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Post by byronfishpaw on Jan 5, 2016 22:35:03 GMT -5
Fisheries staff from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will hold a public meeting from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on January 11, 2016 in the Caledonia-Mumford High School auditorium, 99 North Street in Caledonia, Livingston County, to discuss the decline in trout fishing quality of Spring and Oatka Creeks. Linky to DEC press release: content.govdelivery.com/accounts/NYSDEC/bulletins/12e3517
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Post by mike faracca on Jan 6, 2016 11:24:25 GMT -5
thanks for this heads up bfp.
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Post by BillWachtel on Jan 6, 2016 16:23:52 GMT -5
This is nice to see. At least they are acknowledging there is a problem. I think a few mild winter will help the issue. The ducks will stay out on the lake.
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Post by jeffraz on Jan 6, 2016 18:09:09 GMT -5
I am going to try to attend. Thanks for this crucial information.
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Post by BillWachtel on Jan 7, 2016 7:56:43 GMT -5
The Spring of 2014 was one of the best springs I had on the Oatka. The size of the fish I caught and the number of rises I was seeing during the Hendrickson and Sulphur hatch was the best I had seen since I started fishing the stream in 2007. Last spring was just the opposite. It's like the fish were all gone. It was amazing. A good friend of mine who fished both streams and whose property backs up to Spring Creek was telling me the Mergansers he was seeing during the winter. He said it really stared during the winter of 2012 is when he noticed it for the first time. Maybe a few mild winters will keep the duck off the creeks and on the lakes the next few years so the streams can come back. I duck hunt quite a bit but there is no way to make a Merganser taste good !!
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Post by SteveKowalski on Jan 7, 2016 12:56:09 GMT -5
"I duck hunt quite a bit but there is no way to make a Merganser taste good !!" Pluck-um' & Chuck-um'! Really nice feathers on those trout suckers
If it's legal to hunt when they're around, it would be worth it to remove some habitual trout eaters
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Post by Doug Pennyloff on Jan 12, 2016 11:19:17 GMT -5
So did anyone go? Anything to share?
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Post by Nick Pionessa on Jan 12, 2016 15:05:30 GMT -5
in a nutshell- mergansers ate all the trout on SC because there isn't any "woody debris" for the trout to hide in. when pointed out that Oatka was basically woody debris from one end to the other they really didn't have a response.
my opinion? the DEC has zero idea what happened and have zero plan to fix it in the future.
no specific water samples were taken. the hatchery manager claims they take samples in the 900 every month and there have been no changes but their results are not open to the public nor do they test for anything specific.
i have photos of all the slides they showed and will get them up here asap. the one good thing is that natural reproduction is unaffected and great. the odd thing is that those 2014 YOY that made it to 2015 in great numbers are the size Mergansers should be eating in vast numbers. they are not. the numbers held for 1-2 year olds in 15. meaning the YOY survived just fine. oh and by their biologists own admission mergansers cannot eat trout bigger than maybe 11". sound confused? be glad you didn't drive there in a blizzard to receive this awesome news in person.
synopsis- we are on our own.
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Post by jeffraz on Jan 12, 2016 15:31:10 GMT -5
Thanks, Nick. I really tried to get there, but some family things came up. It sounds like the DEC had a meeting to placate folks who value naturally reproduced fish in both systems. It wasn't a waste for you to go. At least they know they aren't pulling the wool over our eyes.
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Post by byronfishpaw on Jan 12, 2016 17:54:58 GMT -5
I bet a freedom of information act request could obtain those water sampling docs. Although if they're not testing for anything specific then..umm...what are they even doing? Just filling up containers with water for no reason?
Thanks for going and reporting on it.
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