[bulletbob]

BB.. I read a lot of those stories oh, 7 - 8 years ago... They were all true of course, but that was more of a problem around harrisburg in central pa... from what I gather The SMB situation there has improved somewhat ... We never saw that in NY state at all.. never had a lack of SMB, and we never saw the lesions and ghastly deformations the SMB in central Pa exhibited ...Years ago the susquehanna was basically and open sewer, back in the 70's-80's, yet the river was infested with walleyes during that time... I will say this,,, When I moved here I was absolutely floored at the condition of the susquhanna compared to the delaware.. The delaware is so much more clear, and "fishy looking".. the susky is a shallow mud bog over much of its length... The water looks like a mixture of 1/3 black coffee, 1/3 pea soup, and 1/3 milk from Late May until about late October, and when it rained for a day, the river is unfishable for a week or two at time..Its more rocky and clearer in Pa than in NY... In NY it flows through Binghamton, Vestal , and Owego and their treatment plants, and before and after that it flows through dairy farms and corn and soy fields that are fertilized with slurry from the dairy farms... So yeah, not ideal,,, However, its always been this way, and never seemed to bother the Walleyes much... There are also still Muskies as well, but personally I don't fish for them, just takes too much effort,and I prefer higher percentage stuff...I'd like to see the walleyes recover in my lifetime, but at 69, I have my doubts... Such a shame really.. It was such a good fishery until about 2006 or so, when I first started seeing declines... I dunno, if SMB can spawn and survive there as well as Pike and Musky, I can't see why Walleye can't.. but then, i'm not a biologist... i would have figured they would know better than me.. sad to say, they didn't.... bob