Interesting observation

[guff]

I fished Keuka all day yesterday (jigging) for lake trout. Was a very slow day. Had some missed hits earlier but had a late afternoon short bite and ended up with 4 in the boat. I saw lots of lakers and bait balls on the fish finder. The interesting part was when I gutted a 25 incher I found 14  1" to 2" perch minnows inside. I caught her (had eggs) in 114 fow in the middle of the lake. Water temperature was 71 degrees on top.That begs a number of questions, at least for me.

1- I would assume the perch were in warmer water near the top. That means the laker had to move up out of it's preferred temperature waters and maybe was feeding near the surface?

2- Were the perch minnows way out in deep water or did the laker move into shallow water to get them?

3- Should we be fishing with perch minnows near the surface?

4- Is this why Keuka lakers seem to taste better than lakers from other waters (I like grilling all of them however) because they eat perch rather than sawbellies? 

5- Is this why  the bite was so tough? I was using a 3.5 " tube and they were actually eating 1-2 inch minnows?

Any thoughts out there?

[Sk8man]

Guff I really don't know the specific answer but I know over the years I have found everything from alewives, smelt, stonecats, crayfish,small sunfish, small bass, and little perch in their stomachs and I even found one big one years back with a 10 inch lake trout in it. In short, they are opportunists and will eat whatever is available wherever they happen to be depthwise or otherwise   I've seen them from my boat in summer conditions (very warm water)  cruising the shallows in the early AM and that is what may have happened too.....if they are hungry they will go way out of their preferred temp range.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Sk8man

[Skidplate]

They like bottle caps too

[cronoticed]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure kueka lakers are all wild versus stocked which may attribute to the taste difference, just a thought. I have also caught and observed lake trout in odd depths throughout the year...

Edited September 23, 2015 by cronoticed

[rolmops]

Originally lake trout fed heavily on ciscos. At night the ciscos would come up to the surface to feed and the lake trout would come up right with them to feed on these ciscos. As Sk8man said,they are opportunists

[Reelfanatic]

Thats a good enough reason to fish the bait.

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[alex1young]

I've been catching lakers about 10-15 below the surface on Owasco. Seems off with surface temps above 70.

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[FishingTheFL]

I also caught a Laker in top 20 feet two weeks ago over 50fow. Took a rainbow too that I lost at the boat.

[laketrout6]

I've been fishing Keuka for lakers since 1958 using 5 spoon Seth Green rigs, cowbells and sawbellies, still fishing with live sawbellies and in recent years jigging with spoons.

I have never found a perch in a lakers stomach but don't doubt it happens occasionally , I doubt this a major source of food for them. Used to find sculpin and smelt in them but not many of them, if any, left in the lake now. Most of my laker fishing in recent years is from late December through May and have taken ( but not kept) as many as 50 in a morning, those that we did keep are always full of sawbellies. In winter we mark many huge schools of 'bellies so I believe the bait is in good shape.

BTW, jigged for an hour this am then pulled a 5 spoon rig for 90 minutes and no hits. Fished in front of the Bluff in 100-150 fow. Marked very few, scattered fish but they weren't hungry.

Will be back after them Xmas week. They'll be hungry after coming off the spawn.

[Sk8man]

Did you fish with Seth Green himself?   I used to fish it at night there with live bait  way back (Bluff, Gibson Landing, Chidsey and a little off Marlena) but not quite that far back.....didn't have the money for a boat in the old days but did cast from shore for whatever I could get from mid 50's through early 60's at my uncle's cottage east side Penn Yan branch. Sometimes the rainbows would hammer the sawbellies at night and you'd wake up to the drag going out and your heart pounding

[guff]

Another interesting observation. The laker that had eaten the 14 perch minnows had an entirely different color meat than the 2 other smaller lakers I caught in the same place at the same time.

The perch eater had a very distinct orange/salmon color flesh while the other 2 lakers that I did not see any perch inside were the normal white colored flesh?????? 

[Zyoung]

I've seen the different colored meats on Owasco.  My understanding is that comes from eating Mysis shrimp.  Cool that you caught one with something other then Alewife in it, I haven't.  I did once pull 2 rubber worms out of one.

[skipjack]

I know on skaneateles you catch a lot of Lakers out of temperature. They are eating young perch. Of course that's the only forage on the lake.

[Skidplate]

I used to fly fish Dresden on Seneca in winter most of the Lakers had perch in them so we tied up perch steamer worked great

[Reelfanatic]

Caught several lakers with orange meat on owasco. Beside water temp, had no other explanation. Good eaters outta there either way.

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[Butch7977]

I have night fished keuka 6 timed this year . Out The lights out to draw up sawbellies and every night I went there were NO sawbellies only thing that came up was perch everyplace I went. Hammondsport, bluff ,out in front of gold seal . Something is going on I have never had a problem getting bait or at least seeing bait. It's all thousands if perch and I mean thousands that come up to light . Any ideas why that is or what's happend to the sawbellies

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[justtracytrolling]

A guy i know was frog fishing for bass on Cayuga and they got bored started drinking and drifted out to deep water from the north end and left a few feet of line out and caught a 10lb laker on a frog....opportunists!

[Butch7977]

There is few verry few sawbellies left in that lake .

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[FishingTheFL]

Fished Cayuga today. Rainbows and Salmon were spitting up perch minnows as well... Found them in 35fow over 200 feet

[Gill-T]

There is a negative relationship with alewife/sawbelly species and perch. The higher perch numbers are reflective of lower sawbelly numbers. They compete for the same food.

[guff]

Butch7977 - FYI Did see a good number of bait balls north of the state park boat launch last Tuesday. I remember thinking "did all the sawbellies in the lake move to the north end?" Nothing compared to the north end of Seneca earlier this year however.

Also Butch, were all those perch minnows you were seeing out in deep water (say over 70 feet) ? That would answer one of my questions if they were. 

Edited September 27, 2015 by guff

[Butch7977]

I fished 60-140 ft. I also marked alot of bait balls but I'm wondering if it's schools of those small perch? I hope it's sawbellies but idk.

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[Lively1]

None of the half dozen or so lake trout I caught on Keuka this year had minnows of any kind in them. I took the mush that was in their gut, put it in a bowl with a little water, and it was either Mysis shrimp or very small zooplankton. And the flesh was a nice orange color.

[guff]

Thanks Butch 7977. Guess that confirms that the perch minnows do move out over deep water. Pretty risky behavior I would say. Hard to imagine that a school of 1-2" perch would show up as a good sized bait ball on a fish finder but who knows. Sure would be a lot of perch. 

[Butch7977]

When I was night fishing I tried way out deep with the lights and all j could get to come to lights were the perch. Thousands and I mean thousands they blacked out my fishfinder .I think the lake trout are a amazing game fish. But they need to be thinned out more in that lake

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