Syracuse.com - Onondaga County budgets $35,000 to build 'fishing page' on county website

[HuntingNY-News]

County Legislator Mike Plochocki noted Syracuse is in a "strategic location" to take advantage of the state's fishing opportunities, with Oneida Lake, the steadily improving Onondaga Lake, the Finger Lakes and numerous streams and rivers.

The Onondaga County Legislature has budgeted $35,000 this year for a new online fishing page designed to be a "one-stop shopping" destination for those interested in fishing, fishing guides and other related services and accommodations in the area.

"The process has begun. It's still early in the process," said county Legislator Mike Plochocki, R-Marcellus.

The page is being handled by the county Parks Department. Bill Lansley, the county's parks commissioner, said he has met once with Syracuse Design, an in-house, consulting firm that the county has a contract with to handle its website. Syracuse Design will build the fishing page.

Lansley didn't have a date of when it would be finished. He said it will appear on the county's website and be featured on the county's parks page. When clicked upon "it will have the feel of an entire, separate page."

He said he doesn't expect it will cost $35,000. It helps that it will be added to the existing county website, as opposed to starting from scratch, he said.

The idea for a fishing page came from the county's Fishing Advisory Committee. The county Legislature's Environmental Protection Committee, which oversees the advisory committee, liked the idea and passed it on to the full county Legislature. It was approved and included in this year's budget.

Jordan Taylor, from Cicero, fishes with his family at Onondaga Lake Park.Dick Blume | [email protected] 

Fishing Advisory Committee member Mike Cusano, of Clay, a long-time bass angler and former president of the New York Bassmaster Chapter Federation, said the idea was to come up with a website similar to Oswego County's. That site offers a wide array of angling information and services, including where and when to fish; what species are available and where to catch them; fishing regulations; lists of guides and charter boat captains; links to hotel and restaurant accommodations; interactive maps and more.

"Fishing tourism is a very under-sold commodity in this state.It's much bigger in other states. It's an industry with economic returns in the billions," said Plochochi, who is chairman of the county's Environmental Protection Committee

Plochocki noted Syracuse is in a "strategic location" to take advantage of the state's fishing opportunities, with Oneida Lake, the steadily improving Onondaga Lake, the Finger Lakes and numerous streams and rivers. Oneida Lake, with its nationally ranked walleye fishery, is the fourth most visited fishing location in the state, following the two Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, according to the DEC.

This area has also hosted three national-level, Elite Series Bassmaster tournaments on Oneida and Onondaga Lakes, all which have pumped money into the local economy. One is scheduled this August on nearby Cayuga Lake. An Elite Series tournament held last summer at Waddington on the St. Lawrence River brought impacted the local economy there by more than $1 million, according to a Clarkston University study.

Dave Turner, Oswego County's promotion and tourism director, cited a 2007 study done by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Department of Economic Development that the overall economic impact of angling on Oswego County was "over $42 million."

Although the Onondaga fishing page will seek to imitate or exceed the offerings of Oswego County's fishing page, a major difference is that Onondaga's page will not appear as part of a county tourism website, which the Oswego's fishing page does. The story is the same in other counties, such as Niagara, Wayne and St. Lawrence counties where fishing is big business.

"Fishing should be part of the whole tourism package," said Bill Hilts Jr., director of Outdoor Promotions for the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp.

Nikita Jankowski, communications manager for the Syracuse Convention and Visitor's Bureau, said Wednesday she had no information on the planned fishing page. Lansley said the Visitor's Bureau has not been included yet in discussions about the page,but he expects its website will have a link to it.

The Visitor's Bureau receives money from the county's room tax to promote events and activities in the Syracuse and greater Onondaga County area. "We don't have any information on it, other than it's a line on the county budget," Jankowski said.

Chad Lapa, a web designer for BlueEye Design in Rochester, set up the Oswego and Monroe county fishing pages and said the $35,000 figure budgeted by Onondaga County is "in the ballpark," particularly if one considers the costs of on-going maintenance.

"I set up the Oswego County page in November 2010 and made it so they could update themselves. That cost around $30,000," he said. Lapa said his company is currently in discussions with Erie and Chautauqua counties to set up fishing-related websites for them.

Alison Power, tourism, marketing and outreach coordinator for the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, said her chamber put up its fishing website four years ago and said the Onondaga cost estimate "is in line."

"You also have to incorporate things like social media -- Twitter, Facebook,email blasts, things like that -- and make it readable and useable on small devices, such as iPhones," she said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog