hot tuna
10-4 lucky .
Did I hit the points pretty accurate as you may have read as well ?

Yes, I saw Hilts' article, and you summarized.  Also saw an article in Eastern Flyfishing that quotes Fred Kuepper as the educator at the Hatchery, and his bottom line is that what we saw is the result of the extreme weather.  I still want to hear what was found re thiamin levels.  I was hoping to get up there today and go to the meeting in Pulaski tonight, but things came up here, and I'll be at the meeting here next week.

I am sitting here now waiting for it to start

Dance, Dance, Dance but no answers

I will post a summation from my notes tomorrow. Needless to say there was alot of dancing around, putting off, changing the subject and saying we just don't know regarding the low numbers.  Then there were the  folks lobbying for C&R and shutting down the fly zone in the winter due to freezing fish. . It was a State of the Lake meeting not a lobbying and complaint meeting. There was one in particular who had to be told ''we are not going there tonight'' several times.

Here is my summation. Some of it RJ hit.  Easements are set to be signed this summer. (Altmar I a am guessing, he did not say where). 
For 2015 low stockings on walleye, steelhead, Coho. Everything on target or 2016 except Lakers.
Fin clips and tagging for Ho's starting this year to determine wild vs hatchery and yearling vs fingerling survival. It has been determined that pen reared fish are surviving 2x better so they will be looking into more pens.
Boat survey
Lowest success on  salmon since  2002. (must have missed the %)
Browns down 27%
steel down 40%
Trib creel also was down significantly
Alwifes
We have a stable population now BUT that is due to record spawn in 2013 giving us alot of 2 year old fish. 2014 and 2015 were the lowest numbers since the 90s meaning that in 3 years when the 2013 year starts to die off and decrease spawning efficiency there will be no fish to take their spots. They VERY briefly touched on thiamine deficiency due to cold and then swept it under.
 
There were alot of maybe it could be this, we can't say for sure it was that, we don't know if the salmonoids died, tests were inconclusive. No one wanted to even venture a guess or say anything, it was danced around and then pushed aside.  They were asked about a possible large 4 yr old class this year and they said that less than 3% of all fish are 4 yr olds and most are smaller and did not mature that's why they are 4. It is highly unlikely there will be more 4 yr old fish.  They really had no answer on where the fish are.
 
Steelhead
It was emphasized that steelhead is put and take and they really could care less about natural repo. They have no plans to clip steelhead in the future to determine natural repo from what I gathered. If things keep going they will look into lowered lake limits for steel
 
An interesting tidbit.
Canada does not, will not and can not stock Ho's. They made some deal with our gubment to not do so.
 
Any questions I will try to remember what was said if I can 

It is not rocket science.  The fish have a normal life expectancy which says most mature at 3 years in the lake.  If they do not return at 3 years, they are not in Bermuda on vacation, they hit the mud someplace in between.  The "why" is a lot more rocket science and since one season or even two is short for harvesting data, they will not have definitive answers, and these guys will say that they could hypothesize all day, but it is all speculation.
 
"They have no plans to clip steelhead in the future to determine natural repo from what I gathered. If things keep going they will look into lowered lake limits for steel".
They did have plan for this but it was down the list from the coho project just getting started.  Numbers from this on steelhead do not have much effect because they are not pushing the steelhead envelope, there is a lot more carrying capacity in the lake than there is for Kings, where the natural reproduction could impact alewife populations,.  But there are controlled studies and they take at least 3 seasons so it will be a while before the steelhead study is up. 

In regard to easements--
Could it be this ??
A couple of years ago when they were building the nice riverside  walkway through town I was told of a plan to do a similar thing all along the same side of the SR from the town pool on downriver for some distance.
Was told at the time there were some private areas involved and those pvt areas were being worked on legally.
Made sense as we know the area up from the long bridge below the Town pool is private and posted.
Mentioned it in a post back then but never heard of it again.
Also- if the easements aren't yet signed I don't blame anyone  if they keep quiet about them.
The person I spoke to was a very reliable source and I proceeded to put it in a post which I wouldn't do with simple 'river chatter'.

Thanks for attending and reporting Clint :
Here are my concerns / questions
Invasives - program
Gobbies - how are they affecting the fishery and what is being done if any as a control , aka lake trout ?
Lamprey - is there still a program in place to use chemical in the streams
Zebra mussel - is the zooplankton being so consumed that the alewives are in jeopardy

See to me it's about the forage base of the lake , without that you can stock all the fish you want but the end result will be for nothing .

Oh yea, what are the bloaters / herring stocking results . Also what is the state of emeralds and smelt in the lake
Thanks again

Ah Rich I can at least throw a partial answer to all.
There were a few questions and answers about Gobies. At this point they are not concerned too much about them.  There was some concern about Lake Erie bass and how the Gobies may be responsible for the poor fishing devastating nests. As far as the Lakers they said they have been around for 10+ years and we have a good laker population now so now worries yet.
 
Lamprey program is still in full effect and will continue to be a priority.
 
Nothing said about Zebras, but good point. They did say that there is plenty of food for the alwives and weather "may '' be responsible for last two year spawn decline.
 
One bloater was caught in last Years trawling and they were happy about that, nothing said about emeralds and smelt

June 1, 2016
Lake Ontario Stakeholders:
Maintaining the Lake Ontario trophy Chinook salmon fishery depends on having sufficient numbers of
alewife to feed them and maintain good Chinook growth. A record‐high year class of alewife was
produced in 2012 (the 2012 “year class”), however, reduced survival of the 2012 year class did not
increase the adult population as managers expected in 2014 when these fish reached age 2. The two
severe winters/cool summers of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 resulted in very poor 2013 and 2014 alewife
year classes, and the 2012 alewife year class likely makes up the majority of the current adult alewife
population in Lake Ontario. The Lake Ontario Committee (“LOC”: Steve LaPan representing the NYS
Department of Environmental Conservation [NYSDEC] and Andy Todd representing the Ontario Ministry
of Natural Resources and Forestry [OMNRF]) is concerned that without young alewife to replace the
adults that are eaten, there may not be sufficient alewife numbers to support trophy Chinook salmon in
a few years.
The preliminary results of the spring 2016 bottom trawl survey for alewife conducted by the NYSDEC, the
U.S. Geological Survey appear below. Since this is the first year that OMNRF staff conducted alewife
trawling, there are no comparable data to compare it to. The NYSDEC/USGS survey provides an index of
relative abundance (i.e. how this year’s catch compares to other years; it is not an estimate of actual
numbers of alewife in the lake) of both the adult alewife population (fish age 2 and older) and 1 year old
or “yearling” alewife (i.e. those fish that were spawned in 2015, or the 2015 “year class”). In Figure 1,
please note that adult alewife abundance index declined markedly from 2015 to 2016. Also, the estimate
of the relative size of the 2015 alewife year class (i.e. the bar for 2016 in Figure 2) measured at age 1 is
well below the 1994‐2015 average. Since these fish will contribute to the adult population next year when
they are age 2, the LOC does not expect a marked improvement in the adult population in 2017. Our
science staff will continue their analyses of these data, and will develop projections of relative alewife
abundance in 2017 and beyond.
The LOC’s current concerns are not related to adult alewife abundance in 2016; we will not be surprised
if fishing is excellent in 2016, and Chinook size is good as well. Our concerns surround the adult alewife
spawning population in 2017 and beyond. Since a large portion of the adult alewife population should be
composed of fish ages 3 ‐ 5, the LOC expects several years in the immediate future when the size of the
alewife population will be greatly reduced. The LOC has asked the Lake Ontario Technical Committee to
work together and provide the LOC with an assessment of the relative risks associated with a range of
management options this summer.
Best regards,
Steve LaPan, Great Lakes Section Head, NYSDEC
Andy Todd, Manager, Lake Ontario Management Unit, OMNRF
Figure 1. Relative adult alewife (age‐2 and older) abundance index (average number caught per 10‐
minute trawl tow) in the U.S. waters of Lake Ontario during late April – early May, 1978‐2016.
Figure 2. Abundance index (average catch per 10‐minute trawl tow) for yearling (age‐1) Alewife in the
U.S. waters of Lake Ontario during late April – early May, 1978‐2016.I'm