Syracuse.com - DEC: Round gobies are now in Cayuga Lake in 'fairly high abundance'

[HuntingNY-News]

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.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation this weekend confirmed that round gobies, an invasive fish species, are now in Cayuga Lake in "fairly high abundance."

"The DEC has had credible reports of round gobies being captured by anglers from Cayuga Lake since the fall of 2010," said Lori Severino, a DEC spokeswoman.

"This year we've had numerous reports of gobies in Cayuga Lake from both anglers and one experienced diver and we verified that a picture of a fish caught from the southern end of Cayuga was indeed a round goby. According to DEC Fisheries staff, it is safe to say that they are present in the lake and in fairly high abundance."

John Gaulke, a fishing guide on the Finger Lakes who frequently is out on Cayuga, has not seen any gobies in the stomachs of lake trout he and his clients have caught.

"I heard, though, from a bait shop owner that fishermen have been catching them the past month around Myers and Taughannock points," he said.

Gaulke added that he and a friend went out afterward trying to catchone and the friend did catch one with worm around the north side of Myers Point.

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, including the 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.

Officials have been expecting them to move into Oneida Lake through the Oneida River. To date, there's been no confirmed reports of them in the lake.

Fishery biologists at the Cornell Biological Field Station at Bridgeport on Oneida Lake have asked anyone who 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