Syracuse.com - DEC netting, measuring spawning rainbow trout on the Cayuga Lake Inlet

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Asked about the unseasonably warm winter, Lemon noted, “it’s too early to say, but possible” that this year’s overall spawn of rainbows up the Cayuga Lake Inlet and other Finger Lake tributaries will be earlier than usual. Watch video

It happens every spring.

State Department of Environmental Conservation staff keep checking the Cayuga Inlet Fishway, about a half-mile up from the southern end of Cayuga Lake, three or more times a week for lamprey and spawning rainbow trout.

The parasitic lamprey, which attach themselves to large fish, are measured then bagged and taken to the local landfill.

The rainbow trout, on the other hand, are measured and looked over for lamprey scars. They’re then either released to continue their spawning trip upstream, or kept by the DEC staff and stripped of eggs before being released.

Although no official count was available late Friday afternoon, DEC staff were at the trap that morning expecting a large number of rainbows.

“Rain events (like the one Thursday evening) and rising temperatures usually trigger fish movement,” said David Lemon, regional fisheries manager at the DEC’s Cortland office.

To date, DEC staff have recorded about 300 spawning rainbows, the biggest one measuring 29½ inches.

“It’s better than last year at this time,” Lemon said. “Historically, we’ve ranged from as low as 141 to 2,000 fish. It’s still early March. You’ll see fish moving right up through early April. Three hundred at this point is a promising number.”

The fish get trapped in the fishway thanks to a dam, a flood-control measure built several decades ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which stretches across most of the inlet. When the water is low, like it is now, the spawning fish are unable to jump over the dam and proceed up a concrete stairway on one side of the stream that leads into a funnel-like, enclosed, concrete-lined holding area.

DEC workers don waders, step down a ladder into the holding area and net the trapped fish and lampreys.

This year the lake’s level has been down. If it continues, probably every spawning rainbow will get trapped on its way upstream. In some years, Lemon said, the high waters have enabled many fish to jump over the dam and avoid the trap.

He said the eggs stripped from the female rainbows are taken to the DEC’s hatchery in Bath, where they’re raised and then stocked back into Cayuga, Skaneateles, Owasco and Seneca lakes, supplementing the wild reproduction of rainbows in those lakes.

At this point, the DEC has trapped few if any adult lampreys at the Cayuga Inlet Fishway, but a number of the fish that have been analyzed are showing “transformer wounds,” which are wounds inflicted by young lampreys still in the Inlet that attach themselves to the fish coming up.

“The adult lampreys start running up the Inlet in April and hit their peak around May, ending in early June,” he said.

Asked about the unseasonably warm winter, Lemon noted, “it’s too early to say, but possible” that this year’s overall spawn of rainbows up the Cayuga Lake Inlet and other Finger Lake tributaries will be earlier than usual.

“It has happened in some years. You get a warm spring and a lot of them make their way back into the lake, particularly the females,” he said. “But not every fish is going to spawn before April 1. There will be fish in the Cayuga Inlet come April 1. How many, though, is the big question.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog