Here is what I can add to the discussion on Big Ronk based on my work as a DEC biologist.
This spring the water was very high and also the clearest it has been in a long time (13 feet of visibility in June). In the past couple of decades water clarity in June is usually in the six foot range. Back in the thirties it was as much as twenty feet.
The clear water really gave the weeds a shot in the arm. In July, I did a vegetation survey with a Sachem HS student and got weed on the grapple at 51 out of 60 sites. The sites were in the 5-10 foot depth contour all around the lake. Not much growing in over ten feet though. I heard from a lot of anglers that they saw more weed this summer than they had in years. This is very encouraging because it means that there is enough seed remaining in the bottom to naturally regenerate the weedbeds if water clarity can be improved.
The pads we (we=DEC+LIB+LRonkOrg) planted in the spring got off to a good start, lots of leaves, but then the roots rotted out in the late summer. This was very dispointing but the project wasn't a total loss because the willows, dogwoods, and swamp maples that we put in at the waterline did great and will increase the amount of woody cover available as they grow.
With the water so high this spring the bass squeezed off a really good spawn. In August we caught more juvenile largemouth than we had in years in our beach seine survey. The trouble is that everything else in the lake, including the white perch, also squeezed off one hellacious spawn! So there is going to be a lot of competition amongst all those young fish and that is going to make it harder for this years bass to get through the winter.
We just got done with an intensive study on the walleye. The results are encouraging. We averaged five walleye per net which indicates a good density. The bulk of them are in the 16 to 17 inch range now and will probably exceed the 18 inch legal minimum by next fall. The largest walleye we saw was 22 inches and weighed 4.4 pounds. Most of the walleye stomachs we examined were crammed with white perch. They are doing their job, but there are still a ton of white perch out there. The walleye will remain difficult to catch as long as there is so much forage. We are going to request more walleye fingerlings next year to try and speed up the demolition of the white perch. We were stocking two different types of walleye fingerlings over the last five years in a study to determine which was better. At this point there is a clear winner so we are going to request our quota entirely in the superior type.
In terms of other fish... electrofishing catch rates of largemouth and smallmouth bass this fall were similar to the last several years. Yes, smallmouth continue to be rare. We only caught one adult smallie this fall. The same goes for crappie. We got several nice crappies 9 inches plus but I would still characterize them as a pretty sparse population.
I am looking forward to getting the angler diaries back. In 2000, the bass catch rate improved. This years results should give some hint as to whether that was a fluke or the beginning of a trend. The anglers I have spoken with at the lake have told me that fishing was good in the early summer became poor by the end of July. If you are an angler diary cooperator, watch the mail after Thanksgiving because I am about to mail out the letter asking you to return your diary. I will enclose a stamped envelope for your convenience.
-Biofred
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