OhioFisherman

If you were using a jig and minnow it seems strange it wasn't taken by a walleye feeding on minnows? The jig is just basically a weight? especially at night?

Don't get me wrong I have no issues with improving safety other than the fact that with today's and future technology it could price some people out of the market of a sport they enjoy but not at significant price. Options aren't a bad thing if you can afford them? Yes, spent a lot of days on Lake Erie and other lakes in early April, May, October, November when the water wasn't 60 degrees, even that temp can be a killer.

A PFD is certainly cheaper than an electric trolling moor with spot lock?

Grim, things like this are tragic, even more so if you know the person, but just use cars for an example, there is no way to make them 100% safe? At this stage no one is sure of what happened and we may never know exactly what went wrong?

" When officers arrived at the scene on Thursday, they found a five metre-long aluminum fishing boat with its trolling engine still running, a police inspector said. " If your main motor or a gas trolling motor are still running would spot lock on an electric trolling motor help?

Brian, I never fished deeper than about 25 feet for bass, but going back to my youth and perch fishing days, deep caught ones could have the air bladder showing in their gullet, so I assume it happens to bass to, a search turned up this, sort of bad sound on the first one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA It seems fitting.

"Average age and size of walleye in Ontario" hmmm? A 25 inch 10+ pound walleye? They must have been a lot fatter in the old days?

Age (years) Av. Length (in) Average Weight (lbs) 2 7.4 3 oz 3 10.6 10 oz 4 12.3 1 lb 6 15.3 2 lb. 3oz. 8 20.3 4 lb. 14oz. 12 24.1 8lb 14oz. 13 25.1 10lb 12oz.

Just because I think it beats rap.

LOL, I couldn't identify them on that either, that appears to be a school of small fish, species unknown. The emerald shiners here get into schools that are huge, they can be all along the breakwalls and piers just below the surface and are visible. That's a good distance north east of me, but the same deal on the parts of Erie I fished. I saw schools of baitfish at PAB years ago, but never anything of that size, and they seemed deeper in the body than emerald shiners. Figured out a pattern? Great!

Hope he is OK, it's been a bad year on Erie here.

Lucky you got out before the weekend? The forecast here doesn't look good for late Saturday thru Monday, 40 mile an hour winds and up to 7 inches of rain.

Akri, any idea what the baitfish were? I can't recall ever seeing the huge schools of emerald shiners up there that we see on Erie.

Nice! just tell her you did the hardest part, finding them, the reeling part is less work!

Canuck, just guessing with a sturgeon's mouth being on the bottom of their face that bottom dwelling fish like gobies would be a prime meal for them? Aren't sturgeon typically bottom dwellers? Gil, when I was very young I remember my dad talking about ice fishing for burbot " lawyers " at a place about 50 miles east of Cleveland, I don't know of anyone that has caught them recently. I was surprised to see them in the diving videos, most people I know don't bottom fish in those kind of depths though.

Mike, I also watched a few videos of people diving ship wrecks on Lake Erie, burbot are still around!

I turned 7 in 1958, same age bracket, ya dad's tackle box of that era, june bug spinners and flatfish, perch rigs and spreaders.

Mike, I have never seen one in the wild myself. There has been a few news reports over the years here of an occasional catch, but very few and very far between. I watched a video earlier this year of Mark Zona and Jordan Lee fishing Lake St. Clair, Jordan hooked one the estimated to be around 100 pounds, he played it for a long time but lost it.

http://www.striperspace.com/freshwater_stripers.html Evidently they can spawn successfully if the right conditions are present.

https://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/fizzing-fish-step-step-how The club I fished with had a tournament on Sandusky Bay one year and we limited ourselves to the bay itself. There was a much larger tournament going on at the same time from the same city ramp, they had no limits on their area and most made the run out to the deeper Lake Erie waters. We were coming back to the ramp shortly after their weigh in was finished and noticed seagulls floating around pecking on fish struggling on the surface, it was the smallies from their weigh in, and a lot were in the 4-5 pound range, it was a sick sight!

Bends Mender Deflator Needle That may give you a name to look for? And this? Fish Life Fizz Needles 2pk

Glad it went well for you! I remember a couple new to me lakes I never did figure out.

https://www.toledozoo.org/pressreleases/083018sturgeon Hope that works out! They might need more than 3000 though?