Spiel

It's time for ice fishing, but be careful Friday, January 23, 2009 Steve Pollick / toledoblade.com The western Lake Erie ice fishing season has gotten under way in a limited way as continued cold and light-wind conditions allow ice to build. So far activity has focused one to three miles off Catawba Island State Park, northeast of Port Clinton, and near Green Island off the west side of South Bass Island. As always, anglers are warned to beware of treacherous conditions because of isolated areas of poor ice. The Ohio Division of Wildlife recommends checking with local ice fishing guides and bait shops before heading out on any given day because conditions can change with little notice. Winds can open or widen cracks in ice sheets and current below can eat away at the thickness of ice, causing thin sections that may not seem so from the surface. At mid week ice did not appear fishable off Crane Creek near Davis-Besse, according to Travis Hartman, a biologist at the state's Lake Erie station at Sandusky. He said that an airboat party reported taking fish west of A-Can this week, but it broke through in some areas. A list of licensed ice guides is available at the Sandusky station by calling 419-625-8062, or visit on-line at ohiodnr.com. Rick Ferguson has opened Al Szuch Live Bait on Corduroy Road for the ice season, and reports anglers off Catawba taking walleye on Do-Jiggers and Swedish Pimples, dressed with minnows. He said that airboats tried working off Cooley Canal earlier this week but found the ice unstable with too many breakthroughs. Dick Knitz has taken over operation of the former Zunk's Bait on State Rt. 2, having moved the operation next door from the Zunk shop. For now Dick's Bait will be open weekends. Call 419-972-4002. Big-water ice fishing action for yellow perch, panfish and walleye also is under way at Mitchell's Bay on the Ontario side of Lake St. Clair, according to the folks at Bass Haven there. Call 519-354-4242 or visit on-line at basshavencanada.com.

Walleye fans keep organizations afloat January 25, 2009 Will Elliott / buffalonews.com Lake Erie’s walleye fishing was good and getting better when Bud Riser of Walleye International chartered the New York Walleye Association (NYWA) in 1980. Three years later, the Southtowns Walleye Association formed. For more than a quarter century, the efforts of dedicated members of these two clubs have made the Western New York walleye fishery an ’eye-catching enjoyment. The history of the two clubs shows how hard work — on and off the water — results in continued fishery success, fellowship and just plain fun. NY Walleye Association Walleye Magazine and Walleye International editor-founder Riser, a Cleveland-area angler and charter boater, knew the potential for walleye clubs along the Lake Erie shoreline. While an exhibitor at outdoors shows in the Buffalo Convention Center each spring during the 1970s, Riser often chatted with local fishing experts. Area anglers such as Doug Hurtubise, Herb Schultz, Joe Fischer and legions of other regulars shared their interests and concerns such as tackle tips and tricks, fishery management issues, and public service programs to promote and sustain the ’eye fishery. “The first club met at various locations around North Buffalo and on Grand Island, but the group we now know as New York Walleye Association (NYWA) got into high gear when it began meeting at the George Washington [Fishing and Camping] Club on Niagara Street,” recalls Fischer, founding member of the NYWA and currently serving on the Erie County Fisheries Advisory Board. The George Washington club recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and members of both clubs shared their expertise with both fish-catching techniques and group organizational skills. NYWA members began setting up tournaments, kids and family fishing events, and fundraising programs to further their functions. Hurtubise led lively discussions and brought to meetings area fishing experts and political leaders. Like fishing outcomes from year to year, NYWA had its ups, downs and so-so results over the years, but the contests, kids events, social gatherings and fishery issues remain core concerns for its current membership. During the NYWA monthly meeting Jan. 6, new leaders were elected and two long-standing officers stepped down after more than a decade of service. Jim Borucki, an active member for nearly 20 years, served as NYWA president for 14 years. During his tenure, club activities and accounting records improved. The club, which now meets at the American Legion Post on Amherst Street on the first Tuesday of each month, holds its Amara-Can Tournament, Kids Fishing Days, fundraisers and in-club tournaments efficiently and successfully. Much of the success of those events was the result of continuous effort from George and Betty Boice. Throughout Borucki’s 14 leadership years, the Boices were there for planning, set-ups, event service, and often did the take-down, cleanup and record- keeping chores. Borucki also thanked MaryAnn Filsinger for her organized and accurate record-keeping throughout the years. Newly elected President Bob Zoeller looks forward to restoring the membership base and public involvements of NYWA to its earlier years when he and his late father, Gordon Zoeller, first joined the club. Southtowns Walleye Assn. Well-strung nets work to bring together schools of worthwhile fish. To many observers, gill nets were the issue that strung together a school of worthy workers and friends who eventually became the Southtowns Walleye Association (SWA). While Hurtubise, Fischer, Jack Tessier, Mel Buttici, Hamilton “Skip” Earnst and other NYWA officers worked on issues in general and other “Northtowns” concerns, a core of anglers such as Schultz, Ed Soda and others from Hamburg and the south side of Buffalo began looking at immediate issues for that area. Of greatest concern was the issue of commercial gill netting, especially walleye stocks, which could be depleted and irreparably harmed if gill netting continued in eastern basin waters of Lake Erie. Shultz, Soda and scores of other anglers in the Southtowns formed a committee and began meeting around town and eventually in the offices of Assemblyman Fran Pordum. Pordum had a hard time explaining gill nets to legislators in Albany. “I sometimes had to explain to colleagues what a walleye is,” Pordum said years after the state finally passed gill-net ban legislation. As a result of this single-issue effort, and the fantastic walleye fishing found from Buffalo to Barcelona along the New York shoreline, the Southtowns Walleye Association formally chartered in 1983. Over the years, distinguished members such as Soda, Schultz, Jim Leonard, Joe Jemiolo and Tom Marks served as SWA president. David “Woody” Woodworth holds the office now. Woodworth promises big things in SWA’s Annual Tournament to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary. To check out this tourney and all club activities, make a visit to southtownswalleye.org.

....I would help you if I could, except I'm not familiar with the east side of Simcoe. I'm sure someone here can steer you in the right direction.

....Looks like I missed another great weekend. We'll get it done yet Gerritt, next year!

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.