one later . Everything breaks eventually .

Ring ring ring DEC , how can we help you ? Are you aware king salmon weights are down for the last 15 years ? OMG , with all the scale samples , graphs, charts of every aspect of their lives egg to eggtake , the angler surveys lake and creek , bait biomass assessment and how many to safely stock , and all the other data we take , we completely missed the fact weights are down . Its a a good thing Mr Stakeholder you called and brought this to our attention. Otherwise we would have never seen this . It all starts with Mother Nature . And she's in charge .

Id bet my favorite fllyrod our guys have read this report ,and others . This was a decades long study with no definitive conclusion . And I'm sure there are more west coat studies out there as this problem is chronic . So go with the obvious , it's probably bait related. Even that study said that might be it . We have been told this by our DEC . But in the beginning,looking back , when they said this, and they wanted to cut stocking, there was huge push back . And still is . So it seems the DEC is walking a tight rope to provide us the best possible under current conditions. Any study will take years . So short term , go enjoy what we have while you still have it . Untill the bottom of the food chain gets built up , ( and how do you do that ) were probably going to have to live with this , at least for a while . And hope it does not get worse . We will have wait and see .

Looks like the guys up there did an extensive long term scientific study . And they still have no definitive answer as to why it is happening up there . Well, short term for us , we will know more mid May when we see spring LOC weights . So we just have to wait and see . Sounds to me our DEC has not committed to or has an ongoing study as to why this is happening . Maybe they will . I wonder if they don't want to publicize this for bad PR . We will just have to wait and see . Hopefully the fishing is as good as it was last year .I guess we will have to wait and see. It was a madhouse at Wilson for the spring LOC . A lot of boats in out of Sandy some days during the Summer LOC. The word stakeholder gets thrown around a lot on here . What and and who exactly is a stakeholder ? From my perspective it's any resident of NY state . Taxpayers foot the bill for the funding of the stocking program .Hopefully it is profitable or at least a break even . Some have more skin in the game, ( captains , tackle shops , lodging and restaurants ) but even the kid who works at the Pulaski McDonald's and doesn't fish has skin in the game . From the study , they are going thru what we are down here . Maybe it will get better. We can only hope. At this point all we can do is wait and see .

My brother in law had both hips replaced and after hiked all 46 high peaks of the ADKs . I had an Aunt who basically could not walk have both knees replaced and walked to the grocery store daily after . This was 25 years ago . Joint replacement surgery has sure come a long way .

I have a little more faith in the people who are in charge of what is going on in the lake than some . I'm sure they are quite aware of what is going on out there . They seem to moniter this stuff pretty well with all the data that's available for all to see. It's in their , and the states best interest to provide the best fishing experience possible . And I mean monetarily wise . This lake has gone thru huge changes in the last 40 or so years. Anyone with a pulse should be able to see that . And know that with way less bait , there will be less and smaller fish . Obviously something is going on . Maybe it's not the bait . I have my theories and bait is part of it. You can have all the stakeholder input you want( with the demands for as many kings stocked as possible in the past might be part of the problem ) but you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear . For every action their is a reaction . Zebras cleaned up the lake. less bottom of the food chain , less bait , fewer fish stocked ,cleaner water , sight feeding cormerant thrive . Fertile ground grows great crops . And the lake isn't as fertile as it once was . It seems it is a delicate balance of fish to bait biomass . Maybe they are stocking to many fish ( to satisfy stakeholders) and they are stunted like to many sunfish in a small pond . I'm not shrugging my shoulders , but you may HAVE to live with it .Fishing has been great last year . And the years before they cut the stocking . Time will tell . You may want to hear what they say about how ,why ,and what they are going to do about it . But you may not like what they say .

Ring ,ring , ring Hello is this the DEC ? Why yes it is sir , how can we help you ? Are you aware the size of kings has decreased over the last 15 years ? Are you looking into that ? Why sir yes we are . Our extensive studies we have been secretly doing concluded that it is strictly bait related . There is a shortage of bait and they have less calories for the fish because of the water being cleaner . Our recommendation to get those 40# kings you demand is a complete stop of all king and trout stockings for 5 years to build the bait biomass to sustainable levels . Well you can't do that . There must be another solution . Well sir you can't have your cake and eat it to. The lakes ecosystem has changed dramatically the last 40 years . If the lake ecosystem was the same as it is currently , there would be no Salmon in LO . Thanks for your concern on the mater .

Ring ,ring ring Hello is this the DEC ? Why yes it is how can we help you ? Are you aware that the size of kings has decreased over the last 15 years or so? Why yes we are . Well we as fisherman demand bigger and more kings . You guys better do something about it . We are working on it sir . Thank you very much for your input . You have a nice day . ..... Yeah , that call will do a lot of good

I heard at a meeting once that that the natural reproduction rate was as high as 47 %. That's half the fish , a huge number . DEC has no control over that . The lake surface used to shimmer with dead alwives after the die off . There are way less in the lake. It's not our father's LO . It's cleaner . Which doesn't necessarily mean better fishing . But we still have a great fishery I'm grateful for. I'd like to see them get some new eggs from the West Coast . Raise them at a different hatchery , mark them and see what happens . But I think DEC said they did not want to do that to introduce more genetics someway . The salmon run is pretty much over .Pretty much a fly and pin trib trout fishery now . They got their eggs . Lets wait and see how things go . And let the DEC do their job .