a fish activity question, looking for input

[chris.brock]

I know a lot of guys are more technical and pay more attention to the details than I do

 

We were walleye fishing this past Thursday and Saturday.

 

Thursday, for the evening shift, the bite turned on from 8:30 until 9:15. It was like somebody threw a switch. Nothing, then all boats on fire, then nothing until well into the night.

 

So we think we have it all figured out, and we will be on the water and ready for 8:30 Saturday. We hit the water, lines in the water at 7, the bites already on! Then, the switch is flicked off, and the bite is over by 7:20! oops,

 

With such obvious on and off activity, I tried to use my GPS activity feature, my fish watch, OOD fish and game chart, online activity stuff etc. to try to make a correlation. Nothing

 

I don't have a barometer

 

anybody got any insight? I know some guys keep detailed logs

[Old Ironmaker]

A school passed through and you were there when they did. You didn't mention species but I'm going to guess Pics. You can guess which way they are heading and follow them like some do here for perch on Erie, you need to be a good guesser or be really good with the electronics.

[Sinker]

Yep, coulda just passed thru at that time.

 

Last week my gf and I were trolling my usuual spot for eyes...nothing doing...and we always pick away at them. I was just going to pull the plug when bang..she hooks up...hers wasnt even in the boat and boom, I have one on. I marked a waypoint, spun around and before the lines were all the way out, she has another! Not a minute later I have one too. We made 3 passes thruu that spot in 30 mins and put 6 eyes in the boat, then nothing.

 

Ive tried that spot every time since, and havent even marked a fish.

 

Sometimes you just never know. Its what keeps me coming back!

 

The only sure thing is you wont catch 'em holding down the couch

 

S.

[Rod Caster]

My guess is that its all about their forage. They might be chasing schools of fish, shallow minnows, or cleaning up crayfish like a moving raid, moving spot to spot.

 

I've had several nights as you've described. Never really could figure it out and come up with useable patterns.

[OhioFisherman]

There is this area of mostly rocky bottom on Lake Erie here, about 8 miles long, I think the Smallies make their own milk run covering it. Sometimes you could get lucky and hit a spot you had caught them in the past and they would be there, if not you had to make a search.

 

Some days you could pull 15-30 pigs of a spot in a half hour, and then it was like they were never there.

 

Years back a buddy had got a new boat and wanted to try it out badly, so we drove up to Turtle Creek in Oak Harbor to launch, it was almost dark by the time we got in the water and every one else was leaving. The consensus of most seemed to be we wouldn't catch Walleyes on Lake Erie at night, by midnight we were heading back in with our limits.

 

I have fished lakes and ponds that had a very good night bite, on others you would think there were no fish.

[Consigliere]

What you're experiencing is a fish movement. Buck Perry covers this extensively in his books and teaching materials.

 

Once or twice on an average fishing day the fish will become active and be "on the bite". Many over the years have tried to figure out what triggers the movements and there are some correlations but it is not an exact thing.

 

The biggest factor impacting fish movement is weather conditions, specifically cold fronts.

 

Bucks material is a great read and very educational if you haven't read it. His methods are not easy for fishing but just the fish behavior and weather/water conditions education is worth it.

[mike rousseau]

The " fish calander" app

 

Went last night from 12am-330am.... App said the bite would be 2am-4am...

 

From 12-2 we worked hard for 3 walleye... From 2-3 we boated 4... The bite rate more then doubled... All on the same spot... Fishing the same way...