Future looks good for Oneida

[bacatit]

Future looks good for Oneida

Fished Oneida 6/16, 17 and 18. Caught 13 on the 16th and 17th with only 5 keepers each day. Most of the shorts between 14 and 14 3/4 inches. Other age classes mixed in. Blue/chrome #9 jigging raps did most of the damage in 31 to 34 feet of water, clown was good too. Fishing slow on Sunday for us. I did catch my personal best Oneida walleye @ 24 inches and a fenwick rod with a shimano reel, not in the lake long, cleaned up nice. Good fathers day! Thinking those 14 to 15 inch shorts should be legal soon!

[schwartz]

If you find my drift sock pm me [emoji849]


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[hybridlures]

They need to up the size limit to 18 there for a few years so them fish can grow and maybe even make it 4 fish limit. Awesome job out there bacatit


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[Xxx]

18"'s and limit it to 3. Then Onieda would be kick azz in a few years, I thought it was 18" anyway?

[justtracytrolling]

What Oneida eyes need is better forage and the goby seems to be helping.  Letting them mature a bit helps too but the only way to get thick walleyes instead of hammer handles is with excellent forage.  It's not age structure alone that puts size on its mostly diet.  There are plenty of walleye in Oneida, if anything they are over populated, they just don't have the forage up until the goby at least and the jury is still out on their impact.  On lakes with real high bait densities, ie otisco, you can't catch a keeper under 3+ pounds and those 18"s are only 3 yrs old.  By their fourth year they are all over 4 pounds....btw if they do actually have food you will struggle to catch em at first at least.

[bacatit]

JTT you are right on with what you are saying. A friend of mine ran the walleye program for the state for years and said the reason the walleyes are the size they are in Oneida is there is very little food for them for the first 4 to 5 months of the year. This makes them easier to catch but retards their growth. He says the gobies will increase their growth rate but make them harder to catch. Schwartz, your drift sock must be laying on the bottom right next to mine, it might be too rough to fish if you break the rope to your drift sock!

[reeleyz]

That is when they actually start eating the gobies...

The perch are gorging themselves on gobies but the walleye are not feeding on them much yet.

The gobies will be great for protecting the young of the year perch and walleye too.

I expect the perch and walleye size and population to increase over the next several years.


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[Xxx]

Not to over ride this post, but all the perch caught during our week fishing eyes on Lady'O were filled with gobies, back to the main subject.

[Chowdaire]

Perch are filled with gobies, walleyes are filled with perch. At least for myself and all the guys I talk to this spring.

[reeleyz]

Walleyes in Oneida LOVE to eat perch.

 

It is like the Oneida eyes are set in their ways. Older eyes will not eat gobies but I bet the smaller eyes (under 15") are eating them. They would rather starve than eat gobies! It is strange. Or maybe gobies are the very last resort over baby perch, baby walleye, shad, buckeyes, and mayfly larva?

 

It seems like the eyes have to learn to eat gobies from birth or when they are old enough to eat them. My guess is that in a year or two we will see them really start to hit the gobies.

[Chowdaire]

5 minutes ago, reeleyz said:

Walleyes in Oneida LOVE to eat perch.

 

 

The only thing they love more is log perch

 

Logperch = walleye candy

 

And back to the initial subject. The lake really does seem in great shape. This is the third year of lots of shorts around but now I'm running into last years shorts and they're 16-18" and around in large numbers.

 

I personally wouldn't change any regs on Oneida. The fishing is great and if you want bigger fish there are enough other places around for that. 

 

 

[Getthenet2]

I think people have overestimated the gobies effect on walleyes out the gate. I fished through their introduction on Lake Ontario when the gobies boomed at first and the fish didn't eat them. It took a few years for nature to even out and begin feeding on them. Perch seemed to quickly but walleyes on the lake and the river took awhile. Now that they've adapted years later the walleyes seem to love the gobies and be one of their main sources of food. They're affecting the fishing but in terms of creating a different walleye on Oneida it's going to take awhile. I'm no scientist just my opinion based on fishing Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence 

[reeleyz]

Good first hand info Getthenet2, thanks for sharing.

 

 

[bacatit]

I have fished the St. Lawrence for the past 5 years. We catch walleyes in 35 to 70 feet of water with jigging spoons and worm harneses after dark. These walleyes are just full of gobies. The last 3 years I have dragged a gobie on a 3 way swivel rig, with and without spinners and have never had a touch, while catching fish on spoons and worms. It's just strange. Walleyes are a weird creature.

 

[TrophySeeker]

I'd be careful posting using gobies for bait...