The present St Lawrence River is an absolutely amazing smallmouth fishery. I'm 70 and grew up fishing the river and have seen the good the bad and the ugly. NY state and Ontario need to protect this fishery at all costs. The only way to do it is to put the fish first. There are entirely too many anglers who fish for smallmouth during the closed season and especially through the spawn. To add insult to injury many flaunt it on their social media platforms. The fishery as it exists today was pure and simple "dumb luck". I've seen several similar fisheries both fresh and salt water crash and burn after experiencing a once in a lifetime peak only to just as quickly return to an average or below average fishery. Can't let that happen here.