I hope that you were not thinking the fish in picture 2 was a Coho.....because you may have filleted or thrown back the LOC derby leading Steelhead if it was 16 lbs.
As all predatory fish, Walleye will feed where the food is. Perch, gobies, smelt, Jonny Darters, Sculpin, Mudpuppies are plastered to the bottom. Always good to have at least one line down there.
Yep, I have caught a few this year with short gill plates. Just tried to pull some info off the internet on this disorder. One cause that pops up is sedimentation of the water at hatcheries? I think there has been recent problems at Altmar with sediments getting into the tanks but there is very little information on the subject. I have seen this in years past but very rare.
Valuable lesson this video regarding eye safety. You do this long enough there will be a spoon coming back at your at subsonic speed. ALWAYS wear sun glasses or other protective eyewear! Wearing a cup is optional in my boat.
The Catt. had a nice run of huge emeralds this spring. Could be with the late spring the bait ran into the warmest water close by and spawned quickly and left. The perch have baby gobies in them coming off the Catt.
I noticed there has been little bait/ Emerald Shiners this year in the Niagara despite frozen lake cover over the winter. The usual mass migration of shiners up the river back to the lake drives the Peace Bridge area bite. My worry is with no bait, the Walleye will not be around. Is anyone catching walleyes day trolling around Buffalo or is everyone down at Barcelona?
Rainbows are not structure orientating, they are pelagic. The best steelhead water in the great lakes exists out in the middle of the lakes. The fingers are no different.
You may want to just troll a spoon with some orange on it with just a couple of split shots in front of it. You may be fishing below the fish with the 3 color. Surface water is in the 50's so they are probably bugging near the surface.
I went to school up there. If I remember correctly the waters below the Massena dam has big walleye and muskies. Not sure since 911 if you can fish below the spillway or not.
Put them out esp. during the LOC derby for big steelhead. Use a heavier blank like an NK that is speed tolerant as the flasher will give additional action to the spoon. Run a long leader from the flasher say 4'-5'. You will catch kings on the rig too. Find that lower end temp for steelhead say 58 degrees right at the temp break and put them out on a dipsy at that level.