Sawbellies / Alewives

[choo-choo]

Hi, i am trying to find out when the huge schools of alewives leave their winter ,deep water hangouts, and begin to head into the shallows to prepare for their spawn,in lake Ontario . I'm just trying to think"outside the box"...for early season,cold water(35 to 42degrees) trolling for large browns and salmon. It seems that the real early ,shallow water trolling for browns in real cold water produces mostly smaller browns, until the water warms up a bit more. Would it pay for me to locate the huge schools of alewives out in deep cold water .....and troll the deep cold water with tons of bait, instead of shallow cold water with not as much bait ? Large trout and salmon need to feed a little even in cold, cold water ,don't they?Does it make sense that if the water is say 39,40 41 in tight to shore,and the same out in deeper water,where the alewives are,then the larger predators would choose to hang out deep,where more ,preferred food is?I guess i'm trying to find out where the large browns and salmon live when the water is less than 42 degrees...in close to shore,up high out a little deeper,or down deep 70 to 120 feet down,or wherever the alewives prefer to live . Any replies would be appreciated.....thanks

[LongLine]

Choo-choo - Everyone's trying to figure out where the big ones are.

Alewives do go deep in the winter as they follow the broken up thermocline. (Non-spawning Kings follow them) They spawn in the shallows, at night, generally in April. They are very temperature sensitive in that they cannot take sudden changes in temperature. They are not very good swimers as far as fish go so drastic upwellings generally do a number on them. They are rarely ever found in water colder than 37F.

After spawning they go where the food is. In the last couple/few years after spawning they have been going out further in the lake. Interestingly, this has been blamed on the mussels & not on temperature.

More interesting is the emergence of the red shrimp. Alewives have been known to eat a lot of these, hence some say they may be the only good invassive to hit Big-O. Red shrimp are a shallow water beastie & only time will tell if they cause the alewife to not go as far out in the lake.

The bigger fish follow their prey. Alewives are a favorite of the salmon. Not so much of the Laker or Brown, although they will eat them. Lakers love the colder water prey - sculpins, ciscos etc. Browns eat almost anything when they're in the mood i.e perch, gobies, etc. (Gobies, interestingly enough have been found to go out to over 400 FOW in the winter.) Browns like the bottom of the lake but generally are not as far out as the salmon, when most people are able to fish the big water.

Kind of long winded, but the best advice I can give you is if you find a pod of preyfish, stay on it. (and let me know where it is)

Good luck.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[choo-choo]

Tom (Longline) Not longwinded at all,great info, very informative....i guess iwill have to fill up the tank and go search ,search,search!!! By the way, if I stumble onto any big "preyfish" honeyhole locations, you'll be the first one to know ! Thanks again for the input....choo-choo Steve .