NIAGARA FALLS — Public perceptions are often the reality in some people’s minds. It’s hard to convince them of anything otherwise. Take my first visitor to my booth at the Cleveland Outdoor Adventure Expo last Thursday. He looked at my display, the promotional materials and then asked if they ever started stocking salmon again in Lake Ontario.

“They never stopped,” I said. “There was a cut back in the 1990s, but the current stocking levels of better than 2 million salmon going into the lake have been pretty constant for more than a decade.” He looked at me like I had two heads.

“Well the last time I was up there the fishing was terrible,” he replied. After a little digging, we narrowed it down to the mid-90s during that one summer that wasn’t due to excessive east winds all season long. He associated that with the elimination of stocking that he had “heard” about. By the time he left the booth, I thought I had educated him properly, using some of the information that I gleaned from the State of Lake Ontario meeting this past week.

Ever since those stocking cuts, it’s been a constant battle to deal with that one issue — the perception that people had that all stocking was eliminated in the lake. That’s one of the reasons that the Lake Ontario Sportfishing Promotion Council was formed, joining the seven tourism agencies along Lake Ontario to promote the lake as a destination and help to put a positive spin on important news coming from the lake. Still, how and where the information is released from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is critical to how that message gets out.

Last year at the State of Lake Ontario, the facts were presented and all the “gloom and doom” items were in the beginning of the meeting. Any media in attendance ran with it and the twist from the meeting was a negative one — when in reality a fair number of positives came out of the meeting. We asked that they be more cognizant of that for future public meetings.

Last Tuesday in Lockport, they took that to heart and the comments from several of the county’s Fisheries Development Board members were that they did much better this time around.

The first case in point was the fact that they experienced a bit of a problem with the salmon stocking for this year. Due to the fact that the salmon eggs are treated with thiamine, some complications occurred that resulted in the loss of roughly 200,000 fry through something called Early Mortality Syndrome. Instead of being able to stock 1.76 million Chinook salmon, they would only be able to stock between 1.5 and 1.6 million kings. Released on its own, that news could have been devastating. However, the spin that Region 9 Fisheries Manager Paul McKeown put on it helped to lessen the blow and show how DEC was counteracting those effects.

For starters, the remaining salmon in the hatchery were being reared at lower densities and fed a high protein diet — to help accelerate growth and enhance survival by stocking larger, healthier fish. None of the pen rearing projects would be impacted, along with their corresponding direct plants — part of a lakewide effort to clip and/or tag every salmon being stocked to determine the success rates of each and also help to establish the amount of natural reproduction in the lake.

To make up for some of the shortfall at Olcott for the pen project spearheaded by the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association, some fish from the Niagara River were going to be moved. That said, there was more good news coming out of the Province of Ontario. The Ringwood Fish Hatchery had an excess of 100,000 king salmon and working with DEC had agreed to stock those extra fish in the Niagara River. It took awhile, but it’s nice to see our Canadian neighbors stocking fish in a resource we both share and utilize for sportfishing.

As we’ve said all along, it shouldn’t matter how many fish we stock in the lake, it should be about survival rates and the final number. With healthier salmon being released this spring, a full complement of pen rearing projects online — including the revival of the Niagara River site for salmon through the Niagara River Anglers Association — survival will be up. Throw in the addition of another 100,000 fish into the Niagara and what turned out to be a bad news announcement is now one that is much more positive, something we can live with and that has a better public perception.

Some good points were made on both sides of the podium. Capt. Vince Pierleoni of Newfane was defending the king salmon as the lead actor on the Lake Ontario stage. He pointed out that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to throw the fishing fraternity a bone from time to time with a few extra stockings when DEC has a surplus to make up for some of these shortfalls. Again, it didn’t have to be much — public perception is key. Imagine if he could say that there was actually an increase in salmon stocking to potential clients in promoting this resource?

Steve LaPan, Lake Ontario unit leader, countered with the fact that the king salmon fishing has been the best it’s been based on catch rates the last six years and running — better than when they stocked in excess of 3 million kings a year into the lake. In the creel survey information presented by Jana Lantry, the total salmon and trout fishing success was the highest ever in the 25 years the data has been collected. The 2009 charter catch rate for king salmon was the five highest on record and the rainbow catch rate was the highest on record for the second consecutive year. The coho salmon catch rate was the third highest ever. That translates into some pretty excellent fishing all around.

Capt. Bob Cinelli of Newfane made a good point, too. “We are better fishermen than we were 20 years ago. We can catch these fish consistently and you need to take that into consideration, as well.”

There was some more good news for area anglers. Chris Balk, who heads up the Lake Ontario Natural Resources Damages Claim Projects from the settlement with Occidental Chemical, announced that he had just returned from the launch ramp project in the Town of Wilson on Twelvemile Creek and reported that things were moving along smoothly. He predicted that the launch will be ready to use within a few weeks. This was the same funding mechanism used to renovate the Lewiston Launch ramp last fall. We’ll have more Lake Ontario tidbits in future columns.

Federation awards banquet set

The Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs has announced that their 2009 Awards Banquet honoring area conservationists for all their hard work will be held April 3 at Cornell Cooperative Extension Niagara, 4487 Lake Avenue, Lockport. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with dinner to take place at 6:30 p.m. Anyone interested in attending should RSVP by Saturday to Doug Walck at 282-0625. Tickets are $25 each or $45 per couple. Seating is limited to 150 people.

Crossbow field day in Wilson

The Wilson Conservation Club has put together a fun day promoting the use of crossbows. They will be hosting a special Crossbow Field Day on April 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to allow the general public to see what these management tools are all about. Five different crossbow companies will be represented, giving people the opportunity to shoot them and ask questions. The event is free to the public. For more information, contact Chris Schotz at 731-1641.

Bill Hilts Jr. is the outdoor sports specialist with the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation. Contact him at bhiltsjr69@cs.com.