Catch and Release Report

[SEAN LEARY]

I’ve admittedly fallen of the wagon when it comes to reporting. Doing the tagging study was initially exciting years ago, but I found I dreaded recording the data after a catch. Just wanted to get right back at it.

I didn’t report a single release this year, and it was one of my best years. 49.5 jigging, 48 jigging, a 48 casting. Would have loved a hat; but it taught me a valuable lesson.

My “new season,” resolution is to contribute to the goldmine of data that is held by Mr. Scime. 

By not including my data, I realized I’ve robbed this club of valuable info. I heavily favor jigging and casting, and saw the catch rate was highest for trolling in the recap. Can’t help but wonder how differently a complete data set would have read had I not neglected reporting. 

One of the interesting patterns I haven’t seen explored is the time of day on the catch. We all see how well the summer night troll works; and I wonder what patterns we could see if we sorted by time of catch. Obviously with changing sunrise/sunset throughout the seasons this is a moving variable- but I still think there’s a lesson to be learned by time of day as well. 
I watched a nature documentary on animals at night- that described certain normally diurnal animals adapting to night due to human pressure- I wonder if the same has happened to our fishery during the dog days of summer with increased boater traffic.

Im almost certain I won’t be able to fish as much this upcoming year, but I’ve committed this post as a reminder to myself to step up and start recording my data. I’m always glad to share with any of you that talk to me about my time on the water, but I hope a renewed commitment to reporting will benefit all.

[Tony Scime]

Good to hear Sean.

We do keep time of catch. I have them on the excel file which have been posted on this site, but I don't always put them on the pdfs due to space restrictions. But when I look at the anglers who are catching muskies trolling, and the time of day and year in which they're catching, I'm quite sure that most of the trolling fish are caught at night (other than those caught in the harbor).

[Scott McKee]

On those rare occasions when my boat catches a musky, i jot down the specifics of the catch via text message.

If I'm with a partner I rattle off the truly important specifics (length, time, location, wind direction, depth, water temperature, maybe line out if we're trolling) and they text them to me. Bait and color I remember. Our online release form, because of the ranges set, allows for some guesswork regarding air temperature and time. If I'm solo, I text the info to Carrie. When I get home or whenever possible I use the info to submit my fish on our site.  Texting someone an audio text (if there is a term for this, I don't know it) might be a great way to record release information.  Pick a recipient and hit the little microphone button and blab away.

When I first looked at our 2020 Release Report it was evident that the extremely warm temperatures of last summer reduced angler hours. That's a good thing.

What was also evident was lack of participation by some of our members. That's a not so good thing.  I'd like to thank you, Sean, for coming forward and admitting you didn't submit fish this year. I understand. When the fish are biting, they are biting.

I hope your post inspires others to participate in our release database in the future. Also, winning $50 in a release drawing makes you feel good all over.

[John Pensyl]

Anybody not keeping logs/journals for personal use in this game will always be behind the ball when it comes to recognizing patterns. In 10 years on the niagara one thing is very apparent and that is every bite I've ever experienced is repeatable based on moon phase, time of year, water color and most importantly, water temp. It's real easy to know what the fish are doing when you can fish it every day. Its another thing to be able to predict exactly what will work with consistency based on prior success. Thankfully 30 years of NMA data to analyze and 10 years of my own journals allow me to narrow things down before I ever hit the water. I love comments like "wow I cant believe they are already down there" or "i cant believe they are already eating this". The data is 100% repeatable year in and year out and because of this I am more suprised when I dont boat a giant then when I do on a daily outing these days.

[jojo wilczewski]

Goodday brothers
I also am guilty of wanting to get back to fishing as soon as I release one! I usually put immediate stuff on a text or call Igg then go over the loose ends as I’m fishing . As I get older and troll more it is easy to get back at it and report .
Many years ago I decided that reporting the info was more important then catching ! Our reports are the baseline of what the DEC use to study our fishery. When they give us a report using our info I am proud to be a part of this for 25 years. I have taken part in the release study, the ADS for entire time. The ADS study
Which is the most important and less work , two tagging studies one telemetry one DNA study one cleithra study along with 24 years of picnics ,20 years of cleaning the trash on the islands 10 years wrapping trees to protect them from beavers. Numerous meeting withDEC to provide info for their research. Two such meeting were magical
To me. One they were asking for good sites to put FAD’s and I thought For days thinking of past spots that were good and spots that were spots on a spot on a spot . The inside turn just above the Grand Island bridge came to mind . When I explained that to the D EC on the map they agreed and presto I had input on the future of the river and that meant a lot to me. Then at another meeting for FAD’s we were talking about a Boulder field and I suggested why do do only five why not do twenty ? Presto I had input on the future if the river again !
Please please please do what to can for our river!
A few minutes is not a lot to ask!
Ask not what the river can do for you?
Ask what can you do for the river?
Jojohasbeen

[carl schenk]

Personally I enjoy seeing Tony's release submission reports during the season just to get an idea of how people are doing recently, what is currently working and what big fish have been caught. I thought that was the reason the Top 10 awards state all fish must be reported within 30 days of capture to be eligible for Top 10 consideration, not just the big ones. Seeing a person wait until the end of the season to report fish caught months earlier has been a rule violation for years. I assume that's the reason date reported is listed along with date caught. Knowing how good you were doing during daylight may have given me motivation for getting up in the morning again instead of living in darkness..lol. It is sometimes an aggravation to stop fishing and record the data when the fish is caught but with my memory I find it necessary. The ADS information is much easier for me to jot down on my daily calendar when I'm home and I do agree with JoJo that there should be more participation in that. Hope you can add the information from your many hours on the water to benefit the club this coming season.