Lots of deer out in fields this morning. First sit of year. Looking for a doe to slip up. Youth pheasant going in around me so hopefully bumped deer head my way.
I think it would be quite conceivable that a computer program could be developed to pair with sonar and in real time measure the amount of bait showing vs the total space on the screen. We have technology now in our over-the-counter fish finder that allows us to map out the bathymetry of the bottom contours as we pass overhead. It would prove much cheaper and safer than trawler hauling.
Trawl data is the best we have right now but it is far from perfect as stated. In the end the trawler is fishing for alewives. Numerous times when I was on the Kaho I noticed large amounts of bait showing on the graph and very few got picked up with the tow. You still have to catch them in order to count them.
The trawling survey results showing the representative year classes needs to not be viewed as gospel. Due to costs and man power, approximately 1,0000 fish are aged per the estimated 1.5 Billion alewives that are in the lake. The survey will never be perfect. We definitely gather more info than other states. Michigan does just a few locations in the fall.
There is no doubt steelhead eat YOY alewives in the epilimnion but compare a three year old steelhead to the size of a three year old king. The two species are on two different feeding programs.
Lucky they are not doing any tagging studies on steelhead because they don’t really effect alewife numbers like kings do. The reason Steve LaPan gave for doing another tagging study on kings is developing natural runs. Fish generally run where stocked. Over the years naturalized salmon runs have developed/evolved slowly. If wild fish are increasing in number, the DEC/OMNR need a figure to set stocking numbers.