Finger Lakes history · regional story
The Honeoye ponds that helped stock Conesus
In 2004, a college rearing program linked two lakes through young walleye, student work and volunteers.
On June 30, 2004, about 20,000 young walleye went into Conesus Lake. They were roughly two and a half inches long. Another 2,000, this time four inches long, followed on August 10. New York’s fisheries annual report places both releases in a cooperative rearing program with Finger Lakes Community College. NYSDEC fisheries annual report, 2004/2005.
Part of that work happened at another lake. The Conesus Lake Watershed Council’s report card locates the rearing ponds at FLCC’s Muller Field Station, at the southern end of Honeoye Lake. Young fish were raised there from fry to fingerlings in a protected environment. Sanderson’s later assessment describes two ponds and fry supplied by DEC hatcheries. Conesus Lake Watershed Council’s 2004 report card; Matthew J. Sanderson’s Conesus assessment.
The annual report names the people who kept the program going by their groups: volunteers from both lake associations; FLCC interns, students, alumni and faculty; Caledonia Hatchery staff; and Region 8 fisheries staff. A stocking date is a brief entry on paper. Here, the accompanying account preserves some of the work and cooperation behind it. NYSDEC fisheries annual report, 2004/2005.
Those two releases were only part of the year’s stocking. The later appendix also lists 65,000 five-inch fingerlings on August 26. The Watershed Council’s report card gives a wider summer total of about 87,000. Keeping those records separate matters: the cooperative program’s two releases should not be mistaken for every walleye stocked in Conesus that year. Matthew J. Sanderson’s Conesus assessment; Conesus Lake Watershed Council’s 2004 report card.
Following the fish after release is harder. Sanderson’s assessment says the unmarked 2004 fish could not be separated into pond-raised and advanced-fingerling origins in the later survey. It also warns about uncertain age readings. The documents establish a partnership and recorded releases; they do not give each fish a traceable life history. Matthew J. Sanderson’s Conesus assessment.
Sources & research notes
Review status: Developing history. Human editorial review is pending.
Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.