Cayuga Jigging Gobies

[flyrod2]

Second time snagged a big goby today in 110 FOW off bottom jigging lakers. Got one last Friday too while waiting for wife to meet us at Myers, other mile up lake on east side.. Hope not a sign to come. Talked with DEC fisheries and they seem to think Gobies at peak of cycle so probably what we see now is all we will see. I know pros and cons with them, but interested to see impact in another 5 years. Still doing well jigging though anywhere from 60' to 130'.

 

[paman]

Fished below Long Point about 5 weeks ago. Caught 3 gobies in a row on a dropshot with a 4 inch worm in about 15 feet of water. Didn't take me long to change tactics for bass!

[bandrus1]

I bet lake trout love them

[quality time]

The browns and bass love them on Lake "O"  Most of the fish in our lakes are not native. The impact on our fisheries will be minimal. The biggest impact will be the competition between invasive species and native fish like sculphins . The impact  from Gobies will be pale in comparison to the Asian carp. They have captured at least 3 Asian carp on Lake Ontario. We will be putting on football helmets to run down the lake within a few years. I can deal with that as long as we can train them to eat some of the weed matts

[hermit]

I am curious what the DEC guy meant about peak of the cycle?  The gobies haven't been in here long, how do they know about any cycles yet?

Wes the Asian carp they found in Ontario were grass carp and could have been escaped sterile fish (if we're lucky) but even if they were breeders the grass carp aren't too bad.  It's the silver carp that jump and the bigheads are a problem also.  I don't doubt they'll get here eventually but so far we're okay.

[flyrod2]

Hermit, What DEC said was their population is now where it will be at its max since they do not live long, so what we see now is what we should expect to see(not get worse).. All the lakes they are in the predator fish do get bigger, but not every lake is alike, and while they eat zebra mussle, those critters filter toxins and now the fish eat the gobies. Fishery guys also told me that the gobies should be heading out to deep water so as to not interfere with fall spawning, although they do like laker eggs. We did net a lot of them in Spring up Salmon Creek so I assume they will be eating rainbow egg.  Again, pros and cons to them.

 

[Lakertaker187]

Flyrod2, I fish salmon creek religiously. Every year and all the time. I myself and no one I know who fishes there didn't come across any gobies. Just wondering how many you found

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[rolmops]

There is another problem here and that is the depth that they were found at. It is usually presumed that gobies only populate shallow waters down to about 35 feet deep. Finding them in water that is over a hundred feet down is worrisome.

[flyrod2]

We caught them while kick netting inverts with students past spring. Not very effective for catching gobies so fact we caught bunch was interesting. As far as depth I was told they migrate deep in fall.

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[Skidplate]

There was a huge die off this spring but when we were getting sawbells in June we got a ton of them and perch fishing Cayuga last month we got a lot on minnows

[schwartz]

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[Ric66]

I went perch fishing last week and all I caught was perch. Went yesterday and I could not get away from the gobies. Caught them from 20 to 60 feet. They were everywhere. Can't understand how one week can make such a difference. Anyone heard of gobies in Seneca yet?

[sparkyice]

 

I caught what I thought was a gobie last winter in Seneca. I compared it and am pretty certain it was a sculpin. a game warden I talked to the next week told me they had not confirmed them in Seneca, at that time anyway.

[bulletbob]

 I am not as optimistic as you guys are.. I did some fishing a few times  mid lake this year with worms for perch...  95% of what I caught was gobies.. Even aggressive sunfish could not compete with the hordes of gobies i saw in near shore dock/weed areas.. They were in massive schools that swarmed all over anything that was near the bottom.. It was impossible to fish with worms, and even small jigs were attacked viciously as soon as it hit bottom by huge swarms of those repulsive things.. They seem to outcompete our native panfish in numbers and aggressiveness.. I fear for the ability of nearshore species to defend nests from these mini monsters.. They are very aggressive, pretty fast, have huge numbers from what I have observed, and are noted nest raiders.. Time will tell I guess, but to my uneducated eyes, it doesn't look good.. I hope I am wrong... bob

Edited September 30, 2015 by bulletbob

[Sk8man]

They look enough like the Freshwater Sculpin that I'm hoping the lakers will target them as the sculpin are a favorite menu item for them

[aburley88]

The wife and I get out a few times together every year and she loves catching these. Size 10/12 hook and a bit of worm, crush the barb and she can get 15-20 in an hour.

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[Sk8man]

I hope you aren't returning them to the water

[Skidplate]

X2

[aburley88]

I hope you aren't returning them to the water

Oh hell no, seagulls get fat when she goes out lol

[Reelfanatic]

Sounds like a good time to up the walleye stocking. Would imagine they would eat the hell outta the gobys

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[bulletbob]

Sounds like a good time to up the walleye stocking. Would imagine they would eat the hell outta the gobys

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 Sounds logical, but IMHO, the Walleyes would do what the other predators in  cayuga Lake do.. They would key on the Sawbellies, and would act like the trout do... Suspend   in 100 fow of water, over 250 fow, following schools of alewives, and being caught mostly by guys with downriggers.. The  few Walleyes I have seen in cayuga were massive.. The same size and shape as big carp.. Guarantee they eat  pretty much nothing but alewives.. Sadly, they wouldn't eat near enough Gobies to make a dent.. bob

[Xxx]

In the middle of August we were out in 70ft of water off the north shore of Galloo Island we were fishing good smallie waters hoping for a eye or two, we did ok so back to the fillet table with our walleyes (we got two) the stomachs of both eyes were packed with gobies, I couldn't believe they even took a Bomber long A, riggers were parked at 60 and 50, the smallies hit the 50 rigger and the eyes hit the 60 rigger, even the smallies had gobies in them. One thing I noticed was the gobies in the eyes were bigger than the gobies in the bass. The eye gobies were like 4-5" and the bass maybe 2 -3"max. The theory of the gobies being shallow dwellers is a crock of chit!!, I really hope that the sought after fish eat gobies and maybe get the numbers down, but I doubt this will happen. I watched a show on the fishing channel called Invaisive Species and they claim there are 5 gobies for every 3ft square of the lake bottom. That's mucho gobies in the lake!!!

Edited October 2, 2015 by pap

[shaneo19]

I can confirm that I saw a lake trout spit up a goby on Seneca Lake this year during the trout derby. 

[jerktroller]

I thought the same thing about a goby in a laker stomach from Seneca but found out is was a sculpin. They look a lot like a goby.