schreckstoff

Tree season! It starts the day after deer season ends.

Fairly confident the one it is a Spottail Shiner, definitely not a Cisco. The mouth (subterminal) isn’t right for an Emerald’s mouth (superior). Spottails are cool little preyfish I’ve always wanted to know more about them. I know they are more benthic than some other shiners. Likely not a coincidence their relative abundance in Lake Ontario declined quickly as Round Goby increased.

Great recovery, congrats. I don’t understand why wasn’t there a better blood trail based on that shot? Do you have any theories? NittanyF - nice job and thanks for sharing, cool story.

Congratulations to both of you, nice shot and love the thoroughness on the prep.

“Bait futures”, I like that term! good luck in the woods everyone , Gotta love sitting in a tree reading LOU

Top one looks like It might be a Spottail shiner, bottom ones look like a panfish maybe

Roger that in the torpedoes, I was thinking 12lbers. My riggers are old: converted Digi troll 2’s and Canon Marlins. I assume I will be ok with the 12s or should I go 14lb? some interesting bait discussion happening over on Michigan Forum : https://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/threads/the-bait-debate.700459/

good on you for the vest too, did you ever find a remote kill switch you liked / was reasonable?

I thought the current piece was crazy. Those times when I can't get my down temp right cause it 'seems' like the current is switching, is likely due to me moving into different parts of a wavy stream. (and partly because I haven't called Troutman yet to order some real rigger weights, stupid pancakes!) RE: Whiting vs Bloom, I was wondering about this too, and of course they often occur together so probably some of both. It it seems like a whiting, the timing is about right, conditions certainly have been right. Its interesting that it is primarily a Canadian whiting with some parts reaching the south shore now and then. Then again I don't think I've looked at enough of these images from this time of year to know how usual/unusual a N vs S shore difference is. I heard reports from the North shore that shallower staging fish are being caught frequently and it seems less so in the south. I'm still wondering how water clarity might influence staging behavior. The changes (declines) to the staging fishery on the south shore seem to be one of those comments that is consistent which always makes me think the physical lake environment is / has changed...but I'm way out over my toes on those ideas. I also noticed in most of the MODIS pics somehow the whiting/blooms to turn south right around Sandy Creek area....hmm...makes me wonder if Aquaman-Gambler can control the lake currents in addition to the lake trout. I don't check in on the MODIS enough but GillT keeps me honest. I know if there is something I need to see he'll tell me. I was looking at the other lakes MODIS images and I sure am glad to work in "the lower settling basin" as my upper lakes colleagues say. Michigan water looks black most of the time.

https://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=o&page=1 some awesome currents evident

That pic could go on the cover of the annual DEC fishing booklet except for those excessively revealing shorts! Ha I crack me up.

Absolutely, all true. Like most non native species, in the beginning there can often be much doom and gloom, and predicting. Then when everything settles down and we get enough observations to look at the whole picture, the initial predictions might not necessarily be spot on. Byth spines in particular were found to “ball up” by the hundreds, and get stuck in Alewife stomachs so there was concern that Alewife could not keep eating them, and would starve...but no one told the Alewife and they kept eating them when they were abundant and Alew were getting bigger and bigger. They potentially extend the Alewife growing season...maybe by a month or more. We frequently find Byth spines in Alewife stomachs in April, presumably left over from fall/winter. They do have a lower energy density than Daphnia as GillT notes but they are also 50+ times heavier than the small Daphnia they eat, so even if their quality as food is not quite as good , Alewife do not work nearly as hard to eat more total food....a net gain.

A picture showing what Sk8man was explaining. Cercopagis or fishhook flea on top, Bythotrephes or spinywater flea on bottom & bigger. Both of them seem to make alewife grow very fast. Cercopagis is usually peaking first in the season, like now, and Byth numbers climb and peak in fall, after they munch down the Cerco. We have this idea that Byth seems to allow Alewife to stay up in the water column feeding, later in the fall than they used to before we had them. Fascinating and frustrating! I just finished setting up 2 new Blood Run diver rods to saw through the snot. That BR wire is really nice to handle.

That blue leopard is hot for u!

Excellent report and pictures, thanks!

That warm water division is kind of a neat idea GT!

RE: arrows, I have become a student of the Ranch Fairy (YouTube if u haven’t seen him), heavy stiff arrows, high FOC, no “Twizzlers” no Flappers anymore for me.

Finished with GreatLaker today and his dad, had a great day of fun, a little light on fish. Landed a nice brown and laker and found a little laker on when we pulled lines. Fished S of Taughannock, marked fish and bait all over, shallow and deep. No real pattern, goby stick off board took Brown, rigger spoon took laker. Good stories and laughs. Lots of memories being back in Cayuga south end, learned how to troll there ~20yrs ago by reading this site.

Stevent that is really interesting, thanks for sharing.