St. Lawrence Clarification

[U.S. eh Champ!]

I was hoping you guys would know the answer to this. I was looking through the regulations for the St. Lawrence trying to figure out when I can fish for bass. After reading it about 25 times, it seems that you can target bass anywhere down river from Jefferson County. Can anyone confirm this?

[NitroMusky]

I agree the website is confusing, but if you look at the Jeff Cnty guidebook page, it looks as if their intent ont he website is to indicate that The Larry follows the statewide guide: meaning you're A-OK for early season C+R.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fis...s.pdf

[U.S. eh Champ!]

If you look at page 29 of the reg's, it says black bass: Lake Ontario and tributaries, EXCEPT in Jefferson County and including the St. Lawrence River and tributaries- Statewide angling reg's apply. I think that means open season catch and release.

Then below that, it states Black Bass: Lake Ontario and tributaries IN Jefferson County and the St. Lawrence River and tributaries- Third Sat. in June. I think that means no bass fishing on the St. Lawrence in Jefferson County.

It is still tough to get a definite read on the whole thing.

[bschwoep]

Jefferson County = off limits until June opener, no targeting of bass allowed until then....The DEC set a special regulation for this county. Jeff county along with Oneida Lake are the only areas near me that are off limits right now. You're welcome to come down this way (about 2 hours) if you want to fish, I can put you on some fish.

[NitroMusky]

I talked to a fisheries guy about this. Brandon is correct. He claimed they are having what he termed a "recruitment problem' for bass in that area, so NO early C&R on the Larry or Ontario. He did say that the regulations are confusing and that while the regs are listed as such within the Great Lakes section, they should have it listed right in the special regs section for Jeff cnty as such too. Guess they're just special

He is going to pass along my suggestion that they they clear up confusion by adding this directly into the 'special regs by county' section as well, since thats really what this is.

I also asked how you know if you're in county waters on Ontario: the county border with Oswego cnty basically extends out from land on the same line as on land in the same way it does for the river.