schreckstoff

Those pics are awesome thanks for sharing!

Cool thanks, makes sense. We are trawling the Youngstown transect (just east of bar) and finding Smelt , Alewife ,Goby , and lakers at all depths, 65ft - 250ft so far.

Any stomach contents to report?

I love Vibrax spinners !

Taughannock was do able on Sunday in Great Laker’s 19’ Sea Nymph CC. had to stay on the south side going under the bridge. Oswego is extra low, the sand gravel power loading bar is skinny in places there

Oswego open, has been 1-3 boats out weekdays the past few weeks.

Thank you LOCBA & Rob for the opportunity. If anyone has any specific questions or topics they would like to discuss please let me know on this thread or via a private message (PM). I’ll be prepared to provide research updates on Lk. Ontario prey fish population dynamics and native fish restoration science. See you Tuesday!

Cool video. Does it say what lake they are talking about?

I like the powder ones

Sweet C - I agree, thats why I pasted in the LO time series. Why do folks think Goby have had such a large, measurable negative impact on LO bass, what evidence shows that? 20 years ago the Goby eating bass egg videos from Erie came out and with it warnings Goby COULD negatively impact bass populations. Which recent analysis show Goby HAVE hurt LO bass abundance? Is the “Goby hurt SMB populations” one of those ideas that was assumed but then never tested? Like when the non-native predatory zooplankton, a.k.a. fleas, blew up they were predicted to crash LO alewife food. In reality Alewife ate them, a lot, they provide a late season food source, and increase Alewife growth substantially. Just suggesting there is value in testing assumptions. the quote below is my favorite, bw “He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” -Edmund Burke

I’m especially interested in the insights from the sages who have decades of LO bass experience. On these forums I often read how Round Goby had a negative impact on LO smallmouth angling and the creel survey catch rate time series reflect that, plummeting as Goby survey catches shot up (early - mid 2000s) but I find it interesting how the gill net survey catch rates decline long before Goby show up. I get the whole “Goby are devastating bass nest predators “ hypothesis, I just do not see population dynamics data that supports that idea (in LO or other lakes). Hope there is a great turnout for the Wednesday mtg in ABay. Go Bills, bw

I wonder how the bass population dynamics would change if the creel was even lower (like zero). That would still allow for the conservation minded tournaments that catch and release. If the bass numbers go up the Goby numbers go down. Maybe wouldn’t need seasonal regs at all. I know, I know, just too crazy of an idea. Probably should just stick my head back in the sand and grumble about how things used to be better.

“ IMO this is a good year to change out your mono and check your drags” King age, temps, and alewife #s definitely look good but don’t forget the benefits of (hopefully) declining lamprey numbers after the COVID bump. It’s pretty simple, but rarely discussed, that it’s harder for Kings to grow to 30lbs when there are more 1lb parasites sucking out all their blood.