&-17-16 Out of Hughes- Sure looks like a bait problem.....

[Sweet Caroline]

 

So I just thought of this. Remember at the state of the lake meetings where the Canadian biologist said that the Kings are all unevenly distributed with a lot in one area and very few in another area… Why wouldn't that be the case with alewife as well?

 

You are correct, it is probably true with Alewife as well. Could help explain why many fisherman, especially in the west end, are consistently seeing so much bait. There probably is more bait in the more productive areas than ever before and that could simply because the remainder of the lake has become less productive. Still have to stand by the fact that decreasing salmon size and higher catch rates do not equal more bait. When the lake was growing 35+ salmon consistently you would never hear of reports of catch rates like we are having now in the middle of the summer. Early Spring or Fall, maybe, but never consistently in the middle of the summer like we have now. Best thing that can happen is to have a couple consecutive years of warm winters to keep alewife production and survival optimum.