Jump to content

Fleas fleas fleas


Recommended Posts

This weekend the fleas have hit disaster proportions on Cayuga....on rigger lines mono lines wire dipsy lines in proportions I have not seen before....struggle to even fish...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Lake Ontario United

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As the water temperature goes up they seem to rapidly multiply and we have had some very high ambient temps lately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When the fleas are really bad and are suspended throughout the water column even 150 lb rigger wire is not immune to them. A,lot of time they seem to be "patchy" in the water column and i think that is why some folks have better luck avoiding  than others in spots in the lakes. When they are reaally bad even the riggers get clogged especially with the fishhook type fleas which seem harder to remove from anything no matter what the diameter.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me I've found that the Cortland FleaFlicker works the best. Tried 30lb mono, forget it. Blood Run flea line, about the same as 30lb mono. Guys piss and  moan about the Cortland line but it works the best (IMO). Vary little attachments yesterday on the line while my rigger cables did pick some up. Cortland stopped making it but if you can get your hands on some try it. Come flea season I just overlay about 130' of FleaFlicker on my  normal mono line and add 10'-12' of leader.  Come Sept/Oct when the fleas disappear I just strip the fleaflicker off. No need to respool.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More than one type of water flea. They are softbodied pests (invasive species) that multiply like crazy and attach to fishing lines and clog up the rod tips and when very thick can prevent you from reeling in fish.P.S. They can make a mess of your boat (e.g. grey/brown stains) and smell like hell.

Edited by Sk8man
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Just one of the many curses brought upon the US by  "progress" and  world trade....  Yeah dumping ballast water from Eurasion ships was great thing for American waterways.. Fleas en mass  of various species, Zebras Quaggas, Gobies,  Asian Carp Asian Slime eels, Lampreys, hell even alewives, don't belong here,  but now we live with them...... bob

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Sk8man said:

When the fleas are really bad and are suspended throughout the water column even 150 lb rigger wire is not immune to them. A,lot of time they seem to be "patchy" in the water column and i think that is why some folks have better luck avoiding  than others in spots in the lakes. When they are reaally bad even the riggers get clogged especially with the fishhook type fleas which seem harder to remove from anything no matter what the diameter.

Where is that American ingenuity ... we can land on the moon .... surely someone (smarter than me) can come up with a device that attaches to a rod and also a downrigger to remove those pesky devils.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When they are really bad I use a paint stir stick with a strip of commercial (sticky side) velcro at the end. It works best on taught wire with scraping motions. It isn't a total answer but can help. Not very elegant looking but functional and you can tell it has been used :lol:

 

Show Reply

fleascraper.jpg

Edited by Sk8man
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Sk8man said:

As the water temperature goes up they seem to rapidly multiply and we have had some very high ambient temps lately.

You should put one one or two of those little pests under a microscope. You will see that they clone themselves in warm weather. You can see the clones under the skin on their back. that is why they reproduce so fast. Once the water gets colder they will reproduce by mating. Then they die soon afterwards

AIS Spotlight - Spiny and Fishhook Waterflea » Fox-Wolf Watershed ...

 

If you look at the back of the little bugger, you can see a back spot. That is a cloned flea. It can clone itself at a very high rate with the offspring doing the same thing

Edited by rolmops
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too bad they couldn't be interrupted somehow before the mating occurs but given the size of water bodies most things would be impractical or cost prohibitive  i would imagine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran 40lb test ande line  clear.  Ended up cutting the line slippin em off then retieing.Still not as bad as Owasco was a couple weeks ago. I run mason 7 strand dipsey wire . The rod with silver wire did not collect as many fleas as the brown colored wire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/12/2020 at 12:47 PM, bulletbob said:

 Just one of the many curses brought upon the US by  "progress" and  world trade....  Yeah dumping ballast water from Eurasion ships was great thing for American waterways.. Fleas en mass  of various species, Zebras Quaggas, Gobies,  Asian Carp Asian Slime eels, Lampreys, hell even alewives, don't belong here,  but now we live with them...... bob

Asian carp, Asian eels and Lampreys did not come here in ballast water.  But I do agree with you on the others.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, GAMBLER said:

Asian carp, Asian eels and Lampreys did not come here in ballast water.  But I do agree with you on the others.  

 I realize that,, The carp and eels were stocked on purpose, alewives came here after the canal system was built, and lampreys might have come  through the canal system, or might even be native, there is no  real definitive  answer, and there are different opinions... However, my admittedly   overly generalized rant is still valid, this  nasty invasive   crap is ruining these lakes..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran 40lb test ande line  clear.  Ended up cutting the line slippin em off then retieing.Still not as bad as Owasco was a couple weeks ago. I run mason 7 strand dipsey wire . The rod with silver wire did not collect as many fleas as the brown colored wire.

I did the same cutting and retie was faster, till i realized if you take the lure off and slap the crap out of the rod and line on the water they come right off but it has to be violent...



Sent from my iPad using Lake Ontario United
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...