susquehanna walleyes

[bulletbob]

thanks for the uplifting words BB.. It really didn't bother me all that much at first until I cleaned those fish, and saw they were both gravid females that would spawn in March... I agree on the state of the river... Something awful has happened there.. There are no panfish, except rock bass and they are only in a few isolated spots, very few Walleyes , still a lot of SMB, but they are TINY compared to even 5 years ago. These Walleyes were fat and obviously very healthy so I don't know why they are so scarce,, Neither does the NYS DEC, and I know that because I called them a bunch of times and asked.. Last electro survey of the river was fall 2023, and they told me that they saw very few walleyes in the river, but the ones they saw were big.. Like the ones we caught I suppose. They don't plan on doing anything about it either, although it would seem habitat is still ok.at least here in NY state. I dunno, the river is still stiff with big channel catfish, and now the Flatheads are up here in NY as well [confirmed by NY DEC, and local catches], so I am not sure if thats helping or hurting, but I do know, you see very few fishermen on he river these days except Oct and Nov when the SMB start feeding heavily as the water cools down. Just not worth the effort any more.. I do believe fishing is still good in the lower sections of the river as it opens up into a massive powerful river close to the Chesapeake Bay.. Up here, its not much more than a muddy ditch with some small rocky sections.[Thats where most of the fish are of course.].. Anyway,, It is what it is.. I don't think the problem is overfishing.. Its always been very lightly fished up here, even when it was full of gamefish... bob