Gill-T

Did a little evening into night troll. Haven’t been walleye fishing at night for over a decade. More exploration of some points paid dividends again. Got some bigs. Lost two bigs due to netting FuBAR. Some giant sheep made it interesting. Yellow and white perch, and some smallmouth. Livingston Lures were proving again that they are worth the $14 they cost.

Agreed there is no unnatural selection going on in natal streams so including a policy/procedure to only strip from three and four year olds based on body size at Altmar makes sense. We probably should be tagging these 12-14 lb fish to see if we can figure out which stream they were born from. The Niagara is an X factor that we don’t know about.

Awesome. 👏

I would have taken it as a sign to run a yellow NBK.

I think the lake managers would want to know if this large group of 12-14 lb fish are 2 vs 3 yrs old. The few I have cut open have developing gonads so my guess is naturalized three year olds.

Probably 12-17lbers

The results don’t mean the lake is bait poor, just more mouths to feed. Lake Erie is in the same situation with walleye. It has become very difficult to catch a fish over 10 lbs because of the huge class of 5-7lbers. Nobody is complaining.

We are in June transition 3 weeks early. Only half the field got their 6 fish limits in the Wilson Harbor Invitational this weekend.

WHI winning team this weekend had a 9.8 lb average.

lol 😂

Wow!

Some good walleye catches being reported by friends at night West of Dunkirk. Haven’t been able to try the night game so for shats and giggles today I tried some contour line trolling off shoreline points. Hmmmm I may have figured something out. Gizzard Shad and smelt were around. Caught a huge brown that I attempted to land by hand because my brother forgot his net and failed miserably. I had the fat porker out of the water wriggling in my hands twice only to have him flop onto the 12 lb leader snapping it. I got to watch the beast swim off with my scatter rap strapped to its face. Of note is my dive into baits which generate electronic impulses. After seeing plenty of underwater YouTube footage of walleyes swimming past trolled lures only to hit a Water Wolf camera -plus last year my friend posted a picture of a walleye that he caught on a Smart Troll probe that had jammed sideways into the walleye’s mouth and locked behind its teeth, I had an epiphany that walleye are interpreting electronic = alive. Enter Livingston lures and their walleye lineup of stickbaits you can get at FishUSA. I put one down behind a rigger and it fired in short order. Bandits took the most. A couple of bonus bass and some mega perch were also caught plus fish fry lunch that followed.

Could be whitefish or Gizzard Shad if no hits.

Going to give it a go Friday night. Light winds, warm night … even if they aren’t biting should be fun.

Purely anecdotal but I think the 15-17 lbers are stocked three year olds and the large group of 10-14lbers are the result of a good hatch of naturals that occurred somewhere.

Are you guys seeing bait in Oswego?

That is encouraging. Were they the large class of 4-5 lbers that are out there in large numbers or more likely residents?

Full disclosure, I have not fished for browns since March. Three trips, easy fishing and big fish in Niagara County. With the leading king in the low 20’s, everyone was trying for the money fish, especially with that brown leader on the board early. Still lots of browns being reported in the Niagara

Agreed with everything you said about the evolving bite this May. I believe we are now in the June phase early as suggested. Inside waters same temps top to bottom and green water offshore for fish to spread out in (all the way to Canadian line).

Roll call, who has been out trolling. Been too busy fishing kings on Ontario

https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/ranger-retirement-eligibility

Other factors. Dr Weidel stated a good majority of the alewives caught in the survey this year were found in Canadian waters. Most years the bait is on the South side of the fence

Yep, I am done. Eight straight days of fishing for the big one. One clunker of a day yesterday and a grind bite today, otherwise, it was a king bonanza. Damn you NE winds for ruining a great bite off Olcott! I was out in 488’ catching kings today and we fished as tight as 62’. Green water is everywhere. When a pod of bait comes ashore, kings are with them. Every day was slightly different where we would level off and find a line. Congrats to the LOC leaders!