Close the Salmon River?

[LazyRiver585]

…or maybe it was just click bait. Get the popcorn ready and watch where it goes. Lol

[GAMBLER]

9 hours ago, LazyRiver585 said:

Let’s not turn this thread into something it isn’t… 

the whole point is to bring awareness that at a very significant/unique/important tributary where state funded initiatives to help preserve our fishery as a whole (for trib and lake guys alike) has been, and will continue to be, extremely abused. 
sitting back and turning a blind eye is almost unbearable these days. 
talking time is done. Action is needed. What can we do? 
that’s what we trying to figure out together. Not go tit for tat

We need to get ELOSTA, LOTSA and LOCBA to pressure the DEC on this issue.  I would be willing to bet TU would be interested in cleaning up the BS that goes on during the salmon run.  I know a couple of TU guys and the behavior disgust them too.  The dependency on natural reproduction to keep this fishery going and the kings managed for the lake are two big reasons to push the issue.  It is not good management practice to allow a large percentage of your crop of breeder kings to get molested and removed from the biggest producer of natural reproduction kings on the South shore.  Usually on low water years, most of the big kings are easy targets and removed well before getting to the fertile water to spawn.  They can save money by cleaning up and protecting the spawning population they already have.  If natural reproduction is down multiple years in a row, the DEC will have to up stocking.  Upping stocking = spending more money.  Someone said last year's natural reproduction on the Salmon River was a record low.  Low water last year.  Hmmm.  Low water again this year.  Hopefully the survival rate of stocked fish was good. This should make some slow days king fishing the next couple of years.  Again, this is why we need to manage the kings for the lake like they say they do and make changes.  IMO, they could reduce king creel to 1 on the Salmon River, maximum size limits and more enforcement.  

[GAMBLER]

 It just the salmon getting molested….

[rolmops]

I believe that the only way to force the DEC to take action is to shame them them by flooding the local papers and the the social channels with pictures of of people breaking the law and asking every time why the DEC does not take action. Sending them pictures and license plate numbers also helps. I do know of some people who have taken the air out of tires of cars they saw parked at night.

Edited 22 hours ago by rolmops

[Gill-T]

Shaming them won’t work. Judges are not prosecuting misdemeanors under directives from the top. Unless it is a felony, they will toss the cases the DEC bring forward. The DEC have become completely hamstrung and are losing faith in the system. Many will try to retire early because Albany is no longer hiding the fact the are trying to get rid of ECON officers and replace with Forest Rangers with no training on how to handle threats. Once the DEC is dismantled, there is no governing body with oversight to enforce hunting regulations…..and that is how they hope to get rid of hunting. The plan has started and without a change in direction by a sensible moderate governor, hunting as we know it twenty years from now will not exist. 

[LongLine]

They did close a portion of the river. (albeit a small one) DEC also posted pictures of "night poachers" on SR taken with drones on FB. (Don't know if they were arrested or not) DEC listings to hire fishery COs. today. (Don't know of any takers though) They are also hiring forest rangers for forestry division. (again don't know if any takers) NYS did apportion an additional $100 million for hatcheries this year.

 

Someone said water level was a problem yet SR area received 43.7" precipitation through 10/24/26 but NOAA  says 40.7 is average for that area for whole year.  Where'd the water go?  It's not level that is the problem.  The problem is flow.  Lake is 6" higher than average for 10/26.  Water flows downhill. (at least it used to) The steeper the hill, the faster the flow.  If the bottom of the hill is raised, then it takes a greater volume of water to cause the historical flows. 

 

As to judges... VOTE! 

 

 

 

[King Davy]

I agree that the fall fishing for king salmon in NY is just a thug fest. Couple of things I know are true.

 

There is natural reproduction in every south shore trib that maintains even low glows. I can show you the wild fish in every local trib in the spring. There are study’s that were done years ago that proved it. One was a shore line netting event off our Sandy creek DEC recovered lots of wild smolts. Fishing the Oak in March all I have to do is look behind my footsteps and I have schools of wild kings eating the invertebrates I’m kicking up. 
 

Right now there is a huge return to Irondequoit creek. They’ve never been stocked there. Are they strays from the genny. Probably some but we now have proof Irondequoit has habitat to raise wild browns and also steelhead. The reason kings can and do survive dozens of other streams besides the Salmon River is these fry are hatched in February and March and leave the streams in April and early May before those waters become lethal. 
 

the Hatchery once again has easily achieved their egg take. In the spring DEC runs a two month seining study on the salmon river. They capture between 7 to 20 million successfully hatched par. The event starts early April and runs to the end of May. 
 

You could never have the lake fishing success that’s going on without a huge influx of wild fish. The Genny is loaded right now like I haven’t seen in a long time. We’ve had several colder long springs lately that keep stream temps down longer and is allowing greater escapement of par and smolts to the lake. 
 

if we never stocked another salmon. They are here forever. Now the only way to curb the thuggery is to get to the state legislature and try and get stiffer penalties. DEC makes regulations not penalties. I’ve spent over 25 years fishing and traveling in Alaska. Now Alaska does have lining and netting of salmon for indigenous and Alaskan citizens but if you break the laws there you are going to jail. Same for Canada and many of our western states. 
 

I see all the disgusting posts on line of the law breakers. Some ahole talked about he and his crew hooking 300 salmon. I talked to CO’s the past two weeks. Of course they are overwhelmed but are still trying to do their best. There were three officers down on the Genny last week. The cool thing about the Genny is everyone was fishing legal float fishing with bait or beads. Hopefully they all had licenses. Last week I saw this group of “Eastern Europeans” catch about a 20” steelhead. It was their intention to kill that fish. I climbed out of the river and told them the fish wasn’t legal. Of course they didn’t know the steelhead regs but when I conned them in that there were three cops up in the parking lot and once they walked out with this dink on a stringer they better have $250 in cash on hand. They quickly put the fish back. 

 

The answer isn’t to shut down the river. The DEC will shut down the fly zone in low water which gets the fish to beaver dam Brook. If you don’t know, thousands of kings move all night long and make their way to the hatchery, Night poachers. DEC is now using drones with night vision cameras and have arrested several people illegally fishing after dark.

 

It is disgusting what goes on but it’s going on at 18 mile. The Oak, Oswego, the black river, Irondequoit. I was at Sandy yesterday catching migratory brown trout. The four or five guys I ran into had enough weight on their rods to anchor the Yankee Troller. I took the time to rerig their rods. Gave them flies I was catching fish on and recited the regs for stream trout and salmon. Unfortunately it’s education to a few at a time. 
 

I love to swing streamers for kings. And I know many others that fish legally and ethically for salmon. The answer isn’t to punish everyone. We could organize as concerned anglers and get time with DEC and our elected officials. Snagging, lining flossing lifting is illegal. It’s also stealing our resources. I’m happy to get involved. Who else is?