Syracuse.com - DEC releases fall Salmon River/Oswego River enforcement report

[HuntingNY-News]

More tickets were written this year than last year and enforcement levels increased during the nighttime hours.

John Berry/The Post-StandardAnglers trying their luck at the Trestle Pool on the Salmon River this fall.

State Department of Environmental Conservation officers maintained a steady presence this fall on the Salmon and Oswego rivers, as well as other Lake Ontario tributaries in Oswego County, during the annual spawning run of salmon.

Bottom line: More tickets were written this year than last year and enforcement levels increased during the nighttime hours.

Last year, officers wrote 426 tickets and issued 175 verbal warnings. This fall, from Sept. 10 to Oct. 21, officers wrote 578 tickets and warned 249 anglers about illegal activity.

A report of the tickets issued was recently compiled by Lt. John A. Reitmeier, from the DEC’s Syracuse office, who supervised the officers on the detail. He talked this week about the report.

2011 Salmon Run Report

Why did the number of tickets go up this year? Is there some kind of trend here about what anglers are doing or not doing?

The types of offenses have been pretty consistent in comparing the two years. The majority of tickets were written both years on the Salmon River. This year, though, we put more man-hours into our enforcement. It wasn’t that we had more officers. We just allocated more overtime to the detail. We used all five encon officers assigned to Oswego County, along with having the remainder of the officers in Region 7 come up at least a couple of days or more to work.

Looking at your report, the most tickets were issued for anglers who took fish by “snatching or blind snatching.” Don’t anglers learn, or is there just a lot of ignorance out there about what is allowed and what’s not?Most anglers know the rules. Some come up here determined to catch fish and figure they’re going to do what they figure they have to do and take their chances. Last year we issued 109 tickets in this category. This year we wrote 265. Once again, there’s a direct correlation to the number of man-hours officers worked.

The second most ticketed offense is “distance between hook/lure and weight added to line/leader exceeds four feet.” What’s going on with that?

Anglers fishing the Salmon River year after year come up with numerous ways to catch fish. This rig results in a whipping action (of the baited hook) in the water. Depending on the water flow and the length of the leader, anglers end up foul-hooking more fish. These type of regulations you don’t see anywhere else. They’ve evolved to curtail illegal fishing techniques. Every time somebody comes up with a new way to foul-hook fish, the state comes up with regulations to prevent that.

Do you see a lot of repeat offenders?

We do. And occasionally the officer remembers the angler or does a violator inquiry and realizes it’s not the first time. In such cases, a revocation order is submitted to Albany to have an angler’s fishing license privilege revoked.

I see 17 tickets were written for anglers fishing other than during legal hours. What are the legal hours for fishing these waters and how late at night or early morning are we taking about anglers being caught fishing illegally?

Legal fishing hours are a half hour before sunrise and until a half hour after sunset. We’ve ticketed some people for fishing an hour after sunset and up until midnight — and later in some circumstances.

I also see 20 anglers were ticketed for trespassing on the Salmon River. Were those tickets for any particular stretch of river?

We received complaints from the Douglaston Run folks (a private, for-pay fishing area on the lower part of the river). We also issued tickets for anglers trespassing on state-owned land near the state hatchery on Beaver Dam Brook, which is posted. The others were spread out along the river.

Any highlights enforcement-wise from this past fall’s fishing season that you’d like to mention?

Last year after the season we talked about lack of enforcement during the nighttime hours along the Salmon River. This year we were able to overcome that and officers worked a fair amount of hours after dark.

To report poachers: If you suspect someone is violating the state’s fish and wildlife laws, call 911 or the DEC’s 24-hour hotline at 1-877-457-5680.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog