Lake Ontario water temps - Deep water off Rochester

[GAMBLER]

Looking through our temp data for todays date (12/27) for the past 11 years, we are currently sitting at the second highest intake temp.  We will see how the winter pans out but the YOY alewife need this pattern to continue!  Here are the temps for the past 11 years on this date:

 

2023 - 44 degrees

2022 - 35 degrees

2021 - 42 degrees

2020 - 40 degrees

2019 - 39 degrees

2018 - 39 degrees

2017 - 36 degrees

2016 - 40 degrees

2015 - 45 degrees

2014 - 40 degrees

2013 - 37 degrees

[fisherdude]

I hope it stays warm I know it's ice fishing season when it gets cold we're going to get dumped on by Lake Effect in the short term

[rolmops]

If it stays this mild there will be a lot of fat salmon in spring, but neither Lake Ontario nor Lake Eerie will  freeze over. that will mean that we will get dumped on on with a lot of lake effect snow.

[Gill-T]

If the fish I am catching in the Niagara are any indicator to what is to come, the fish look really healthy, bigger, good color, and no lamprey marks. 

[Bozeman Bob]

I believe this was a topic last year in mid January and a lot of people got all excited about it .... Yep , Erie froze shortly thereafter.  The more things change the more they remain the same . I wouldn't get worked up until February.....

[Legacy]

[Sk8man]

I know a major concern is the effects of long term super cold weather on the water temps and YOY but I also wonder whether it would be just as bad to have the temps this warm and then have an extreme rapid cold snap reducing the water temp.

[Gill-T]

Hard to say what the overall effect on ecosystem would be but for alewives and kings, moderate temps over winter is a benefit. For every 4 degrees of elevation in water temp, the productivity of a system goes up by a level of 16x. The Tule strain of salmon off Washington ( not to be confused with the tools in Washington DC), evolved in ocean temps that does not vary much from the 47-55 degree range. The interesting thing to watch is how this large class of three old kings being active and chowing down all offseason on the nicely rebounded alewife year classes and perhaps buck the trend of smaller body sizes. IMO this is a good year to change out your mono and check your drags. 

[LongLine]

Hoping for a mild spring, but according to the glerl.noaa site, bottom temps & transects are not uniform.  There's a lot of awful cold water out there beyond that warm patch along the south shore.

[schreckstoff]

 “ IMO this is a good year to change out your mono and check your drags” 

 

King age, temps,  and alewife #s definitely look good but don’t forget the benefits of (hopefully) declining lamprey numbers after the COVID bump. It’s pretty simple, but rarely discussed, that it’s harder for Kings to grow to 30lbs when there are more 1lb parasites sucking out all their blood.