ONEIDA LAKE DIEHARDS THREAD 2012

[KingPerch]

OK gents. This Bass war thing has been dragged on long enough....I think.

Go to bed.....

[Hollywood]

Well, the 'eye bite may be on shutdown...but the top-water smallie bite was just awesome tonight...

[Raquettedacker]

Great fish Hollywood...   

[coachwarner]

Well, the 'eye bite may be on shutdown...but the top-water smallie bite was just awesome tonight...

Is that a daytime popper

[coachwarner]

You obviously have us confused with guys who care what you think. 

[crappiekiller315]

Who been fishin??  Lets see some reports!  I havent been out in a while 

got out tonite for a couple hours the bite has deffinately gotten tougher 3. Of us managed to get 5 eyes and several smallies into the deadwell seen lots of baitfish out there they should be good and fat by fall .. :blink: :blink:
Oh we also found a decent school of perch that we managed to get a few of on rapalas

[bauls25]

Havent been out in over a month, hoping the weather is decent this weekend for a trip up.

[harnessing eyes]

Havent been out in over a month, hoping the weather is decent this weekend for a trip up.

The weather might be ok...but the bite died off!  Took a little time monday to check the situation and it was horrible...water is almost 80 degrees and there are shad everywhere!

[BUCKEYES]

Just got in took quick trip out today. Fished from 10:30 to 1:15. Slow jigged up 1 keeper and 2 sheepies 1 perch. Water 82 degrees where I was in middle of lake. Not going out for few more weeks. BAIT EVERYWHERE!!  Good luck to anyone trying.

[Deadeyez]

     Nice eye , but did it really need to be sideways on the music thread 

Did I put it on the music thread?

[filetandrelease]

holy crap the easy bites over and everybody is giving up , it's just now becoming what it should have been a while ago, hope to hit the lake this weekend with the mrs. she has been on the mend and unable to go, think she might be up to a few hours Sat. morning

[crappiekiller315]

holy crap the easy bites over and everybody is giving up , it's just now becoming what it should have been a while ago, hope to hit the lake this weekend with the mrs. she has been on the mend and unable to go, think she might be up to a few hours Sat. morning

bunch of green horn bass loving non die-hard lurkers if ya ask me release 

[filetandrelease]

bunch of green horn bass loving non die-hard lurkers if ya ask me release 

well i guess it's all fun till you really have to work for them BOSS , god for weeks you could catch them on a frozen turd , if i go out and don't kick there butt thats ok least i gave it a shot BRO

[reeleyz]

I love getting out there this time of year. Less boat traffic and a change of tactics.

[Raquettedacker]

Oneida Lake article in the paper...
You can cull black bass.

You can’t cull walleyes.

Which the Oneida Lake Association thinks is a good thing.

The OLA long has been concerned about the walleye fishery on the lake, especially in light of changing environmental conditions. Ed Mills, who spent 34 years as a fisheries biologist at Cornell University’s Biological Field Station at Shackelton Point and is now president of the OLA, is especially concerned with culling. Culling is the practice of adding a fish to a limit catch of any species – typically held on a stringer or in a live well- and releasing one, typically the  smallest, to stay within the limit.

You can do that with bass, for whatever reason; you can’t with walleyes, whether you are fishing for fun or the table or for cash and prizes. A lot of people do it anyway, some because they don’t know the rules, and some because they simply choose to ignore them.

It’s there, on page 13 of the current fishing regulations guide:

“A person may continue to fish for a species while in possession of a daily limit for that species provided all fish of that species subsequently caught are immediately returned to the water. See below for special provisions made for largemouth and smallmouth bass.”

Again, a lot of people have never read that.

“It’s a regulation that most anglers are not conscious of,” Mills said. “You really need to read the rules. It’s just not a good ethic or policy. Putting them on a stringer or a live well for some time, the survival is very low.”

Mills doesn’t have a solid study that says that, but common sense tells him so.

Culling is especially questionable considering the changing conditions on the lake. Mills, who retired in 2009, said surface water temperatures on the lake in mid-summer have increased two to three degrees over the last 20 years, and recently have been in the high 70s and low 80s. That’s way over what walleyes like, and the stress on the fish is significant if they are left in that warm water for any length of time.

As almost everyone knows, Oneida has become a very good bass lake, in part because of increased water clarity caused by zebra mussels. Bass also tolerate high temperatures better than walleyes, and Mills said they also just seem hardier overall. He said walleye populations are not what they were in the 1960s and 1970s, when there sometimes were a million adults in the lake.

This year has been a particular good angling year for walleyes, but Mills said it is not because there are an overwhelming number of adults, as some fishermen think. While there might be good population of emerald shiners in the lake, and shad might be present later, which would make for tougher conditions, there are relatively few young perch, walleyes’ preferred prey, making the big fish vulnerable to angling.

“The angler pressure has reduced over time, but the catch rate has been pretty much the same, which gives a false impression,” Mills said. “The number harvested is down.”

The rules for culling of walleyes and bass are clear, and the OLA wants to make sure that anglers follow them, especially when fishing in tournaments. You can continue to fish after hitting your limit – on Oneida, that’s three walleyes of 15 inches or longer – but additional fish must be immediately returned to the water.