Syracuse.com - State boat launch at South Shore on Oneida Lake needs some attention

[HuntingNY-News]

The problem is the water in three of the four bays is simply too shallow to launch larger boats.

An angler told me this week he was frustrated as he tried to launch his boat at one particular site on Oneida Lake and decided to go fish elsewhere.

Les Monostory, of Fayetteville, drove his boat down to the state boat launch at South Shore, located between Lakeport and Bridgeport, on the lake’s southern side. The Onondaga County-run, Oneida Shores launch near Brewerton was busy that morning with Bassmaster boats and others, he said.

The South Shore launch wasn’t much better, he said — particularly since the four-bay launch is largely inadequate for launching bigger craft like Monostory’s 16-footer or other larger boats. The problem, he said, is the launch hasn’t been tended to and the water in three of the four bays is simply too shallow.

Seeing nearly a dozen boats lined up to use a single bay, Monostory said he gave up and drove to Skaneateles Lake to fish there instead.

“I figured it would probably only get worse at the end of the day,” he said of the long line of boaters and trailers.

Mike Cusano, of Clay, president of N.Y. B.A.S.S. Chapter Federation, said Oneida Shores with its multiple launch ramps and parking spaces is more than adequate for those anglers who want to fish that end of the lake.

“But if you’re fishing the middle or eastern side, you’re probably going to want to use the South Shore launch,” he said, adding that maintenance of that launch has been an on-going problem because of a prevailing wind that blows there and piles and sand and silt in the launch area.

“The launch does need to be maintained and dredged, probably twice a year,” he said. “Us sportsmen pay money (in our license fees) to have a facility that’s useable. If it’s not useable, it should be addressed.”

Cusano suggested if a pier was built there, it would handle the wind situation, in addition to providing a new spot for anglers without boats to fish from.

Dave Lemon, regional fisheries manager at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Cortland office, said he recognizes there’s problems at the South Shore launch, but that the DEC’s operations staff is short-handed and dealing with other problems recently such as severe flooding across the state.

“It’s an issue and we’ll try to address it,” he said. “But it’s not going to happen this fall.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog