Syracuse.com - Experts give lake's fishery good grades during State of Lake Ontario presentation

[HuntingNY-News]

The event included nearly a dozen individual presentations by state Department of Environmental Conservation, U.S. Geological Survey staff and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, followed by an hour-long question and answer period with a panel of the presenters.

Wednesday evening’s 3 ½-long, state of Lake Ontario meeting at the Oswego County BOCES in Mexico drew a good cross section of anglers, charter boat captains and others interested in the lake’s health.

The event included nearly a dozen individual presentations by state Department of Environmental Conservation, U.S. Geological Survey staff and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, followed by an hour-long question and answer period with a panel of the presenters.

Bottom line: The lake continues to be great fishing-wise for most species, and fishery biologists from both sides of the border are working together to tweak what’s going well and to address joint concerns.

The fishing scene: Chinook and coho salmon, and steelhead fishing continues to set records, according to the Lake Ontario Fishing Boat Survey. In addition, the brown trout fishing on Lake Ontario was the best last year since the DEC starting keeping records of such things beginning in the mid-1980s.

Angler trips for these species comprise more than 90 percent of fishing pressure put on the lake.

The lake’s perch population is doing OK, but still down a bit compared to year’s past. The lake’s population of lake trout and walleye are likewise down, but making a modest comeback.

Atlantic Salmon are still a minor player in the lake and for the third year in row have been spotted spawning naturally in the Salmon River. Fisheries biologists from both sides of the border are trying different stocking techniques and strains of fish to determine what will take best in the lake.

The big question mark continues to be the lake’s depressed smallmouth bass population. Anglers are reporting good catches in the Eastern Basin, generally around Henderson Harbor toward the St. Lawrence River. Those fishing west of there, though, report depressed catches and at this point the DEC does not have a solid reason why.

Diversity of bait fish sought: Alewives, by far continue to be the main baitfish in the lake, with other species, such as rainbow smelt, and slimy and deepwater sculpins being small, bit players. The problem with alewives is that despite being an excellent food source for the bigger fish (trout and salmon), they contain a chemical that breaks down thiamine, an important vitamin for the development of young fish and eggs.

When salmon and trout eat them, this chemical builds up in their bodies. When their eggs hatch, their larvae sometimes don’t survive.

The DEC is currently working with the U.S. Geological Survey to net spawning deepwater cisco in Lake Michigan and to raise them at the U.S.G.S.’s Cortland facility for later stocking into the lake. The first stockings could take place later this year.

The goal is to provide a greater diversity of bait fish to ensure the fishery’s health and to supplement the lake’s deep water areas, where currently there is a noticeable lack of feed for the bigger fish.

Meanwhile, Lake Ontario continues to have an abundance of round gobies, which several of the larger fish, including bass, do eat. One speaker noted they’re “starting to dominate the biomass of all the fish on the lake’s bottom.”

Interesting research: Fisheries biologists monitoring the lake continue to use several techniques to understand such things as the degree of natural spawning of chinook salmon, and to what degree stocked salmon are surviving and where they’re spawning.

The techniques involve marking all the stocked chinooks by clipping their small adipose fin before releasing them and implanting small metal slivers , called “coded wire tags,” in some of their snouts, indicated stocking dates and locations.

Hatchery problems: Andy Greulich, hatchery manager at the DEC Salmon River Hatchery in Altmar, and Steve LaPan, another DEC staffer who is section head for Great Lakes Fisheries at Cape Vincent, reported on problems at two, DEC-run hatcheries.

Greulich said the Altmar hatchery’s annual chinook and coho egg take goals were met this fall, but subsequent problems possibly involving thiamine deficiencies in the eggs and fry, has resulted in lost of nearly 95 percent of the coho eggs. He said it shouldn’t be a big problem because in the past the hatchery has exceeded coho stocking goals in the lake.

Meanwhile, over at the Rome Hatchery, which stocks a large section of Central New York streams with trout, a fish disease and possibly other issues there have resulted in the loss of some 74 percent of the hatchery’s brown trout fry. It’s not clear yet, LaPan said, whether the rest of the state’s hatchery system will help make up for the loss and it’s possible some stream stocking goals may not be met in the coming year.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog