David Kukella - an avid fisherman who spends 100 days a year on Owasco Lake - used to fish the lake's tributaries for rainbow and brown trout.
But with the numbers of these fish declining in the past decade, Kukella now fishes most of the time from a boat in the main body of Owasco Lake.
Kukella is not the only Owasco Lake angler finding fewer of these trout.
According to records kept through the state Department of Environmental Conservation's angler diary program, rainbow and brown trout have declined in Owasco Lake.
DEC biologist Jeff Robins thinks trout species are dropping for four reasons: excessive nutrients from runoff siltation may be reducing water quality; beaver activity on the lake's tributaries could be limiting access to upstream spawning areas; more young trout could be gobbled up by the predatory walleyes; and hungry zebra mussels and fish hook water fleas may be eating up the food supply.
During 348 fishing trips in 2004, 952 legal salmonids were caught for an average of about three fish per trip. Lake trout made up the overwhelming majority of those catches.
The DEC defines legal salmonids as any species in the salmon family: lake trout, rainbow trout, brown trout and land-locked salmon.
While the catch rates of brown and rainbow trout dropped, the 2004 legal salmonid catch rate was the best ever recorded in the DEC's angler diary.
Robins said the lake trout's increased numbers stem from their high survival rate. The lake trout spawn in the lake, but brown and rainbow trout go upstream to lay their eggs, where they are more susceptible to floods, pollution and severe silt runoff that smothers the eggs' absorption of oxygen.
Robins said the walleye introduction in 1996 may have also affected the trout numbers. Robins pointed out that walleyes are excellent predators, which prey on alewives, also known as mooneyes, a common food for the trout species.
The DEC does not have a stocking policy for the land-locked salmon, which now compose a negligible portion of the lake's fish population. The brown, lake and rainbow trout and the walleyes are stocked in the thousands.
Robins said it may be time to reduce the rate of stocking lake trout. The last time the DEC cut the lake trout stocking rate in half was in 1992.
Kukella thinks the water quality in the lake is hurting the numbers of brown and rainbow trout. The trout, which need the most oxygen and cleanest water, just aren't surviving in the lake's poor state.
"I believe it's the health of Owasco Lake. It's just not healthy. The beaches are closed and the water doesn't taste good," said Kukella who has been keeping an angler diary since the 1970s.
Kukella guesses lake trout are surviving because they dive deeper than other species and may be avoiding the perilous sediment in the upper levels of water.
Even the size and weight of the lake trout is off, Kukella said, and fellow fisherman are saying the more populous walleyes and bass don't taste as good as they used to.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Kukella is not the only Owasco Lake angler finding fewer of these trout.
According to records kept through the state Department of Environmental Conservation's angler diary program, rainbow and brown trout have declined in Owasco Lake.
DEC biologist Jeff Robins thinks trout species are dropping for four reasons: excessive nutrients from runoff siltation may be reducing water quality; beaver activity on the lake's tributaries could be limiting access to upstream spawning areas; more young trout could be gobbled up by the predatory walleyes; and hungry zebra mussels and fish hook water fleas may be eating up the food supply.
During 348 fishing trips in 2004, 952 legal salmonids were caught for an average of about three fish per trip. Lake trout made up the overwhelming majority of those catches.
The DEC defines legal salmonids as any species in the salmon family: lake trout, rainbow trout, brown trout and land-locked salmon.
While the catch rates of brown and rainbow trout dropped, the 2004 legal salmonid catch rate was the best ever recorded in the DEC's angler diary.
Robins said the lake trout's increased numbers stem from their high survival rate. The lake trout spawn in the lake, but brown and rainbow trout go upstream to lay their eggs, where they are more susceptible to floods, pollution and severe silt runoff that smothers the eggs' absorption of oxygen.
Robins said the walleye introduction in 1996 may have also affected the trout numbers. Robins pointed out that walleyes are excellent predators, which prey on alewives, also known as mooneyes, a common food for the trout species.
The DEC does not have a stocking policy for the land-locked salmon, which now compose a negligible portion of the lake's fish population. The brown, lake and rainbow trout and the walleyes are stocked in the thousands.
Robins said it may be time to reduce the rate of stocking lake trout. The last time the DEC cut the lake trout stocking rate in half was in 1992.
Kukella thinks the water quality in the lake is hurting the numbers of brown and rainbow trout. The trout, which need the most oxygen and cleanest water, just aren't surviving in the lake's poor state.
"I believe it's the health of Owasco Lake. It's just not healthy. The beaches are closed and the water doesn't taste good," said Kukella who has been keeping an angler diary since the 1970s.
Kukella guesses lake trout are surviving because they dive deeper than other species and may be avoiding the perilous sediment in the upper levels of water.
Even the size and weight of the lake trout is off, Kukella said, and fellow fisherman are saying the more populous walleyes and bass don't taste as good as they used to.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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