Syracuse.com - Lake Ontario fishery continues to be healthy, world class, officials say

[HuntingNY-News]

Lake Ontario's chinook salmon on the biggest in the Great Lakes system.

The Lake Ontario fishing scene continues to be healthy and world-class, according to DEC, Canadian and U.S. Geological Survey officials.

"Last year marked the 11th consecutive year of the highest chinook salmon catch rate on record, and our chinooks are the biggest in the Great Lakes system," said Steve LaPan, the Great Lakes unit manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Reports and updates on a wide variety of topics concerning the lake were given at the "State of the Lake" meeting held Tuesday evening at the DEC's training facility in Pulaski. More than 75 attended the 3½ hour presentation.

The two-year-old coho salmon on Lake Ontarion and its tributaries caught last year were generally smaller than last year. Nicole Smith, of Eastwood, holds up a 16-pound coho salmon she caught on the Salmon River.Submitted photo 

Among the highlights:

Fish size: DEC fisheries biologist Scott Prindle noted the size of the lake's chinook, steelhead, brown and lake trout continue to be generally similar to those caught in years past. The one exception is coho salmon. He said the two -year-old cohos caught during 2013 were smaller. He had no explanation, noting the coho's diet consists largely of alewives and that population of baitfish is doing well right now in the lake.

Bait fish: Maureen Walsh, a fisheries biologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, reviewed results of bottom trawling outings and covered several updates on various shallow and deep- water baitfish in the lake. She noted the round goby is currently the predominate, bottom-dweller. She said that honor used to be held by the slimy sculpin.

Most commonly caught fish/catch rates: Jana Lantry, a DEC fisheries biologist, reviewed boat/creel survey results from 2013 and noted 87 percent of the angler outings on the lake targeted salmon and trout during 2013. She said the catch rate for charter boats was 8.9 fish per boat trip, and 2.4 fish for non-charter boat trips.

In regard to numbers of fish caught during those trips, she said chinook ranked the highest, followed by lake trout, rainbow trout, brown trout and coho salmon. In 2012, brown trout were second and lake trout were fourth. Decreasing success in landing brown trout in 2013, she said, resulted in more anglers targeting lakers instead.

Lantry also noted that netting surveys showed that that the lake's walleye and yellow perch populations appeared to be down slightly in 2013 compared to 2012.

The bass fishing: The lake's smallmouth bass fishing scene continues to be a sore sport, with a decreasing number of anglers getting out and fishing for them, despite increasing catch rates. Lantry noted the lake's bass population in the Eastern Basin took a hit in 2004 due to excessive predation by cormorants. The numbers of cormorants have been reduced, but the bass fishery in that area is still recovering. Answering a question from the audience, she said there are no plans to stock bass in Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario's program to reduce the numbers of sea lamprey, which prey on large fish such as lake trout, is the best in the Great Lakes, officials say.Mike Greenlar | [email protected] 

Lamprey control: Brian Lantry, a fisheries biologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, noted preventative measures to reduce Lake Ontario's sea lamprey population are the most successful of any of the Great Lakes. He said that fact, coupled with successful stocking programs by both New York State and the Canadians, has resulted in a healthy and growing lake trout fishery in the lake.

Egg take at the Salmon River Hatchery: DEC staffer Jim Daley, who is in charge of the state's hatchery system, noted that the Salmon River hatchery's annual egg take during the fall of 2013 exceeded its target amounts for chinook, rainbow trout and coho salmon.

The hatchery has been having difficulty,though, keeping the coho eggs and embryos alive. Daley said that was a result of the higher temperatures in the Salmon River during the egg take period. He said there will be no stocking of coho fingerlings this year in any of the lake's tributaries on the American side. Initial plans called for stocking 155,000 fall fingerlings at various locations.

Instead, the hatchery will stock more chinook fingerlings at those locations to take their place. He added the hatchery will also stock 130,000 coho yearlings in nearby Beaverdam Brook (a tributary of the Salmon River ) this spring that were held over from last year. That should help soften the blow. Normally, the hatchery would have put in only 90,000 yearlings in the Salmon River.

Native species restoration: Jim Johnson, from the U.S. Geological Survey Tunison Laboratory of Aquatic Science in Cortland, gave an update on efforts to restore populations of Atlantic salmon, deep water cisco and lake herring.

He noted efforts to restore native baitfish, along with a top of the food chair predator such as the Atlantic salmon is the first time this has been attempted in the Great Lakes - or anywhere for that matter.

Johnson said the efforts to restore the baitfish are underway to strengthen the habitat and the diversity of what the lake's larger fish are eating. As for the Atlantic salmon, he said the goal is to hopefully make them a popular alternative for anglers fishing the lake's tributaries.

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