Clint S
As far as the Lakers I remember hearing something that there was a different strain of Lakers tried for a few years in limited numbers that had more of a tendency to venture up stream a little. Just hearsay, but do recall hearing it.

Clint, I was under the assumption that they were lising spawning habitat in the lake and were forced to navigate the river. But same as you, just hearsay. They did crash thiugh and disappear after their most abundant years of showing in the river which was 97 being the peak

1.  No one has mentioned eliminating kings.  The Fish Community Objectives clearly name the king as the primary apex pelagic predator.  From what Tuna posted, "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."
and "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."  The range of management options is kind of limited to stocking less of the predators, and since the main predators on alewives are King Salmon and Steelhead (pelagic fish all summer) it is likely that cuts will need to come from those species.  But remember that approximately 50% of the returning kings are wild, and they have no control over that. 
 
2.   "increased invasive ( which is omitted)".  I know I've said this before, but, Alewife is an invasive species.  If this is  reference to gobies, it is known that all the predators consume gobies during periods of time when their temperature preferences overlap like early spring, but as the Lake warms the pelagic predators move out over deep water, the pelagic zone of the lake, while the gobies stay closer to shore and are benthic (at the bottom) in orientation.  The major prey in the pelagic zone is alewife.  Even if there were 10 times the gobies it would not help with the pelagic predators because they do not inhabit the same zone of the lake most of the year. 
 
3.  "The boats marking huge schools of bait." Entirely possible that some boats find large schools, but relative abundance as measured by the trawl surveys says these schools are separated by a lot of water with few bait in it.  And they indicate that they expect a lot of bait this year, it is 2017, 18, 19 where the S hits the F.  I sense that Steve LePan sees maintenance of the current predator numbers as the kind of crapshoot that could leave us with a Lake Huron situation in 2020 or so; that is one weighty gamble for a professional fishery manager to make, as the current talk is that Huron is too far gone to ever recover a salmonid fishery.
 
4.  If, by eels , Dime is referring to lamprey, the pesticide is calibrated to have minimal effects on other organisms and it is relatively specific to lamprey larvae.  Dead adults is something else I think, and my recollection is that the lampricide is a fall application.  But this is all related to low alewife numbers, and the lampriciding has not effected any of this in the past, and they are not talking about juvenile kings when they quote the 50% natural recruitment numbers, that number is unclipped fish RETURNING TO THE HATCHERY.
 
5.  The Alewife spawn from late April through May, they should be done by now.
 
 
There seems to be a notion, especially among charter captains, that less stocking will mean poorer fishing, but if last years predators are eating this year's stockers, maybe stocking less could lead to better survival and somewhat larger size, which could actually be better fishing than what we had last year.  And this is flexible program, so once the bait fish abundance rises, so would stocking numbers, no one wants a lake full of dead alewife either.   But it is my sense that Steve and Andy are very concerned and they are the "pros from Dover" on this one!

A drop in stocking  kings and Hos  would likely result in a return not much  different than the past two years- if less -so be it.
A very necessary fix, it would seem.
Have felt this way for a while- bait comes FIRST- IMHO
I have every faith in Ny to do whatever is necessary to protect the fishery- look what they have done so far- its GREAT- ya just cant always factor in natures effects and must reboot occasionally.
We regulars will continue to fish no matter what- even if its back to the old style of " I caught ONE today" -stated happily.
 Thanks Lucky.

De nada, and right on, I think you see this plainly and clearly.  And yes, we'll fish one way or another.  I'm going up tomorrow to get used to fishing for unicorns, at least at this time of year, if you get tired of not catching in the AM, you can take a ride up on the hill for brookies or throw a canoe in the reservoir, and drag sinking lines for the 'bows.

Ok , so this is just some things I find interesting from reading others opinions.
I have been doing more reading about the lake then the tribs lately as that is now my focus.
1. The lake is clearer ( not necessarily cleaner ) but much clearer then before . Opinion, invasive are covering the bottom and taking out the weed growth and plankton = food for baitfish
2. The goby as ranged and is thriving in deeper water out to nearly 200 fow
3. Lake trout were stocked in record or near record numbers last year ( this year there will be a shortfall due to hatchery problems. Many charters see this as a threat to the salmon as their bellies are FULL of alewives, not so much goby.
4. Many charters think MORE salmon should be stocked ( of course) and far less lakers, reason = salmon drive the industry and the lakers will cause the crash not the salmon.
5. Atlantics , lots and I mean lots of Atlantic are being caught on the lake this season, mostly 2 year olds in the 14-20" range . The last 2 years I believe the hatchery return was around 23 fish , now that seems low but it is the most ever . Many Atlantics are be seen in the river that are not going into the raceway.
While I was all for just scratching the program awhile ago , maybe it is SLOWLY improving and wouldn't it be a win for both lake and trib anglers? Its still Very far from successful yet .

Good luck and happy fishing .
I will report my sophomore season from the perspective of the Great Lake Adventures

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Atlantics would be a blast to fish for as they are terrific fighters.The only Atlantics of any size that I have caught up there was years ago on the Sandy creek,they were maybe 14-17 inches but they fought like crazy,can only imagine what a 10-20 lber would do.From what I understand they run the river in the summer,so that would make it almost a year round fishery.I have caught many small Atlantic on the UFZ but they were stocked from what I know of it.

Well Trev, I kinda agree with the charters theory about the lake trout stocking = to competition to the forage base of chinook. It is their bread and butter. As DB said , remember the laker days and low king days .. I'm sure this is not desired by many again.

As for atlantics , I have caught a few in the river in the fall but none in the lake yet .
The return numbers to the tribs is what is the huge ? Mark . Is it a mainly lake only fishery for the effort put in due to inhabitable spawning grounds ? To me that is a waste , I will give it 5 more years before I call that based on this years catches on the lake .

L-13 bring plenty crayfish and bugger patterns when you search for unicorns, I hear the smallies are big and aggressive on the river right now ..

I've caught one that was maybe 6 lbs. in the SR.  I watched a fellow land one in the mid-teens last year.  They'd be a welcome fill in, but if it's a tenuous, hard to maintain and pay for program, I'd rather see it abandoned.  Even though the steel don't have the capability to naturally sustain themselves, they are a great fish and worth artificially supporting IMO. I wonder if the low king runs will effect how well they can survive in the river. Lot of eggs and flesh gone missing. Look at the importance of the salmon to the ecosystems in Ak.  A huge biomass is represented in the runs.

Totally agree Charlie, while I never been to Alaska , my understanding is that it's mandatory to return the carcass back to the rivers . Maybe just myth...
I always thought & please anyone correct me as I'm just a student, aren't trout , meaning bows , Browns and steelhead preferred feeding different then salmon ?
My understanding = dumbness thought was trout were more a smelt and emerald favor while salmon were more a herring, alewives favor . Lakers = char are just the pick up the trash feeders .
Of course, none of this matters to us if there is nothing for them to eat :(