She cold!

[Gill-T]

https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/compare_years/

[ifishy]

As much as i love the cooler weather for comfort and as much as it has set up great fishing through a lot of the lake I wonder if taking so long to warm will cause low recruitment of young of year alewives  cold water is not good for growing the algae and other planktons they need coming out of winter. This is a long time to go on fat stores for a young bait fish

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

23 hours ago, ifishy said:

As much as i love the cooler weather for comfort and as much as it has set up great fishing through a lot of the lake I wonder if taking so long to warm will cause low recruitment of young of year alewives  cold water is not good for growing the algae and other planktons they need coming out of winter. This is a long time to go on fat stores for a young bait fish

I think there will be another record hatch from this years spawning. The alewife spawning started early and continues today in many locations. Its a good thing there's currently a good population of Salmon out there because the last thing the lake needs is a return to overpopulated, skinny alewives.   

[ifishy]

a record hatch would be nice to help re establish a more diverse age structure in years to come.  my concern would be for last years hatch that just went though its first winter and would be looking to put on the feed bag.  

 

I do think a good this year hatch could be important as cooler stream temps and good flows this spring open the door for a strong class of natural kings which are a big wild card in the predator prey balance

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

13 minutes ago, ifishy said:

a record hatch would be nice to help re establish a more diverse age structure in years to come.  my concern would be for last years hatch that just went though its first winter and would be looking to put on the feed bag.  

 

I do think a good this year hatch could be important as cooler stream temps and good flows this spring open the door for a strong class of natural kings which are a big wild card in the predator prey balance

Agreed on both statements. The wild contribution is a blessing. The bite we are now experiencing would not be possible without it. Alewives are a herring. Their purpose is to feed game fish. When left underpredated bad things happen.  

[Chas0218]

That's pretty impressive. Seems the overcast days and cold rains isn't helping warm up the lake at all.

[Gill-T]

The lake is loaded with nutrients right now. I was surprised how green the spring water was despite the cold water. This year’s weather reminds me of weather in the late 80’s. We were fishing kings up at Burt Dam around September 10th with the leaves already turning color back then. I would definitely plan for early runs on the tribs this year. With the Niagara still in the high 50’s my buddy is still catching tons of steelhead with his centerpin. Maybe we get a Niagara run this year??