YOY baby muskies

[John Jarosz]

[John Jarosz]

I had the opportunity to go seining for Young of Year muskies in the Upper Niagara with Kevin Kapuscinski, Mike Todd (DEC) and Chris Legard (DEC) today.  Most of the sites produced zip, but one produced these plus a few more musky YOY.

Cute little guys, aren't they?

[Stephen Glassic]

Now those are dinks!!

[John Miller]

Super cool pics John. Great to see. Thanks for sharing.

[04qgbjv11ur6a]

Was the DEC pleased with their findings or were there less YOY than they had anticipated? 

[John Jarosz]

Mark...No, they weren't that pleased overall.  We did three separate sites with four samplings at each site.  These three came from one sampling (out of four) at one of the sites.  Another sampling out of that same site produced a couple more YOY.  Everyone became excited when a YOY musky was netted and we all wished there were more.  So out of 12 total samplings, three produced YOY.  They'll be sampling every day this week with Friday as an "as needed" day.

[04qgbjv11ur6a]

Hopefully the rest of the week will reveal a stronger number of YOY. You are fortunate to be part of the process like you are. I once was able to board a DEC electroshocking vessel on Silver Lake and I got to see first hand some of the work these people do. It was fascinating.  I will be interested in the final counts and how they compare to other years.

[John Jarosz]

Mark..yep, I hope they do good, too.  We ran into some Buff State students doing doing seining for emeralds.  They told me that they had gotten some YOY muskies at Burnt Ship Creek on G.I.

This is Kevin K's last year for the YOY study because it's the end of his funding.  DEC's Chris Legard wants to take over.  If the DEC does, it'll give you and the other members an opportunity to help with seining for YOY next year because they often take volunteers.  I'm already signed up!!