nice lakers from the weekend

[steverowbotham]

Got out for a day on the weekend to smack some lakers.  Slow day overall, but managed a few nice ones.  Every fish caught on the vibrato this time.

 

[misfish]

Steve nice fish. Can you explain why they seem so dark ? The ones we get in open water are almost silver compared to those. Im thinking it,s where you are fishing and their diet. Yes/no ?

[AKRISONER]

glad to see you had more luck than i did with your buddies out there...who knows maybe ill run into ya some day out there.

[steverowbotham]

On 1/18/2018 at 12:24 PM, misfish said:

Steve nice fish. Can you explain why they seem so dark ? The ones we get in open water are almost silver compared to those. Im thinking it,s where you are fishing and their diet. Yes/no ?

Hard to say for sure, but I find a significant amount of darker fish in shallow water, so I have to believe that that has a lot to do with it.  Diet, sun exposure among many factors.

[maker a laker]

Guys,

Catch lakers from May through Sept on open water, with lots of photos to compare colours over the years, you see a definite trend. In summer and fall fish are 50-65ft down in Northern Ontario lakes, they are almost black when they come up from the dark depths. After 15-30 mins on the stringer in Sept with 50F water, they change from coal black to light grey in colour.  We keep our eaters and limit in a fish cage 10 feet down when water is 50F spring and fall. They live for 3-4 day trip. Black fish as caught are light grey when we clean them.

They change shades/colours to match their surroundings over a period of 10-15 mins.

Edited January 30, 2018 by maker a laker