ACTION PLAN

[tamiron]

OK. Now I get it!

I assumed that the reason posting was so sparse was because successful anglers were not posting their results. Since that has happened in the past, I apologize for jumping to that conclusion so quickly. But as Tom Harvey used to say, now for the rest of the story!

I can’t remember the first time that I warned of the impact caused by the success of a limited number of people unwilling to share their results so as to make it a great fishery for a lot of people as opposed to just a few. The results we are hearing now are even worse. Many of us don’t follow social media, so it would be impossible for us that don’t, to appreciate just how bad things have become. When social media is used instead of a popular public forum, we can’t exhibit the strength in numbers that will motivate public officials, judges, and environmental conservation people to maintain what is necessary to sustain a thriving put and take fishery.

As it now seems, the Atlantic salmon have disappeared. Hints of missing age classes have been reported on this forum in the past 24 to 36 months. The cormorant population has exploded during this time. It is an invasive species, whereas, the Atlantic salmon is a native species. A judge has ruled in favor of the cormorants and without additional information provided to him will not possibly change his mind. If creel censuses and returning spawners are well documented it can at least establish the proof that predation is occurring at an extraordinary level. It then becomes a matter of investigation and scientific analysis to eliminate the possible sources of this predation. Recent statements on the forum have indicated the cormorants preference for white and yellow perch. Perhaps this is so….Because there are no more salmon for them to gorge themselves on! The history on Lake Ontario and other lakes I’m sure could add additional support to the incredibly voracious appetites of this invasive species.

The last that I remember, Ellen Marsden, has seen little or no natural reproduction from Lake trout. It is most definitely a put and take fishery that requires lengthy periods for the trout to attain significant size and status. Excellent forage base and available zoo plankton do their job at the micro level, but natural reproduction combined with overharvesting and improper handling will most certainly lead to the demise of this fishery as well.

It is critical that all fishing related businesses, anglers, environmental conservation people, outdoor writers, and Derby managers speak with one voice loud enough to be heard by even the most stubborn anti-fishing groups. Social media certainly has and will have its place in our lives. But a very active forum that is well subscribed to, current in its subject matter, and unified to improve the fishery, should have a much greater effect. Success in the hands of a few will undoubtedly contribute to the demise of a marginal fishery that has limited or no natural reproduction. You can you can disagree with some of my points and certainly add new ones of your own, but I think the time for an action plan is now. We need to establish goals and objectives, assigned responsibilities, and measurement tools to make sure that we can determine the effect of these activities.

We need to put aside differences, argumentative views, and any negative activity that can be construed by an outsider as the signs of a divided house. Now like never before, we need to come together and fight for the restoration of the success curve that was in place just a few years ago. I’m asking you to share the painful results that you are experiencing every time you go out. I’m also asking you to share successes so that we can build on them.

United we have a voice, but divided we make noise

[fishy1]

excellent jim .

[C-Hawk]

I'm not ready to say the sky is falling yet, but when it comes to fishing ,I have always been an optimist. This strategy helps me sit in the boat for 6 or 8 hours with no releases. There are always the few times that just when I'm about to give up, a 6 pounder cartwheels off the back of the boat. This strategy, that I must say I have perfected this year, is the reason I am going to wait until spring before I start to panic. I think we owe it to Fish and Wildlife to check the returns this fall and their electro-shocking surveys. I just recently exchanged e-mails with Chet McKenzie, a leading VTfish bioligist and Fisheries Program Manager, and his feeling is that population numbers still look good and he feels that this season was more of a bump in the road( my term) , than outright fishery collapse. While he is not happy with cormorant numbers , he insists that all stocking occurs 2 weeks before birds return. Also I learned from a friend who recently visited the Grand Isle hatchery, that all fish stocked this year were dumped from the ferry.
Lets hope for improved fishing this fall, and maybe we should start looking at this season as a perfect storm kind of thing, with cormorants being the hurricane. Add in last year's record low water, a cold spring, a cold and rainy early summer and the wildest swings in water temps. that I have ever seen, maybe we can just call it a lousy year. On the plus side , there is plenty of bait especially smelt .

[Adkhare]

I'm not ready to say the sky is falling yet, but when it comes to fishing ,I have always been an optimist. This strategy helps me sit in the boat for 6 or 8 hours with no releases. There are always the few times that just when I'm about to give up, a 6 pounder cartwheels off the back of the boat. This strategy, that I must say I have perfected this year, is the reason I am going to wait until spring before I start to panic. I think we owe it to Fish and Wildlife to check the returns this fall and their electro-shocking surveys. I just recently exchanged e-mails with Chet McKenzie, a leading VTfish bioligist and Fisheries Program Manager, and his feeling that population numbers still look good and he feels that this season was more of a bump in the road( my term) , than outright fishery collapse. While he is not happy with cormorant numbers , he insists that all stocking occurs 2 weeks before birds return. Also I learned from a friend who recently visited the Grand Isle hatchery, that all fish stocked this year were dumped from the ferry.
Lets hope for improved fishing this fall, and maybe we should start looking at this season as a perfect storm kind of thing, with cormorants being the hurricane. Add in last year's record low water, a cold spring, a cold and rainy early summer and the wildest swings in water temps. that I have ever seen, maybe we can just call it a lousy year. On the plus side , there is plenty of bait especially smelt .

C HAWK
I must say I like the idea you've added and actually between this and some message swaps with another member recently I am optimistic that spring will bring a brighter outlook, after looking back on the season and reading other people's woes of the season I didn't do so bad comparably, just wasn't up to my expectations. Maybe the fish just changed their program a little bit and we haven't adapted just yet. Spring will definitely tell it all. It's like the predictions of what kind of winter we will have.....we'll know in April how it was. Cormorants are a problem there is no doubt but duck season is just around the corner and early in the morning it's hard to see maybe the duck hunters will have a few thousand accidents and solve our problems. Good thought anyway.

[Captain Paul]

Well said Jim United we need to be on all Fishery issues. What I think would help this forum is a link from FB that would share directly here because everyone post on FB now a days and do not bother with forum to much I have Reports on Sure Strike Web page almost every week. But don't post here much because of lack of time and effort. I believe the Salmon fishery is headed down hill and has been since last year I really hope I am wrong and they are just hiding out there some where we didn't think to look But last year we saw 2 Small Salmon (under 14 inches) all season This year maybe a dozen. In years past we saw that many on a 4 hr. trip in Sept. The Small fish do not seem to be here and we have witnessed the Flocks of Cormorants eating them and Brown Trout.
The Lake Trout fishery seems ok for now we are seeing very healthy fish the best I have ever seen on Champlain and decent numbers. But we are not seeing as many big fish as we did 6 to 10 years ago this alarms me because with Lamprey control better than ever we should be seeing more big fish and we are not. My biggest fear is that catch and release fishermen with all there good intentions
of releasing fish to fight another day are not handling fish properly and killing many more fish than the daily limit would allow this alarms me way more than the guy that goes out and catches his limit and goes home with them.

[C-Hawk]

I think the run of big lake trout was a product of high fat content alewife only diet we had a few years ago. Believe it or not, we had a day where we boated 20 fish over 10 pounds, including a 15

[Controlled chaos]

rite on the money Jim, and C-hawk

[C-Hawk]

Also, if the fall fishing is as bad as the summer was, and we get bad reports from monitoring returns and electroshocking counts, we have all winter when many of us have a little more time, to create a firestorm of emails, telephone calls and ranting on here.

[Controlled chaos]

Squeaky wheel gets the grease....

[jimbow]

I have made several posts on many different threads all year long about the down ward spiral of the fishery....it's a bit frustrating at times. Jim makes a great point, we ALL have to set our differences aside and work as a ONE team in order to anything done.

To quote another forum member " Where do I begin" is how I feel about face book and other Social Media outlets (other than the forum) which are not as public. We have the forum, the excuse that you can use "different language" or whatever on "other social media" is a lot of ...well let's leave it at that....Fisherman like to keep secrets, I remember the days when only a few had 2 way radios, as more people got radios then people started using "scramblers", then straight cell phone conversations, now everyone has "smart phones" (but me) and friends are "linked" on face book. I don't think Jim (or myself) is asking everyone to give up "secret spots" or any "secret weapons", but rather our success or LACK thereof...with LIMITED info as not to give away the afore mentioned "secrets". I, myself posted every time I went out, (as little as it was this season) and told people what I used and any pertain-ate info without giving an exact location because that was MY choice. There are great fishermen on this forum, we all have good and BAD days, some post and many others don't anymore. Posting a bad fishing day or an UN-sucessful one doesn't mean you are less of a fisherman...it means there is a real problem.

I had a bad feeling about this year right from the start, which actually started last winter. The VERY low water in the rivers in the fall of 2016 made for a miserable return of fish in the rivers that I have fished in past winters. Add the lack of "shakers" last year (and this year) and things started adding up. Then spring fishing was terrible in the "usual" haunts, less the Lakers. I posted my thoughts of some type problem(s) with the Lake and unfortunately they were proven right.

I have also been warning of a collapse of the Lakers population if this trend keeps up, they CANNOT take the pressure. They live in deeper water most of the time and are prone to more fatalities after being released due to that fact. I have only been out a fraction of the time I have done in the past (and fished shorter days) mainly because I do not want to harm them. I practice good catch and release methods but if I feel the fish is in anyway harmed, I will not return the fish and make it part of the creel limit and take it home. I think we should all do a self imposed "creel limit" and stop at a few fish (the limit) rather that racking up numbers until the fishery gets back on course (hopefully). The days of double digit takes are (or should be) a thing of the past. C-Hawk mentioned the size of the Lakers he caught being larger for the most part (same here). The same thing happen last year with the salmon (many really good sized fish, no or few shakers), then look what happened. The year class of the fish are what makes the size, not just feed for the most part. When year classes dis-appear or are not present that should be a BIG concern.

We should all unite and start fighting for our fishery and Lake, if we don't no one else will.

[fishfarmer]

The last that I remember, Ellen Marsden, has seen little or no natural reproduction from Lake trout.

There is a recent article in the Boston Globe discussing Marsden's discovery of wild lake trout in the past couple of years. She found up to 35% of wild lake trout during her sampling efforts.

[BottomDollar]

There is a recent article in the Boston Globe discussing Marsden's discovery of wild lake trout in the past couple of years. She found up to 35% of wild lake trout during her sampling efforts.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/ ... story.html

[DreamWeaver]

Started fishing Lake Champlain summer of 2012, when I bought my 1st boat. Joined this forum in 2013. I have truly enjoyed reading reports and learning, and the adding sense of community. As your Canadian neighbor my most prevalent observation this year, is the significant change in the thermocline. The sensors available to us allow to accurately determine where it is situated. In past years and in most reports it was a 30 feet plus/minus 5 feet. This year I found it at 65-85 feet and by reading other reports it was not my FishHawk TD that was at fault. As for my fishing outings, taking in consideration my season started late, it has been the the most difficult season with several outings all we did was wash spoons and lures. We still love to be out on the water and maintain hope for the fishery. Trust the salmon will show up for the Frostbite Derby.

[Sawyer]

Thank you Bottomdollar for putting on the link for the Boston Globe. It's a very interesting article.
This is the kind of info we should be getting from the State of VT. I work in the wildlife field and work closely with the VT Fish & Wildlife Department and i will say that the VT F&W Dept is one of the worst
When it comes to public relations and keeping articles reports up to date.

[C-Hawk]

Thank you Bottomdollar for putting on the link for the Boston Globe. It's a very interesting article.
This is the kind of info we should be getting from the State of VT. I work in the wildlife field and work closely with the VT Fish & Wildlife Department and i will say that the VT F&W Dept is one of the worst
When it comes to public relations and keeping articles reports up to date.

If you think Vt is bad , they are positively motor-mouthed compared to Mass. I also find them to be very responsive to queries I have given them. While I have not seen the Lake Trout story, you should be singed up for the email newsletter.