Hi;
My family and I have been comming to the lake for over 55 years. I now own a condo at WEIRS BEACH. I started snorkling, then scuba diving the entire lake for all those 55 years.
I always got my own bait(crawfish) for bass by snorkling and picking up rocks in the shallows, and buying bait at AJ's for the salmon, lakers, etc. I would catch over 40-50 crayfish in a couple of hours, but, I had to stop even trying over 7 years ago, because there was
NO MORE CRAYFISH under the same rocks that supplied me for over 40 years. I, also, do a fair amount of trolling with lures, live shinners and smelt. I have had days just a few years ago where just 2 anglers boated 28 salmon in 5 hours in Center Harbor. I have fished every "SALMON DERBY" since it's inception, taking 6th place one year with a 5.5 pound salmon near Governors Island.
I want to tell everyone I can, that I have seen some of the fastest, and the worse depletion of bait, gamefish, and water quality in my history. Over the past 3-4 years I have seen my catching numbers of Salmon, trout and bass decline to next to nothing. I, now, average about 1 per day on salmon. I blame the quality of the water and the absence of bait. If you dive
anywhere in the lake nowadays, you will find a
slimey, gucky algae growth covering everything...weeds, rocks, everything! I think this slime has killed off the crayfish which live on the bottom, under rocks. I think the other bugs, newts, salamanders, and all sorts of marine invertabrates are, likewise, being killed off by this algae....the animals, their eggs and young used to feed the predators (Salmon, etc). Now, without the natural prey, the prime fish are disappearing too. Intelligent and, frequent stocking is a band-aid. the problem is "WATER QUALITY". As a matter of example to my arguement. When I used to catch my own crayfish, it was real easy....I would snorkle over the rocks in about 3-10' of water,looking for "Clean" sand or gravel surrounding the rocks. That was a "tele-tale" sign that a crayfish was actively
living under that rock, as they keep a "clean house" where they live by carrying the sand out from under that rock to make room for their living quarters. That sand builds up just outside their home(nice and clean from the movement). NOT ANY MORE>> every once an a while I check 30-50 rocks near my condo....ZERO CRAYFISH for the past 7-8 years. We are in deep do-do folks. I don't have a solution.
If anyone has seen the same or additional travesties, please let me know
bobcoff1940@gmail.com