Yeah 350 is  easy to fish, but it sucks that the fish can be snagged easily for a whole season and are stressed for their entire stay in the river. Better flows would protect them and provide better winter habitat. I was taking the long view, not just what happens in Oct. There's lots of dead and dying steel, more than I've seen before by a large margin. Maybe that's just normal.

DEC has collected samples and submitted them to the Lab at Cornell.  They are not convinced that it would just be the lice, there are other ideas but they are just speculation until the lab results come back.  But the lice are a natural phenomenon, both in fresh and saltwater.
 
L13

After the King non run I hope there isnt something out there having negative affect on the whole fishery.

Yup, not claiming that gill lice is the ultimate problem... But its prevalent in many dead or dying fish. Yet many very healthy fish have come through the system and big...... Odd year... But below average flows and heavy mid fall pressure definitely doesn't help. The lice deprive them of oxygen absorption... I remember two years ago seeing and even catching a few with the gill lice. 2012 was a low water slaughter fest for steelhead... Crazy pressure all season long with a warm winter... Many of this years fish are returns from that crop...Let's see what the Cornell biologists say. I'm game for a decrease in fish... Less fish=less people and BIGGER fish!!! :)

 
 
T
 
 

 
There's Pineveille since  September 1. pretty much long term average through mid October, then low since, but, of course, WE HAVE NO HAD ANY RAIN  TO SPEAK OF.
 
Ya needs water to dump water.
 
Oh, and I've only caught 3 steelhead this year in the Genesee, so that must mean that there has been a catastrophic failure of the entire run, even though I can only get down there for a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday, and generally it has been on higher water and dropping temperatures.
 
L13

Two Bob... I don't think anyone's saying ThE flow is the main problem... More so saying given the problem at hand the lower flow is not helping for many reasons... Lfz is a sanctuary and steel get played multiple times daily... They closed it in 07 back when we had the draught... Why not now?

Thanks for the chart lucky... Yes they have not run water over 375 until just now... Don't understand why youre trying to say anything about an entire collapse of the fishery??? Did anyone say that? I must've of missed it if someone did.

Has anybody stopped to think that this is an artificial , put and take fishery ? The vast majority of fish come from tanks.
Do you think that if there were a problem a correction stocking would happen ?

In the perfect case , natural spawning with self sustaining returns would in reality be way more cost effective . We know, at least in my lifetime , that will never come to happen.
So this is in effect, the after affects of what we have .
By no means am I saying proper handling or ethics shouldn't be taken but as we all again know , the SR is littered with all kinds of ppl and no matter what , will still be .

c