[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Zebra Mussels, Spiny Fleas ,Quagga Mussels and Round Gobies, all within the span of a few years. Not to mention Lampreys. No one around here cares much what has happened to these once wonderful lakes.. Much of upstate NY, is trollers.. thats pretty much all they do, and are the only ones the state DEC even thinks about.. The sawbellies[alewives] are doing ok so the stocked trout grow and get fat quick, and the downrigger guys catch them with thier rigger rods, leadcore, wire lines, and even Seth Green rigs.. No one including the NYSDEC cares as long as the tourists come to troll the big lakes.. they don't have to worry if the fish can reproduce, because they just milk the breeders, and grow them big enough to be stocked.. Warm water fisheries can go to hell here and no one gives a crap, as long as the salmonids can fatter up on greasy nasty Alewives..its so bad here that when Skaneateles Lake started producing nice Walleyes, the state decided it wanted them dead because they would eat the food of the damn stocked rainbows.... Management goes hand in hand with the crazy things nature has done with these immense glacial lakes... They are a shadow of what they were 30 or so years ago, but as long as the stocked trout grow up ok, and the rigger guys can catch them its all good... here is the official NY walleye regulation from a lake where they started thriving alongside Rainbow Trout... The rest of the state has an 18 inch limit, with a few bodies getting a 15 inch limit and either 5 or 3 a day depending on water body..
These lakes have seen better days, thats for certain..


36556Skaneateles Lake - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
A new regulation to limit the growth of the walleye population in Skaneateles Lake will begin on April 1, 2022. No daily possession limit, 12-inch minimum size limit, open year-round.

Funny you mention the Gobies... Fished on Lake Erie for smallmouth back in the spring. We caught several of them on the small minnows we were bottom drifting, they look like Muppets. Anyhow, I wanted to try some Ned rigs and was about to put one on and the Captain hands me a soft plastic stick bait that has a round head like a Gobie and it was game on. He said they ignored the Gobies for quite a while when they first appeared in the area but now they've developed a taste for them...