The same sort of mix is found in Region 7, which is immediately east of Pearsall’s territory, Bishop noted.

Managing such a variety of fishing holes can be a challenge when Mother Nature kicks up a fuss. One of Pearsall’s top priorities in 2004 was the completion of scheduled chemical treatments of two tributaries of Seneca Lake to kill immature sea lampreys. After a couple of postponements due to high water, biologists finally finished the job in Keuka Lake Outlet in early September; but as this issue of New York Game & Fish was being prepared, Catharine had yet to be sprayed.

“We had a tremendous amount of rain during the year,” Pearsall said. “The main effect early in the season was that it kept a lot of guys from fishing.’

Later on, heavy showers extended the period of productivity on streams that usually don’t fish well during hot weather.

“On balance,” Pearsall concluded, “the wet weather was good for trout, if maybe not so good for fishermen.”

The only regulatory change affecting Region 8 trout fishermen this year is the new one-steelhead-per-day creel limit that applies to all Lake Ontario tributaries.

Pearsall said the new limit, down from the former three steelies per day, was adopted with broad support, as evidenced in angler surveys and input received at several public meetings conducted by DEC personnel.

“We work for our anglers,” he said. “When we make big changes, we like to get everyone on board first.”

Among the best trout waters in Region 8, according to Pearsall, are Oatka Creek in Monroe County and the Cohocton River and Mill Creek in Steuben County. Maps showing stocking locations and access points on these and other regional waters with public fishing mileage can be viewed on the DEC’s Web site, www.dec.state.ny.us.

Since the late 1990s, it has been DEC policy to consider fishing- and hunting-related regulatory changes every other year instead of annually. The motivation is to avoid confusion and give the public more opportunities to play a part in the process.

In Region 7, Bishop and his crew of biologists and technicians are already working on rules revisions that won’t take effect until October 2006. Among other changes, they’re thinking of allowing catch-and-release angling from Oct. 16 through March 31 on several popular trout waters, including Owego Creek in Tioga County and Skaneateles Creek in Onondaga County.

“We’ve already circulated our proposals and are looking for comments from fishermen,” Bishop said.

Region 7 workers sometimes assist DEC Region 8 personnel on lampricide-spraying operations on Catharine Creek and Keuka Outlet, but they take a slightly different approach to controlling lampreys in the Cayuga Lake watershed. Most years, a fish-control structure upstream from the mouth of Cayuga Inlet allows biologist to trap the parasites during their late-spring spawning run and kill them before they can reproduce.

“As long as we don’t get a lot of high water coming over the fishway at that time of the year, we’re golden,” Bishop said.

Biologists in both Region 8 and Region 7 rely on trout fishermen to supply a steady stream of useful management data through the Finger Lakes Angler-Diary Cooperator Program. Participants keep running logs of their catches. In return, the DEC provides an annual report that monitors population trends in the studied lakes.

In addition to the waters mentioned by Pearsall above, Bishop recommends that central New York anglers pay special attention to Ninemile Creek, a spring-fed brown trout stream in Onondaga County; Owego Creek and its east and west branches in Owego County; and Genegantslet Creek in Chenango County, which has a picturesque catch-and-release section upstream from Smithville Flats.

NORTHERN NEW YORK

Although the St. Lawrence River Valley and the Adirondacks had their share of rain, the North Country as a whole had milder weather than the western and southeastern sections of the state in 2003.