Good to hear you' re able to get out and abuse your upper body again!
 
Up in the " Zone"?  Did you have to get there at 3:30 and take headlamps out of the branches to get a spot?

Straight forward Clint. Glad you got a few tugs and put one in the net.
Someday I'll fish again

Have had some fine fishing days standing behind the belly button deep conga lines  and high lining in back of them where the fish are really running.

Am resigned to the fact that SR fishing -in my life time- will never be what it once was.
Yes- they come in to eat the eggs but it aint like they have a newspaper to tell them eggs are there lol- its an instinctive movement learned over generations.
Might think that the annual Fall push is all we have seen, which might mean the long trickle to follow wont be all that impressive either.
Sad.
( as usual hope to be proven wrong)
Can say what they want about fishing pressure but I got rooms ( 2 each trip) on just a couple of days notice both trips this Fall -first place called both times too. THAT used to be impossible.

Well today wa as much better, there were a few around to play with. I fished from 8 until 230. I would guess I had around 10 on during that time. I got 2. One time I had 3 casts and 3 fish on. They came in spurts. Some fought like a boot and some were hot. There were even a few nice silver ones jumping around. You had to work hard for your takes. All were on little green nymphs, that's all they wanted from me. I can't figure out how to post a pic from my phone. Maybe HT will enlighten me LOL. Same guy standing chest deep today , ruining it for those above him. The people across from him did ok though. One guy fishing a float 2 feet above his fly. When you see stuff like this do you guys say something or let it be. I would want to know, (if said in a nice way) if I was doing something like that. I would be afraid I would get an earful if I tried to help so I just let it be.

I speak up Clint. People don't like some of the things I say but I do try and be real

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No, Tuna, I was there for the best, and am still hanging in for the rest. 
 
As to cutting stocks , what happens if you put 5 piglets in your pen and then give the five food that is only enough for three?   The bait surveys and the condition reports on the fish ( -3 lbs for 3 year olds, -3.4 lbs for 2 year olds) say that is what is going on in LO.

My original intent with the pass was to fish in later August and for Salmon.  When I went in the week of Labor Day, what I saw was like the old days, a pair of fishers at each choke point, likely "floss yawking" when they saw a salmon.  Not encouraging.  Nevertheless, I was on my way out the door to go back the next week, when the cohos ran through there, when my daughter broke the mirror.  So by the time I could fish, the salmon were all zombied up.  The week the trout really came in, my daughter was having emergency surgery, and the I made the hot sauce while waiting around for her to be released, and I missed that.  Since then it has been a question of playing catch-up, always with the thought that "the big run has to show up one of these days."  That is over now, this storm puts the damper on travel in the Lake Effect Band.    Next year is likely to be passless; it is crowded down in DSR in salmon season, and if I want to fish down there after 11/1 it is cheaper to buy an afternoon pass. 
 
The other scenario with livestock and feed is that they all get a share but none get enough to maintain healthy growth, so yield is lower, and there is a risk of disease that all may be more susceptable to due to less than proper diet and growth.  Like Lake Huron.

The objective of stocking all these fish was to control the alewife, and the king has done an exceptional job of that.  So while there may be less stocked, they will remain in the mix, especially with the amount of natural reproduction, which should get another set of measurements if they can get the staffing lined up to run the fin clipper for the next few years.  I know people who say the king should be eliminated from the stocking program in favor of the steelhead, but the biology of the two fishes makes that impossible in any significant way.  It takes about 6 months in the hatchery and the kings are ready to go into the pens or the lake.  Trout, and cohos, require an additional year before they smolt, and DEC has basically described the cost differential as 10 kings for one steelhead, or 180,000 additional chromers if you got rid of the 1.8 million kings that were being stocked. 
 
IF you think poor returns might be the result of overharvest out on the big pond, please remember that DEC is accepting comments on the regulations changes until December 14.  GO to http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/115977.html  and follow the instructions.  They want a reason you support or don't support the change, and poor returns and the need for better returns to the tribs might be a good reason to cut the steelhead limit to two out on the lake.  I  personally also support the change to a 25" size limit to allow the steelhead one shot at spawning before they are removed from the system.  I would guess you would not mind that, Clint, as you tend to stay in the zones where none are retained anyway.   But 25" keeps a few more players in the system longer, and still allows someone a chance at a trophy fish.
 
 It should be noted that the west end Charter captains, who at recent GL Fisheries Commission and SOL meetings have maintained that steelhead are only an incidental catch for them, despite the boat survey data that indicates over 20% of the harvest coming from the west end of the lake, are getting their shorts all rolled up over this one big time, and have been vocal in urging their members to weigh in against these changes, so every voice here counts.

Fished the SR yesterday & today.  r3g3 here is a pair of cohos I took today.

Coho?
 

Glad you got out, Clint.  Too bad the steelies decided to practice social distancing. Stay safe. At least yourself and medical professionals are well versed  in what to do.  My wife  manages a mental health clinic and has to go in every day. Hope you get out some more and get some drop backs before they're gone.

As of tonight at 8 PM, no travel but necessary in NYS.  I would not want to have to explain to a NYS JP why my trip to the local stream was necessary when peeps a little older than me are being told not to leave the house except for short bits of solitary outside exercise ( I'm OK with staying home except for the lack of dairy, but I hate staying inside, I'm even outside in the winter more than inside).   Please all be safe, and for the youths inclined to say "why, it only kills the old", please remember that the next one may home in on millennials, and it will be us short timers that help to protect you.
 
Last trip to the water was a week ago Thursday with Two Bob, to the local ditch.  We saw a nice pair that were so far back under a honeysuckle bush that you would have needed an RC controlled submarine to get a bait to them, and about a half dozen others near or on newly dug redds, but the water was very low, the fish were spooky, and they were not on the bite anywhere we stopped and fished .  Mostly a last nice hike for this spring's steelhead season, as I think with the daffodils ready to flower any day, we are into spring and the chrome will ben back in the lake for the season soon.  Oh, well!  The "Stay at home if you are over 60" recommendation came out the next day, and I try to listen to the public safety people.  Not that I care about me much, but if I bring it home and my wife gets sick, I am going to hate myself.  We have gone out, but it has been one trip per time out, and very early in the AM, I went for apples and eggs at the Public Market yesterday, and the sun wasn't up yet, and many vendors were just setting up.

Gubbner King Cuomo has stated that outdoor recreation and exercise are permitted as long as it is done in solitude. This includes running and hiking as examples so fishing in solitude should be ok. That said I am still not for making unnecessary trips. My trip was planned on my way to pick up medical necessities. I still have to work every day so no quarentine here. I need to be EXTRA careful ANYWHERE I go to decrease chances i spread it .