Cranberry lake

[kjo43]

Congratulations to you. Great fish   

[blackmer826]

20lbs, 39 1/4 inches. Congrats to the people who placed saturday with their fish. These fish will only stay in the lake if we fisherman do our part in releasing the breeder fish and taking care of the ones we catch to release them safely. I saw a guy gaff a fish 2 times, and then throw it on his snowmobile running board and go to weigh-ins. not acceptable.

[eyehi]

Nice fish blackmer....congrats.. ..

[townzee]

Didn't catch anything, but we ended up winning a shanty as a door prize. 4 wheeler froze up this morning and wouldn't start or move. Other than that it was a good time. Not many people down by us on Brandy.

[blackmer826]

was there anyone in Hedgehog or East Inlet? Must have been  alot of people off Joe Indian or something because dead creek was pretty open I thought.

[c07pernice]

There wasn't really anyone by joe Indian. We fished there, caught 3. We took second place with a 10.5 during the 9-10 hour

[blackmer826]

congrats. I dont know where all the people were then. I would like to see some pics of the fish, especially the 20lber caught for the biggest of the derby.

[eyehi]

[TheThinIce]

20lbs, 39 1/4 inches. Congrats to the people who placed saturday with their fish. These fish will only stay in the lake if we fisherman do our part in releasing the breeder fish and taking care of the ones we catch to release them safely. I saw a guy gaff a fish 2 times, and then throw it on his snowmobile running board and go to weigh-ins. not acceptable.

Beautiful fish! Congrats! 

[FISHFORPIKE]

Any info/results on this event?  Number of registrations, prizes, fish size(s)?

If I am not mistaken, Northern Pike were introduced to that lake by the DEC.  I don't see any issue with having an ice derby or any other part of an open season.  I know of some pretty nice pike that have been taken there.

[Raquettedacker]

Wow..  Great fish blackmer826 ....       

[blackmer826]

Congrats to the man who caught that beast during the derby. I know the rules were every fished caught had to be released, but did they let him keep this since it was the bigges of the derby to mount? or was it released?

Thanks guys for the comments on my fish. I have been fishing 3-4 days a week for the last 5 years and this is my first 20lber. We let every single fish go except for this one because I wanted to mount the fish to go next to my grandpas he had mounted back in the 80's.

As far as the pike situation, the pike were not introduced by the DEC. The DEC stocks the lake with thousands of trout so introducing pike would be stupid for them to do. From what the old timers say, a guy who used to own the Pinecone Restaurant in wanakena brought pike from the st.lawrence for multiple years and kept throwing them in the lake. Anyways, the pike are there but the trophy pike are going downhill very fast, but can become better populated if people would take the steps. I talked to one of the ENCON guys out at the derby and he said to call Fisheries in Watertown and put a bug in their ear about some possible regulations for the lake to keep the trophies in there.  Slot Limits? Bag Limit? No open boundary derbies? I know that one would spark some people

There were I think 648 entries and 75 fish weighed in.

[Gary Minckler]

I saw this man at the Derby.  Thought I recognized him but last time I saw him he was about 7-8 years old. Sure enough JJ...congrats on the big "Hawg-belly!!"

[blackmer826]

Congrats again to that fish! Anyone else have any pics of good luck during the derby?

[Holmesy_1369]

I agree as far as slots there isn't much in cranberry I was there all day without so much as a flag.  I believe there are plenty of pike left n sizes are good but the market  for trophy fishing drives people to spend thousands like in canada, some regulation would be nice just to maintain and prove what's there.  Left unchecked it could end up like perch lake is now not a 20 pound fish anywhere in the lake all because of good fish being nabbed for open boundaries.  Perch is a smaller lake with an extremely limited time it's fishable and it was still decimated.  I would just love to be able to take my five year old someday n have a chance at a once in a lifetime trophy.  But unchecked it seems it will be doomed to not happen there.

[blackmer826]

Amen brother. I just dont exactly know how a nobody like me, just a local who wants to keep the fishery, could start something to even make some regulations. Petition? i dont know how to start something.

[FISHFORPIKE]

Amen brother. I just dont exactly know how a nobody like me, just a local who wants to keep the fishery, could start something to even make some regulations. Petition? i dont know how to start something.

Go to one of your local County Federation meetings.  Find the County Fish Advisory Board member in your area.  Those are two good places to start.  The Fish Advisories Board will bring the proposal forward to DEC.  It's a "haul" to get something done.  I remember when we wanted to set a special regulation on Black Lake for Eyes.  I think it may have been two years in the making, and that was "quick".  You will get a lot of information on what the DEC "thinks" is going on in Cranberry.  If I'm not mistaken, you are in St. Lawrence County - that Federation meets at the BOCES building in Canton on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7PM.  Not sure who is on the Advisory Board, but you can find out at the meeting.

[pierce1308]

it would be best if DEC implemented a 24-36" slot limit, and a 4 fish limit . all of the 4 four fish could be under 24" long or a person could keep one fish over 36" long in the 4 fish limit. This would allow a lot of the prime reproductive fish a chance to survive and spawn , and it would create more fish in the slot allowing them to get to that 40" class or 20lb size without trying to fight every year to survive on the no length limit that is currently implemented right now on cranberry lake

[blackmer826]

Thanks for the info. I will definitely look into it. Sounds like I have some people agreeing so I should have some support, even though it will take some higher ups to support it.

[bcl0125]

Pierce1308,
I could not agree more about slot limits. Most states have them on Game fish like strippers. If NY would go to this not only the fish would become bigger, but their will more of them. I Hunt in PA and when they but up the antler restriction about 10 years ago and everyone hated it. Now they are loving it because, it only took me 15 min in the tree stand and a 12 point walk my way. Just my thought.

[brandybrook]

the hard part might be convincing some diehards that the main lake is no longer a trout fishery.

[blackmer826]

haha ya its funny that some people just don't realize that the trout are just being fed to the pike. Trout days are over for the lake, but the pike days can continue to be for a long time if we could get some regulations on the lake. sent an email trying to contact the fisheries in st.lawrence county.

[pikenforcer]

it would be best if DEC implemented a 24-36" slot limit, and a 4 fish limit . all of the 4 four fish could be under 24" long or a person could keep one fish over 36" long in the 4 fish limit.

This would be a good starting point and I think many guys who truly like to fish pike like myself would support this. I would do a 28-38"slot limit. It would be cool to see this lake managed for trophy fish before it's ruined like the rest. In some places in Canada they only allow one pike over 30" to be kept which is why people spend         $3-4,000 to go fish there for three days knowing they have a great chance at catching a fish of a lifetime. It's stupid to waste money stocking fish that are pretty much going to get devoured by the pike. They'd be better off stocking them in the local back ponds instead. Just my 2 C.

[blackmer826]

alright so I just got an email back from a guy from the fisheries committee. He says the first step is to write up what exactly we want and propose it to the town board for approval by them. This might take me a littletime to type up exactly what I want and support it, but I think is a good thing to start working on.

[adkRoy]

alright so I just got an email back from a guy from the fisheries committee. He says the first step is to write up what exactly we want and propose it to the town board for approval by them. This might take me a littletime to type up exactly what I want and support it, but I think is a good thing to start working on.

Just a thought, if you can get one or two of the college professors at the Ranger School in on your letter and proposal, it would carry more weight.   

[blackmer826]

thanks ADKRoy will do.  I know a few of them and probably can get in contact with them. Might be a good summer project for me. Also would like some input on how to back up my proposal for a slot and a bag limit.

[cnyiceboy]

thanks ADKRoy will do.  I know a few of them and probably can get in contact with them. Might be a good summer project for me. Also would like some input on how to back up my proposal for a slot and a bag limit.
[/qu


Try and get information from other areas that have used slot limits with success. See if maybe Cornell has that info??  If not id look at some other states to pull info from

[adkRoy]

thanks ADKRoy will do.  I know a few of them and probably can get in contact with them. Might be a good summer project for me. Also would like some input on how to back up my proposal for a slot and a bag limit.

They might also be able to hook you up with professors from ESF in Syracuse who study these sorts of things too.

[blackmer826]

ya i think every once in a while they net in a few spots for ESF and possibly the data would show a downward trend, if they do it sometime this summer.

[townzee]

Does anyone know how much snow is on the lake now? I hope to get up this weekend and rescue my 4 wheeler. May need to tow it back to town.