2009 Observations

[JohnF]

I haven't been out on the upper Thames much this year due to weather and work but I noticed a couple of things yesterday.

 

1. More green slime on the rocks than usual. Perhaps due to more field runoff raising phosphate levels?

 

2. More little minnows than last year, way more. My first thought was that this indicated fewer predators (bass) in the area but when we cleaned a couple of smb's I caught (my buddy likes them so I let him have mine if he isn't catching) he found them full of crayfish and very few minnows. I'm going to stock up on crayfish imitators now.

 

3. Fish sizes are up. The rock bass and smb's I'm getting are much bigger than last year's average. This may be partly to do with the fact that I've gone to somewhat larger lures but when I use the #1 sized Worden Red Rooster (or whatever it's called) I get little teeny critters 3" - 8" for the most part. In any case I'm not seeing the 10 -12" smb's that are the norm here. Does that mean that the last few year's hatch hasn't survived?

 

4. Bass are fussy this year, perhaps because of the increased forage. The old standby lures aren't working well for us. Rob's getting nothing on his tried and true Rapala floating minnow and plastic has done nothing for me. Well, that's not quite true. I got a pleasant surprise when I tied on a Storm Kickin' Minnow that I'd bought on a recommendation but forgot about until I was about ready to give up yesterday and thought "Why not?". First cast I hauled in a pretty little 16 incher, then promptly lost a couple right at my feet but close enuf to see that they bigger than the first. That's way bigger than our usual catch in the these pools. Then I caught a few more after the misses but all decent-sized compared to what we usually catch. Even got one of my biggest ever rock bass on it. The only other lure that caught anything for me was a chartreuse buzzbait burned right on the surface. I switched to a black buzzbait because of the dirty water but got nothing. That was the same pool that gave up the smallies to the Storm a few minutes later.

 

Anyway. Those are my observations from the Thames above St.Marys. Any of the rest of you noticed anything different this year.

 

JF

[bigugli]

The different weather, this summer, will affect fish behaviour, as will an abundance of feed.

There is another factor. You have specific go to lures ( red rooster, etc...) that you throw at the same pools. Over time, the fish will condition to not respond to that bait any longer and be more wary. A new bait, bigger, smaller, new colour. Give them something different. It is amazing what will work.

My fishing has been quite productive so far this year. I just keep doing things differently, and I always go out with a few options in the backpack.

[Twocoda]

Up to 2004 the fishing on lake huron (port albert up to pike bay) was better than great ...(for me anyways) although alot of boats were complaining of lack of fish and lack of bait ...i had noticed a huge decrease in the size of the fish ...and bait ...hmmmm... well it was almost impossible to find the big clouds on the screen as in previous years .....until last year when i was marking amazing amounts of bait ...clouds that i hadn't seen in many years...as for the fish they always seem to come to me regardless of the bait situation but their sizes were decreased terribly...last year there was a significant increase in fish sizes to indicate things were on the upswing..from 2005 to last year average size salmon was 6-7 pounds...a trophy fish was 10-13 pounds..( yes very small ) considering we used to catch 18 + pounders all day long and place them back as if they were nothing..The lakers are getting heavier by the minute it seems ..( fish Kincardine derby the winning trout was 22.52 laker...wow a brown for sure but a laker? ( almost unheard of on this lake ) but the salmon seem to be following suit with steady increase in fish size and availability ..average 13-15 pounds as of late ..this gives me hope that we are back on the path to the glory days of huge ass fish 30 + pounds..( time will tell)....there are so many theory's as to what happened since 04 but i like to believe with the thinning of the mussels from suppressing the bottom of the lake ...there is now access for the bait fish to flourish hence the increase in the salmon and laker size....

 

my fingers are crossed nothing else introduces itself to mess things up again

 

Just my observations and thoughts