mostlymuskies

One other thing that would make SBH Launch more efficient is to have Tournament trucks & boat trailers park over in Union Canal Parking Lot and shuttle drivers to and from Launch.This would free up a big part of the Launch Parking for the rest of the general public.I have seen it so crowded some weekends in the summer just about no parking available .

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Yes a New Boat Launch built in slag dump would be nice,but you need to look at reality,this is NY State we can't even get funding to repair Sturgeon Point Marina wall to keep sand bar out there.Building a complete walled in Launch will cost millions. Again Union Canal has everything but the Launch Ramps,costs would be substantially small compared to what your proposing.

The boat launch need not be in the creek . A basin can be excavated similar to Sturgeon Point with a separate lake entrance. The slag dump is on lake bottom that can be returned to open lake water that was belonging to New York State.


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I have been at the mouth of Smokes Creek many times with a friend that has keys to get through Metro Port.We go to observe walleye spawning!Everytime I have been there the mouth of the creek is flowing over about 6" of washed in gravel.

The DEC requires the creek mouth to be kept open as part of the Flood Control Project.


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Yes Smokes Creek is closer , but you do realize the mouth of the creek gets almost closed off by Lake Erie sand & gravel being pushed in by prominently SW winds.Would require losts of funding to dig channel,build break walls and a accross the front break wall to stop channel from filling in.Yes Union Canal is further away but all structure walls & big parking lots are already there. Only need to build a launch ramp.Cost would be millions less!

Fishing travel distance would be shorter from the Smoke Creek site. More time and fuel will be saved. There is a lot of unused property there for parking. Oh, the fish are closer there


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Please share! Exciting updates on redevelopment progress for the former Bethlehem Steel site! Join us for a public meeting Tuesday, December 17 at 6:00 p.m. in Lackawanna

The last draft I seen for Buffalo Outer Harbor had then building Handicap Fishing Access Platforms on outer areas where Pier Restaurant use to be.It is 30 ft deep close to shore with old channel running along the edge from where Allan Boat Co. use to be down the Pier Restaurant Area.
I will check on this again!


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Next E.L.E.C.B.A. Meeting is Friday Dec 7th,2019, 7 pm at North Chautauqua Conservation Club. We will serve Claudette's Catering Famous Chili as well!

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The last draft I seen for Buffalo Outer Harbor had then building Handicap Fishing Access Platforms on outer areas where Pier Restaurant use to be.It is 30 ft deep close to shore with old channel running along the edge from where Allan Boat Co. use to be down the Pier Restaurant Area.
I will check on this again!

A greater benefit there would be near shore fishing for non boaters. In my youth days we would out fish the boaters fishing the nearby deep waters from the shore line. Perch were really productive there in the spring time.

We have been trying to get a New Boat Launch at Union Canal,but every time we bring it up to Erie County they keep saying there is the NY State Buffalo Harbor Park Launch & Erie Basin Marina Launch. Obviously they have never looked at the crowded SBH when walleye are on,capacity used up.If they built Launch at Union Canal it could also be Permited just for Tournaments,freeing up SBH.Then the rest of the time be extra Launch on crowded days.
I will bring it back up at Erie County Fishery Advisory Board.

  I agree this would make sense. All they need to do is put in a launch ramp, all the other amenities are already there. I can't believe some one has not done this already.

E.L.E.C.B.A. next meeting is December 6th 2019 ,7 pm at North Chautauqua Conservation Club.New Member Signup Renewal Memberships,Election of Officers,Random Drug Testing Forms,Newvm & Old Business!
We will have food & drinks available as well.

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Less money would be needed to convert Union Ship Canal into Boat Launch ,all ready protected from wind and big parking lot there.

Since the extension of Dona Street at the traffic light there access to Smokes Creek and Lake Erie could easily made available. Some obstructing group will complain about walleyes spawning there but they still will. It is only three miles to Seneca Shoal from there. Driving to Sturgeon Point Marina or Cattaraugus Creek ramps is unnecessary for good fishing early in the season. Grid lock at the Safe Harbor ramp and parking lot will be lessened. The land under the slag piled there still belongs to New York State. With local rainfall of thirty inches a year for over thirty years any chemicals there have been flushed away. The Town of Hamburg Park ramp is useless after a few storms sand it up. Now with a new access road at Dona Street opening we have the first opportunity to access our lake front .
 
 
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E.L.E.C.B.A. Meeting will be Dec 6th,2019 7 pm at North Chautauqua Conservation Club.
Those Captains that would like to join our organization can join during the meeting or Nov, Dec & Jan and save from paying the normal $50 Initiation Fee!
One thing to remember we are not just a Drug Testing Consortium, we are involved in all fishing, hunting & conservation issues local state wide & national!
You also do not have to join to sit through the meeting.

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Two launch ramps have been plowed out and are open.Two boats are out in South Gap.Waves are breaking over Long Wall and water turning brown fast.

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Sheridan Drive Town of Tonawanda Launch can be used if you have 4 wheel drive!

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The Buffalo Harbor State Park / Safe Boat Harbor Launch is Temporarily Closed.

20" snow drifts with Ice under on ramp pads,4ft high snow bank plowed in at pad approach,to keep rigs from sliding down ramps into the water.

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Funeral Service for Capt Lance Ehrhardt 10 am October 26th.

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Chautauqua Lake Truths & Other Misconceptions
The problem with politicians is they take credit for things they did not do and avoid accountability for the messes they make, and Chautauqua County is no exception.  Some local officials and “paid experts” proclaim success, but the real truth is that Chautauqua Lake has had three consecutive years of out-of-control herbicide impact which destroyed aquatic weeds far beyond DEC permitted targets.  With these “unintended consequences” growing exponentially each year our world class fishery is seriously jeopardized.
Mid-May 2019 herbicide applications in the South Basin were the earliest in memory and irresponsibly exposed thousands of spawning and young-of-year game and forage fish to associated toxic shock, with widespread destruction of both native and non-native weeds serving as critical game fish habitat.  Nothing was left behind in these large offshore lake regions except barren lake bottom or grass.  With the end of summer 2019 already here, “unintended consequences” are a serious lake management failure where, once again, no one is held accountable or even accepts responsibility.  How long can our lake tolerate these mistakes?
The Chautauqua Fishing Alliance (CFA) Sonar & GPS research surveys estimate that because of wind drift alone, 2,100 acres of offshore aquatic vegetation in the South Basin was unselectively destroyed this year — more than five times the 388 near-shore acres actually targeted under NYSDEC permits issued.  According to Racine-Johnson Associates, a lake consulting group from Cornell that has been working on our lake for a number of years, confining the unintended impact of liquid herbicides on a big, windy lake the size of either Chautauqua Lake basin is nearly an impossible task, which explains why many large lakes use only granular forms of herbicide (which are less susceptible to wind) in limited targets and all “navigation channels” are cut only with harvesters to insure no wind drift or other “unintended consequence”.
CFA’s national fishery research network in nine northern states reveals that most top fisheries balance harvesting with herbicide use in three very specific ways:

All “Navigation Channels” are cut with mechanical harvesters to insure confinement to well defined permit specifications.

Only Granular herbicides are used to minimize the negative impact of wind drift and its “unintended consequences”.  Liquids are rarely used on big, windy lakes.

Early Season weed control is always managed by harvesting, with mid-to-late June herbicide applications following only after prime fish spawning and key post-spawn periods have passed — especially so at top fisheries.

We wonder how long it will take Local Municipalities and our Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance officials to learn these three critically important conservation lessons by prohibiting funding of liquid herbicides or other untimely operations that do not insure the sensible conservation of submerged deep water habitat?  Isn’t it time we start being guided by lake management science from folks who actually understand the unique and delicate underwater nature of our own living lake?
J. Regis Thompson, Executive Director, Chautauqua Fishing Alliance



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Dr. Dave & I decided to get some musky trolling in before the rain storms rolled in Sunday.We went north and started near Mayville Flats.In 15 ft to 27 ft water we marked mostly nothing,water temp was 71.5 degrees.Moving out to 30 ft water between metal wall and Irwing Bay we started marking bait fish and an occasional big hook.Trolling toward Bell Tower from 30 ft we caught a 37" musky on Boss Shad 5" in Goldie color.As we skirted 37 ft water around the 50 ft hole infront of the Bell Tower we began to mark lots of big hooks right on bottom,also on bottom in 35 ft down toward Pendergast Point.So we got the cold front out to the deep on bottom close mouth musky syndrome. We gave up at 2 pm just before the heavy rains rolled in.South end looked pretty nasty with algae so we avoided it.North end is starting to get that tea stain appearance that happens just before roll over.

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I took off for North Chautauqua Conservation Club Tourney, but could not break 6 lb size out if all those eyes!

Hey Larry....did you get a break from the pedal boat? nice to hear you ripped some lips

Thru Friday to Sunday we caught over 100 walleye off drop at Brocton Shoals 70 ft out to 90 ft.We released just about all of them ,kept a dozen each day for the freezer.Mostly 20 to 21 inch eyes,caught on 3 & 5 color Leadcore on boards,with Bomb ers & Bay Rats in emerald green color at 2.3 to 2.4 mph.Also 3 Lakers each day that were over 15 lbs,a couple Steelhead.

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Stop using lawn fertilizer. 

On Sunday, July 21 the Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal reported “While local officials and “paid experts” are crying from the top of the mountain about the success of this year’s (herbicide) applications in the sections of the lower (south) basin of Chautauqua Lake, anglers still aren’t finding walleye. While the sections of the southern basin aren’t producing, anglers are discovering the northern basin is.”  

The not-so-secret fact is that fishing action in the South Basin is slow or non-existent because most fishermen cannot even find a weed bed “edge” outside of untreated Sherman’s Bay — and with no habitat remaining some fish may still be feeling the effects of toxic shock.  Under 400 acres of herbicide treatments have impacted an estimated 1,800 South Basin acres of normally submerged, deep water weed beds far outside the DEC-approved, herbicide treated target areas have virtually eradicated of ALL weeds (except for a few bottom grasses) out to 12 foot depths — virtually shutting down the majority of prime fishing action.  

To suggest that 2019’s herbicide treatments were “successful” is disingenuous and a gross understatement of the widespread habitat overkill and destruction to the South Basin’s world class fishery that depends on a critical level of non-native weed growth to support offshore game fish populations.  Our well intended State and County officials promised us only isolated, spot herbicide impact limited solely to the greatest nuisance areas.  Recreational boaters are happy, while most fishermen feel betrayed and are shocked at the widespread devastation of key habitat so critical to several fish species!  Will these same State and County officials ever acknowledge this widespread destruction at the #1 Rated inland sport fishery in New York State?  When will our “lake managers” finally seek a far better balance of In-Lake interests as their highest lake priority, and confine herbicide impact solely to permitted areas near shore without needing humble fishermen to remind them?

Unconfined and out-of-control herbicide destruction of deep water, unpermitted aquatic weed areas due to the following:

1.  Opting to use cheaper Liquid chemicals when Granular forms with far less “wind drift” potential are readily available.

2.  Failure of “lake managers” to see that a big windy lake carries a high risk of drift that does not exist in small lakes and ponds, and that 3rd Party Enforcement (not mere “Observation”) is of critical quality control importance to the lake.

3. Failure of decision makers to approve & use Triclopyr (Renovate 3) instead of Endothall (Aquathol K) to insure no damage to many valuable native weeds.

4. Failure to realize that “wind drift” on large lake basins like Chautauqua Lake’s can be 4-5 times as strong a factor compared to its very mild north-to-south natural flow — meaning that when a south wind is blowing on Chautauqua Lake for enough consecutive hours, that a very serious reverse south-to-north herbicide drift potential carries a very high risk to both basins!

5. Failure to understand that it’s not the number of floating dead fish that measures herbicide failure, but rather the required level of fish habitat & fishing activity.  Herbicides dramatically reduce dissolved oxygen that healthy, active fish need.  Some lakes have experienced no fish kills, but very poor fishing from suffocating fish shock for entire seasons when serious lake quality control was lacking.

J. Regis Thompson, Executive Director, Chautauqua Fishing Alliance

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Sea Tech Marine Training
Capt Dennis Daniel's
1-877-883-9366
[email protected]

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The Lackawana wind turbines are on shore not on the water.Wind Turbines on Lake Erie would have adverse effects on spawning grounds,lake currents, areas off limits to fish and many possibilities of contamination of waters!

Wind turbines face fierce opposition on land as well. The landowners may be willing to accept them, but their neighbors put up a huge fight. It might be easier for the wind turbine companies to fight the opposition to water based turbines than land based turbines. I can’t think of a single land based wind turbine project that didn’t have to deal with protesting neighbors.

Serious question.... have the Lackawanna wind turbines had a noticeable environmental effect or effect on fishing? I don’t fish that area and have no idea.


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Thanks for the replays I wouldn't mind the camping.  

Clarion also has special pricing for those who take a fishing Charter with a ELECBA Captain.
Take a fishing Charter with one of our Captains and learn the where & how before going on your own.
www.easternlakeeriecharters.com

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