Syracuse.com - Have round gobies finally arrived in Oneida Lake?

[HuntingNY-News]

There's been two unsubstantiated reports of this minnow-sized,,invasive species in the lake by two anglers in recent weeks.

Is it a round goby? This photo of a small baitfish spit out by a perch recently caught on Oneida Lake by Rick Fedele is inconclusive, said Cornell and DEC officials. Rick Fedele  

Is there a new invasive species in Oneida Lake?

Anglers and fisheries biologists agree it’s only a matter time before round gobies, a minnow-sized fish, establish a presence in the lake – that is, if they haven’t already.

In recent weeks, there’s been two unsubstantiated reports of anglers reporting round gobies while ice fishing on Oneida Lake. In both cases, the anglers caught perch through the ice, which then regurgitated a baitfish that the fishermen believed was a round goby.

In one instance, a photo was taken of the fish. In the other, no photo was taken. In both cases, no specimen was kept for a later positive ID by a fisheries biologist.

A round goby. DEC  

“It wouldn’t surprise me if round gobies are in Oneida Lake today,” said Randy Jackson, associate director of the Cornell Biological Field Station. “They’ve been one barrier away (a lock on the Oneida River several miles away from the lake) for two years.”

Jackson and DEC officials examined the photo, which was submitted by Rick Fedele, of Cicero, who caught the perch that spit it out on the south shore of the lake, east of Dunman’s Island. The photo was inconclusive, Jackson and DEC officials said.

“It’s hard to tell. It’s partially digested. You can’t tell if it has the protruding eyes, which are a characteristic,” Jackson said. “It also doesn’t show the bottom view. Round gobies have their two pelvic fins fused together in a circular disk.”

“It could be a sculpin. They’re in the lake, but not abundant.”

The bug-eyed, minnow-sized fish are a native of Russia. Fisheries biologists believe they arrived in the Great Lakes more than a decade ago in the ballast water of freighters. They feed on just about anything, includingthe eggs of native fish and zebra mussels.

They currently carpet the bottom of large sections of Lake Ontario and Erie and aggressively strip the hooks of bait fishermen. They’ve been spotted in recent years in Onondaga Lake and Cross Lake and in the Seneca and Oneida rivers.

Fedele said he was fishing for walleye and big perch last month using a Swedish Pimple lure tipped with an emerald shiner. He said after he photographed the fish that he thought was a round goby, "I left it there on the ice."

Brian Hammond, of Cicero, said he was ice fishing three to four weeks ago with Billy Kott, also of Cicero, on Maple Bay on Oneida Lake when Kott caught a perch that spit out a baitfish that appeared to be a round goby.

“It had the bulging eyes on top of its head,” Hammond said.

But like Fedele, Kott didn’t keep the fish.

Jackson asked that if anyone catches what appears to be a round goby to take pictures of it (get a top and bottom view), bring it home and freeze it for latter examination by the Field Station staff. For further information, call 633-9243.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog