skanperch

this cooler weather has me thinking about an outing on Skan..........anyone trolled there recently? I am wondering if the bows have started to come up near the surface. Any recent info at all would be appreciated.

yes, alewives, sawbellies, mooneyes.......... all the same fish

I went down to toss a few casts off the dock at 2 AM, hoping to tie into a passing LMB. It was a beautiful, flat calm, moonlit nite. I was astonished to witness the lake alive and boiling with spawning sawbellies - they were everywhere, for as far as the eye could see and the ear could hear. Their overwhelming abundance quickly extinguished my desire to fish, as they were so numerous, the odds of any game fish finding my lure among them were too remote to pursue.

But their presence ignited a curiosity on my part............ I'd have thought it to be far too late in the season, with water far too warm to have any inshore sawbelly activity , much less an onshore orgy. It made me realize how little I know and understand about one of the most abundant and important species in Cayuga. When IS their spawning over? How high a temp CAN they tolerate? When do they hatch? What is their growth rate? How long can they live? How can they be spread out over deep and cold water in the day, but be in 3 feet of water by night, moving into August ? That is an incredible temperature tolerance.

This was a real eye opening experience for me...... and I set out to search for research on our Finger Lakes sawbellies, but could not find much online. Can anyone on this forum point me in the direction of some comprehensive research on these fish? I would dearly like to understand more about them. It could help bump up my trout take.

this was in the Aurora area of Cayuga, on the east shore.

Hey Hookem,

went out on Skan today....trolled streamers fast on the surface, and then downrigged some small flutter spoons 10 to 20 feet down.

Conditions seemed good, cloudy with a chop, but we only boated 2 bows, 18" and 20". Both came on the spoons. We had 3 hits on the streamers, and one hookup, but lost it.

I was wondering if it was you I saw today, trolling with planer boards. Is your boat a dark gray Lund with a 25 HP Yamaha? If that was you, how did you do?

HI Hookem

thanks for that interesting info....I am looking forward to setting sail on Skan later this week....

Do you ever try to pull streamers on top this time of year? I have read for years about how sensational that can be, and have tried it now and then, but I have caught only a few bows that way. Certainly never the 30 - 40 fish days I hear others claim.

I assume that the spoons off your boards are near or at the surface?

By all means, keep your reports coming......Thanks !

I have an assortment of Little Cleos from years back, maybe 20 years back. The 2/5 oz size all have a woman in a see thru dress stamped onto the back....because it says it's a " Wigl Lure" , I suppose.

Cleos I bought more recently - maybe 5 yrs back or so. have the same ID stamping on the 2/5 oz. , but no naked woman.

Does anyone know the story behind this?

I have not bought Cleo in prob 5 yrs , so I am wondering if the naked woman is still missing from the 2/5 oz Cleo.

Hi to all,

Can anyone on this forum tell me if there remains any kind of viable population of smelt in Ontario and Erie? The reason I wonder is as follows: I live on Cayuga Lake, in the Finger Lakes....for the past 10 yrs or so, our rainbow population and catch rate have plummeted by something like 80 or 90%.... Over the same period, our once super abundant smelt population has all but vanished as well

Both of these occurrences seem to have coincided with the establishment of a large zebra mussel population in Cayuga.....In looking for a cause-and-affect, I am wondering if the Great Lakes have suffered similar declines. Can we blame the mussels for this, or are other factors in play in Cayuga?

I know that Erie and Ontario have good steelhead populations along with, I assume huge numbers of mussels......but what I don't know is how well or poorly the smelt populations are doing there.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.