Spiel

Indeed, gas augers don't exhaust under water. The noise and vibration transmitted by either gas or hand augers is the blades cutting through the ice. Gas would likely lessen the noise time as noted by Malcom. For the record I've never owned a gas auger.

LOL....I'd say. In fact I'd have Solo pick me up on his way if it were at all possible, alas it's not. That's some fine fish'n you have there Steve.

....That there is still something to be concerned about, those fuses don't generally blow for no reason.

....That there is certainly a problem. I believe it was Raf who said that different CO's have different views and/or interpretation's.

...Attaching a spinner makes it a lure which makes it legal.

....Lundboy, on a privately owned message forum you are not guaranteed freedom of speech. You are governed by the board rules you agreed to when you registered. If something you posted was possibly deleted whilst throwing out the trash repost it or suck it up!

Thanks Ben. Next time I get up that way I'll be sure to let you know.

....Well it won't be this winter but I have every intention of spending some time ice fishing up that way after retirement. If I remember correctly I drove past the exit to Lac Seul on my way to Vermillion Bay.

:D :D :D

...Gave me a good chuckle as well Lew. Normally I would have just deleted it but I thought I'd make it "joke of the day." Hopefully you'll get the kind of help you were truly seeking Cliff.

....You got my attention. How many kliks from Hamilton to Lac Seul......

....Amazing how the internet works.

....She's gonna be a special catch for some lucky guy one day.

Yep, used to get our share of ling as well, though I'm not sure the population of ling is too healthy in Simcoe these days?

....I used to ice fish Simcoe exclusively at night when I was younger. Used an operator out of Pefferlaw who was a family friend and he would have us set up in 30 to 35 fow. Always managed to get a mess of whities, perch and occasionally a laker using the ole style tip ups and shiners. On one occasion I had him take me and a friend out to one of his deep water huts for some night laker action and we scored jigging large (5") williams whitefish. The action isn't fast and furious but you can get 'em.

Goby population in Lake Michigan explodes Monday January 12, 2009 Jeff Alexander / lThe Muskegon Chronicle LUDINGTON -- A bug-eyed fish that snuck into the Great Lakes in the ballast tanks of ocean freighters two decades ago is now laying siege to Lake Michigan, according to new research data. The round goby population enjoyed a population explosion in 2008. The invasive species accounted for nearly one-quarter of all prey fish in the lake last year, by weight, according to data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center. "We're seeing a dramatic increase in gobies," said Chuck Madenjian, a research fishery biologist with the USGS. "Round gobies are now a substantial part of the total biomass of prey fish species ... we caught gobies in 300 feet of water." The estimated volume of gobies in the lake ballooned to 10 million pounds in 2008, Madenjian said. By comparison, the total weight of all other prey fish species in the lake last year was estimated at 46 million pounds. Gobies are thriving as populations of native prey fish species and alewife -- an invasive species that supports the artificial salmon fishery -- are decreasing. The volume of all prey fish species, excluding gobies, dropped 34 percent last year, according to USGS data. Prey fish abundance in the lake hit another record low last year, for the second straight year, and was down 95 percent from the record high tallied in 1989. Gobies are an undesirable species because they crowd out some native fish and eat their eggs. But some native fish species, especially smallmouth bass and walleye, feast on gobies. Madenjian told a group of charter boat captains at a Michigan Sea Grant fisheries workshop in Ludington Saturday that lake trout and salmon may acquire an appetite for gobies. Salmon imported to the Great Lakes in 1966 dine almost exclusively on alewife. The volume of alewives in the lake last year was down 30 percent from 2007, Madenjian said. The bleak assessment of the lake's prey fish population prompted one angler at the fisheries workshop to ask: "Should we sell our fishing boats?" Madenjian and other scientists at the meeting said there is no reason to panic over the lake's waning supply of prey fish. "Is this the beginning of the end of the food chain in Lake Michigan? I don't think so," Madenjian said. Some biologists believe gobies may become a major source of food for other fish in the lake, much in the way the alewife, another invasive species, supports the salmon fishery. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has slashed salmon stocking in the lake over the past decade to cope with the dwindling supply of alewives. Scientists at Saturday's conference said salmon will likely eat goby if the fish are hungry enough. Dan O'Keefe, an educator for the Michigan Sea Grant program, said he received a few reports last year of anglers finding dead gobies in the bellies of salmon they caught.

Alewife numbers are encouraging January 18, 2009 Kevin Naze / greenbaypressgazette.com It's a well-known fact that Green Bay and Lake Michigan offer some of the most incredible multi-species freshwater fisheries found anywhere on the planet. But when you move past the hundreds of miles of shoreline and go into the fish-filled waters, there are changes to the ecosystem that have many anglers concerned: populations of exotic invaders like quagga mussels and round gobies have exploded while many prey fish species — as well as the shrimp-like diporeia that provided a lot of food for young fish — have plummeted. While plenty of guides and charter captains are wondering what the future holds for an industry that attracts thousands of clients from across the country each year, biologists and scientists familiar with the ever-changing lake urge caution before jumping to conclusions that the fishery will crash. Even though quagga mussel mass is thought to far exceed the entire fish forage base, there are some encouraging signs. Fisheries biologists around the lake saw a slight improvement in body sizes for chinook salmon last fall, which suggests the stocking cutbacks in recent years may have helped. Additionally, while the fall lakewide bottom trawling transects by the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center showed a decline in alewife — the baitfish of choice for most salmon and trout — the acoustic survey showed a better than 220 percent increase in alewife numbers. Dave Warner, a research fishery biologist with the USGS Science Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., said the acoustic survey does a better job at finding fish still up in the water column, like young alewife, bloater (chubs) and smelt. The bottom trawl is best for larger and older alewife, bloater, gobies, sculpin, smelt and sticklebacks. Warner has also been researching the abundance of mysis, another important invertebrate that lives mostly in deep water and has a high fat content that helps fish grow. "Some of them can get to be an inch long, and you get a lot more bang for the buck if you're a fish," Warner said. While mysis have declined in some areas, Warner said he's been doing mysis surveys since 2005 and has found no change in lakewide abundance. "It's tough to say exactly how long it might take for something to make a drastic change in their abundance," Warner said. Twenty years ago, just before exotic mussels were discovered here, the prey fish population in Lake Michigan was estimated at more than 880 million pounds. Last year's estimate was 46 million pounds. By weight, round gobies accounted for more than 20 percent of all prey fish in the lake last year. Some species of fish — smallmouth bass, yellow perch, brown trout and whitefish, among others — are targeting and eating young gobies. Whitefish have been found with mussels in their stomachs as well, but they aren't putting a dent in the population. Researchers estimate there are more than 300 trillion quagga mussels on the lake bottom. Mussels have been linked to increased algae blooms that have fouled beaches and to disease outbreaks that have killed thousands of fish-eating birds and countless fish species. Randy Claramunt, a Michigan DNR fisheries biologist at Charlevoix, said early indications are that natural reproduction of chinook salmon on the Michigan side of the lake have decreased about 20 percent from earlier this decade. He believes it may be because female chinooks in recent years were smaller and more stressed. Still, Claramunt said a lakewide study estimated that about 53 percent of the young chinooks in 2007 was naturally reproduced. Data is not available yet for 2008. "With the 25 percent lakewide salmon stocking cut and natural reproduction down, you're going to see a decent decline in (salmon) abundance, which is what managers wanted," Claramunt said. "We might expect that the fish will get bigger, but catch rates (in 2008) went down." Warner said the 2005 alewife year class was fairly strong, and has some larger individuals that could have spawned last year. The 2007 year class was the one that led to the big increase in the acoustic biomass estimate. How they survive could have a big impact on the future of the fishery. "We don't have as many of the old and big alewife as we used to," Warner said.

Study: More species invasions expected January 20th, 2009 / Muskegon Chronicle Dozens more foreign species could spread across the Great Lakes in coming years and cause significant damage to the environment and economy, despite policies designed to keep them out, a federal report says. The National Center for Environmental Assessment issued the warning in a study released last week. It identified 30 nonnative species that pose a medium or high risk of reaching the lakes and 28 others that already have a foothold and could disperse widely. Among them are fish such as the tench (”doctor fish”), the monkey goby and the blueback herring. “These findings support the need for detection and monitoring efforts at those ports believed to be at greatest risk,” the report said. It described some of the region’s busiest ports as strong potential targets for invaders, including: Toledo, Ohio; Gary, Ind.; Duluth, Minn.; Superior, Wis.; Chicago; and Milwaukee. Exotic species are one of the biggest ecological threats to the nation’s largest surface freshwater system. At least 185 are known to have a presence in the Great Lakes, although the report says just 13 have done extensive harm to the aquatic environment and the regional economy. Many of the most destructive invasive species — including quagga mussels and the round goby — are abundant in Lake Michigan and connecting waterways, such as Muskegon Lake. One of the most recent discoveries of a Great Lakes invader occurred in Muskegon Lake. Anglers in 2006 found thousands of hemimysis anomala, bloody red shrimp, swimming in the Muskegon Lake channel to Lake Michigan. Perhaps the most notorious invaders imported to the lakes by transoceanic ships are zebra and quagga mussels. Zebra mussels have clogged intake pipes of power plants, industrial facilities and public water systems, forcing them to spend hundreds of millions on cleanup and repairs. Zebra and quagga mussels filter huge quantities of plankton out of the water column, reducing the amount of food available for Great Lakes fish. The result: Whitefish and chinook salmon have been shrinking in recent years, according to government data. Roughly two-thirds of the new arrivals since 1960 are believed to have hitched a ride to the lakes inside ballast tanks of cargo ships from overseas ports. For nearly two decades, U.S. and Canadian agencies have required some oceangoing freighters to exchange their fresh ballast water with salty ocean water before entering the Great Lakes system. Both nations recently ordered all freighters to rinse empty tanks with seawater in hopes of killing organisms lurking in residual pools on the bottom. Despite such measures, “it is likely that nonindigenous species will continue to arrive in the Great Lakes,” said the report by the national center, which is part of the Environmental Protection Agency. Some saltwater-tolerant species may survive ballast water exchange and tank flushing, it said. And aquatic invaders could find other pathways to the lakes — perhaps escaping from fish farms or being released from aquariums. The U.S. Coast Guard and Congress have yet to develop ballast water treatment standards for transoceanic ships entering the lakes, despite years of debate on the issue. Scientists fear the monkey goby might be one of the next Great Lakes invaders. The National Center for Environmental Assessment conducted computer modeling studies of nine foreign species that could reach the Great Lakes or are already there and might spread to the point of causing ecological and environmental damage. Among them: - Blueback herring. - Sand goby. - Roach, a fish common in northern Europe. - Rudd, a Eurasian fish brought to U.S. as bait. - Cercopagis pengoi, or fishhook waterflea. - Tench, or “doctor fish.” - Tubenose goby. - Corophium curvispinum, an amphipod or crustacean. - Monkey goby.

Sex smell lures ‘vampire’ to doom January 21st, 2009 Richard Black / BBC News A synthetic “chemical sex smell” could help rid North America’s Great Lakes of a devastating pest, scientists say. US researchers deployed a laboratory version of a male sea lamprey pheromone to trick ovulating females into swimming upstream into traps. The sea lamprey, sometimes dubbed the “vampire fish”, has parasitised native species of the Great Lakes since its accidental introduction in the 1800s. The work is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Great Lakes on the US-Canada border support recreational fishing worth billions of dollars a year, which the lampreys would wreck but for a control programme costing about $20m annually. This is thought to be the first time that pheromones have been shown to be the basis of a possible way of controlling animal pests other than insects. “There’s been extensive study of pheromones in animals and even in humans,” said lead researcher Weiming Li from Michigan State University in East Lansing, US. “But most researchers have presumed that as animals get more complex, their behaviour is regulated in a more complex way, not by just one pheromone,” he told BBC News. Professor Li’s team released the synthetic version of a lamprey hormone from a trap placed in a stream where lampreys come to breed. Females scenting it would swim vigorously upstream until they found the source, some becoming trapped in the process. Death wish The sea lamprey’s natural life cycle takes it from birth in a stream to adulthood in the ocean, where it gains its vampirical appellation. Circular jaws lock on to another, larger fish, and a sharp tongue carves through its scales. From then on the lamprey feeds on the blood and body fluids of its temporary host, often killing it in the process. Eventually, the satiated lampreys - both males and females - find a suitable stream to swim up, breed and die. Unlike salmon, which seek out the stream they were born in, lampreys appear willing to take any stream indicating a suitable breeding place; and perhaps pheromones play a role in identifying streams worth selecting. In their native Atlantic Ocean, their numbers are controlled by predation; but in the Great Lakes they have no predators. They first appeared in the 1800s after completion of the Erie Canal linking the lakes to New York. Colonisation was completed a century later when other canals provided unfettered access to the upper lakes. What followed was decimation of native fish. “It was one of the worst things to hit the Great Lakes in the history of European settlement,” said Marc Gaden from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), the body responsible for controlling the lamprey problem. “Before it, we had a thriving fishery largely dependent on native fish such as the lake trout… but by 1940 they had colonised thousands of streams and fishermen were beginning to see the devastation.” Getting fresh Many fish can survive only in fresh water or only in the oceans - or, like salmon, have a set migration between the two - but the lamprey appears to have thrived on its move from the saline Atlantic to the fresh environs of the five lakes. Each individual devours a total weight of up to 20kg of trout or other host fish during its parasitic lifetime. The GLFC has established a complex set of control measures, including dusting the streams with pesticides specific to the lamprey, building barriers to block their upstream migration, and releasing sterile males to reduce breeding. “Why we’re so enthusiastic about the pheromone work is that we see it as another tool in the arsenal,” said Dr Gaden. “We see it as away of tricking these spawning lampreys, and then you can do things to manipulate their behaviour in ways that would work against them - for example you could lure them into streams without suitable spawning habitat, or just into traps.” Professor Li’s team is now planning a larger experiment, using the pheromone to trap female lampreys in 20 streams feeding into the lakes, which will take three years to complete.

Goodenow finds plentiful perch January 18, 2008 Will Elliott / buffalonews.com There is always some new thing under the sun when it comes to learning about what goes on under the ice. A chance meeting with Silver Lake ice-fishing devotee Warren Goodenow last week led to some interesting observations too numerous to shoehorn into the shag end of last week’s ice-fishing summation. A 14-pound walleye and better numbers of keeper-sized perch from Lake Simcoe were both good news. Invariably, reports about each day on the ice unfold differently, and — despite extensive study and decades of field experience — some new things come along well worth learning and doing. When longtime friend and fellow fishing fanatic George Dovolos introduced me to Goodenow, it was obvious that Goodenow was a good guy for ice-angling info. We had an open field out there for ice options that morning, with good bluegill along the shoreline and some nice perch prospects out over depths of 30 feet or more at mid-lake near Mack’s Boat Livery. Dovolos deferred to Goodenow and we headed out to the deeps to pick on the perch. Out there, we met up with Dick Wolfer from Fillmore, another regular with a bountiful bucket of perch paraphernalia — and a few nice perch in the pail to prove it. This threesome hits the ice every hour possible and works shallow and deep to get over sizable schools of sizable fish. On this day, they keyed on perch, and I had the good fortune to fish amid this triangulated trio. While I have the right auger, snow sled, all-weather suit and a bucket full of stubby ice rods with all kinds of lures likely to allure fish at Chautauqua or Simcoe, Goodenow immediately took me under his tutelage and handed me his version of an ice rod. Nearby, Wolfer and Dovolos kept pulling reams of runts and an occasional bucket-worthy perch. Goodenow wanted me to see exactly what was going on down there. I didn’t have to bring out a sonar device. He had me use his newer model of a Vexilar flasher rig. “Underwater cameras are nice for looking at fish, but you can follow their moods,” Goodenow said as he set up the program to show on a circular screen both the overall depth and a zoom-in view of depths just off bottom. Videos and graph-screen models work well for viewing fish movement, but this Vexilar, a unit that’s been on the market for at least a decade, offers the classic flasher-screen program of a Lowrance “Green Box” and the modern technology of sensitivity and target distinction under the water/ ice surface. All this is important because Goodenow plans all his approaches with small and light baits. “I like to use ‘plastics’ [rubber/vinyl jig bodies and tails] on small heads,” he said as he opened one pocket-sized lure holder he estimated to hold $200 in small, specialized ice jigs. The lot probably didn’t have one head weighing more than zounce. Every ice angler knows the difficulty of getting to the bottom and then feeling the lure hit bottom in deeper water. While I was using his sonar unit, Goodenow began fishing a circle of holes he had drilled with a battery-powered DeWalt drill he fitted with an open chuck that could lock onto a 4-inch ice auger. Even cooler was his skill at reaching bottom with his light jigs — he switched us to 1-pound test line when the fish stopped biting –and picking just the right tap or hang on the line to set a hook into the bigger ringbacks out there. “I like to experiment with colors, shapes and sizes,” the 47-year veteran ice angler said as we tried to dodge the runts and set hooks on bigger perch. I sat there looking at a sonar screen that showed me when a fish was swimming by, when it was chasing my lure upward, and the relative size of the prey. But Goodenow got into the bigger perch along with the reams of runts that held on the sonar screen throughout the mid afternoon. “I’m getting the bigger fish when jigging high off the bottom,” he said while lifting overhead to tease another big one. This scene gets repeated on every good perch lake and bay every ice season. Goodenow’s array of light-tackle gear — rods, reels, lines and mini baits — would be good on lakes such as Chautauqua, Simcoe, Honeoye, Erie or in bays such as Braddock, Sodus or Irondequoit. Goodenow willingly shares his success “secrets” that have placed him high in regional and national ice-fishing tourneys. This year, as a member of Avon Anglers, he helps in coordinating five ice contests on area lakes. For details, visit avonanglers. com.

Genz on the move to promote ice fishing January 18, 2009 Dennis Anderson / MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE MINNEAPOLIS — The other evening, Dave Genz put a lot of miles between him and his home in St. Cloud, Minn., driving eastbound on Interstate Hwy. 94 through central Wisconsin, with a thousand miles or more of blacktop lying ahead. Genz — ice fishing’s pied piper — was loaded down with a van full of winter-fishing gear. He was driving to Vermont, with a trailer and snowmobile following behind. Until March, Genz will meet in back rooms of VFW halls, Holiday Inns and at sporting goods stores throughout New England, and also in Michigan and Indiana — just about anywhere he can gather a crowd of people wanting to learn more about how to fish through the ice. “In winter,” Genz said, “I go looking for people to talk to.” Advancing his arrival will be posters and announcements in retailers’ windows, on lampposts and on the Internet. “I don’t charge admission,” he said. At 61, Genz still sits atop the ice fishing world, a perch he has occupied for more than a decade. Most noted for propelling the portable fishing house to the forefront of the winter angling scene, he also makes his living developing winter fishing lures and, especially, promoting ice fishing on behalf of a bevy of specialty manufacturers. “I’ll also fish while I’m in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine,” Genz said. “I can give a much better seminar when I’m familiar with the local fishing.” Genz considers the East Coast a virgin market for winter fishing. Anglers there haven’t taken as quickly to the many equipment-and fishing-technique changes that have swept across Wisconsin and, especially, Minnesota the past 15 years. These include portable fishing shelters, depth finders and fish locators, global positioning systems, high-speed augers with laser-sharpened blades, graphite rods and smooth-spooling reels, colored live baits, specialty lures and lines. Each has contributed to a winter fishing revolution in which Genz has played a pivotal role. “Mobility is a big part of it,” he said. “Ice fishermen aren’t content to sit in one spot anymore. You have to be able to move to a new spot to find fish. We call it trolling through the ice. We’re not content to sit in one place anymore and wait for the sun to go down to catch fish.” Though portable ice fishing houses are commonplace back east, many anglers there are more likely to spread out a handful of tip-ups, rather than using a flasher to look for fish through the ice, then move until fish are found. Genz gets paid to preach the gospel about the benefits of using modern ice-fishing electronics, especially flashers. “Lures we design today for ice fishing typically have large surface areas so the signal from flashers bounces off them readily,” he said. “That way it’s easier to see how far down your lure is at any given time, and you’re able to put the lure nearer to the fish.” It’s been about 20 years since Genz quit his job and struck out on his own, intending to make fish and fishing his livelihood. Until then, he had dabbled in the ice-fishing business, selling portable canvas ice fishing houses and imported Eurolarvae out of his garage. He hit pay dirt when he licensed a portable ice fishing house to a company that paid him a royalty for each unit sold. Clam Corp. now owns the rights to that shelter, and Genz is part of Clam’s development team. “One of the big changes in portable houses now is insulation,” he said. “We have one model of Fish Trap houses that is insulated, and it requires significantly less heat to keep it a whole lot warmer. Also, in real cold weather, it doesn’t freeze up inside and create condensation.” Still more innovations are coming to ice fishing, Genz believes. “As new types of batteries develop, new electric- powered products will be brought on the market,” he said. “Already we have LED lights for portable houses. Electric augers will become more popular. Also, heated clothing, including socks and vests. Heated coolers to keep beverages from freezing in winter. And winter fishing rods with heated handles.” Genz says he won’t stop promoting the sport he loves any time soon. “I’m not doing anything I care to retire from,” he said.

Use caution out on ice 3 Indiana fishermen lost their lives last weekend Sunday January 18, 2009 Steve Pollick / toledoblade.com The ice fishing season barely has begun in these latitudes, but the warning flags already are flying over dangerous and deadly moves by fishermen. At midweek local fire and law enforcement authorities, backed up by a coast guard helicopter from Detroit, ordered three fishermen off ice near Catawba State Park on western Lake Erie northeast of Port Clinton because of erratic ice conditions. The men, who were unidentified, returned to shore safely with their gear, but the season had recorded its first ice fishing incident. Last weekend three men died in separate incidents on two northern Indiana lakes. Two died Sunday evening when their snowmobiles broke through ice on Sylvan Lake, and a third man died Saturday when his ice boat overturned, broke through the ice and entered the waters of Lake Maxinkuckee, authorities said. As a result, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued is annual warnings about exercising extreme caution when venturing out, the golden rule for which is there is no such thing as safe ice. The department has surveyed various information resources and offers the following ice safety tips, with additional advice available at ohiodnr.com. - Always remember that ice-covered water is never completely safe. - Anyone new to ice fishing, or interested in learning how to safely ice fish, should seek out a licensed ice-fishing guide. A list of certified guides is available at ohiodnr.com or by calling the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Sandusky office at 419-625-8062. In addition, inquire at local bait shops about areas of potentially thin or dangerous ice. - Always fish with friends, and inform others about when you will be on the ice, where and when you will return. - If possible, take with you a cell-phone sealed in a plastic bag. - Wear a coast guard-approved life jacket or float coat. Life vests provide excellent flotation and protection from hypothermia. - Use safe alternatives to local streams or lakes for skating or sledding. For example, Dillon State Park in Muskingum County offers free access to a designated ice-skating area. Check with local, state or metropark about where conditions are suitable for skating. - Know that wind-chill factors are relative thermal guides. Although a thermometer may read 40 degrees, a wind speed of 20 miles per hour can cause a body to lose heat as if the temperature were actually 18 degrees. - Carry two ice picks, screwdrivers or large nails to create leverage for pulling yourself out of the water. Secure them onto the ends of a strong cord and drape the cord around the neck of your outerwear for instant access. They are much more effective than bare hands for self-rescue. Also, carry a whistle or other noisemaker to alert others if you are in distress. - Dress in layers and add extra clothing for the head, neck, sides and groin, which are the primary heat-loss areas. Wool and modern synthetics are good fabric choices for clothing. Cotton is slow to dry. - Keep an extra set of clothes in your car - or along with your gear sled - sealed in a plastic bag, in case you do need dry clothing. - Avoid alcoholic beverages. In addition to reducing reaction times, alcohol lowers your internal temperature and increases the chances of suffering hypothermia. - Never drive a vehicle, snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle onto ice. Leave this to professional guides. Doing so is extremely dangerous, and most insurance policies will not cover the vehicles of ice fishermen that have dropped through the ice.

....Soweeeeeet. Butt please try and limit your hole shots to one.

....Way cool Bernie. I been thinking bout getting a negative scanner (I have quite a number of negatives), did you enhance those pictures or is that exactly how they scanned?