What’s with all the dead sunfish?

[Tjames09]

Buckhorn is just floating dead sunfish everywhere. What causes that?

[OhioFisherman]

Seems odd to me, they seem almost as tough as carp to me.

[Garfisher]

Getting amped up for/during the spawn and sudden water temp changes can overwhelm them and cause some dieoff to occur

[AKRISONER]

Happens every year, the spawn does a number on panfish. Why the die off is so noticeable on those lakes is because the size of the panfish is substantial while the number of predators that eat them is low. The population and size of panfish in the tri lakes is absurd. There’s not many lakes with such an insane average size almost anywhere. You don’t see it as much in lakes with pike because they clean most of those up for you. I’ve always said that it’s a shame that the bass genetics in those lakes doesn’t allow for too many sunfish/bluegill eaters to exist. The biomass is there but the bass just aren’t big enough to be constantly chomping on those 8 inch dinner plate sunfish. 
 

it’s actually always shocked me that the musky don’t get even bigger chomping on them but I’m pretty certain 1. Sunfish aren’t as fatty as whitefish etc. and 2. I think they might be hard for muskys to hunt because they are fast and agile.

Edited June 10, 2020 by AKRISONER

[fisherman7]

There's lot of perch and some rock bass too!

Edited June 10, 2020 by fisherman7

[OhioFisherman]

3 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Happens every year, the spawn does a number on panfish. Why the die off is so noticeable on those lakes is because the size of the panfish is substantial while the number of predators that eat them is low. The population and size of panfish in the tri lakes is absurd. There’s not many lakes with such an insane average size almost anywhere. You don’t see it as much in lakes with pike because they clean most of those up for you. I’ve always said that it’s a shame that the bass genetics in those lakes doesn’t allow for too many sunfish/bluegill eaters to exist. The biomass is there but the bass just aren’t big enough to be constantly chomping on those 8 inch dinner plate sunfish. 
 

it’s actually always shocked me that the musky don’t get even bigger chomping on them but I’m pretty certain 1. Sunfish aren’t as fatty as whitefish etc. and 2. I think they might be hard for muskys to hunt because they are fast and agile.

Those fish with sharp spines on their fins are a challenge for other fish to eat and the shape of a bluegill over that of a perch makes it more of a problem. I have found fish struggling with a perch or bluegill stuck in their throats by those spiny fins.

[misfish]

20 minutes ago, OhioFisherman said:

Those fish with sharp spines on their fins are a challenge for other fish to eat and the shape of a bluegill over that of a perch makes it more of a problem. I have found fish struggling with a perch or bluegill stuck in their throats by those spiny fins.

Have caught lakers with perch in their bellies and gullets. They do not seem to mind them, why would a musky? Maybe they are pussy cats after all . LOL

[AKRISONER]

3 hours ago, misfish said:

Have caught lakers with perch in their bellies and gullets. They do not seem to mind them, why would a musky? Maybe they are pussy cats after all . LOL

I have definitely gutted a few pike absolutely chocked full of small perch! They probably go down a lot easier than a big wide bluegill though!

[OhioFisherman]

7 hours ago, misfish said:

Have caught lakers with perch in their bellies and gullets. They do not seem to mind them, why would a musky? Maybe they are pussy cats after all . LOL

Brian, I caught a Steelhead with a small perch in it's belly om Erie, the other 20+ fish it had eaten were Emerald Shiners and Shad, not saying it can't happen, just better choices? I have used small bluegill = sunfish for bait here, almost any type of minnow will get hit a lot quicker though. I saw a 20ish inch bass at PAB one time that a muskie had grabbed while the guy was bringing it in, torn up from the gills back, a very big ski?

[AKRISONER]

12 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

Brian, I caught a Steelhead with a small perch in it's belly om Erie, the other 20+ fish it had eaten were Emerald Shiners and Shad, not saying it can't happen, just better choices? I have used small bluegill = sunfish for bait here, almost any type of minnow will get hit a lot quicker though. I saw a 20ish inch bass at PAB one time that a muskie had grabbed while the guy was bringing it in, torn up from the gills back, a very big ski?

i cant count the number of times Pike have tboned small smallmouth and walleye on me lol.

One time while jiggin walleye my buddy hooked into a perch and purposely fought it for a long time just to see if a pike would hit it and then it actually happened. The funniest bit was the timing...the MNR literally pulled up on him as it happened ahhaha. There was no problem but it was hilarious because you cant legally use perch as bait.

[OhioFisherman]

41 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

i cant count the number of times Pike have tboned small smallmouth and walleye on me lol.

One time while jiggin walleye my buddy hooked into a perch and purposely fought it for a long time just to see if a pike would hit it and then it actually happened. The funniest bit was the timing...the MNR literally pulled up on him as it happened ahhaha. There was no problem but it was hilarious because you cant legally use perch as bait.

Well it's been 30 years or more since I have been up to PAB, i know the laws on Perch for bait have changed, they used to be legal up to the first dam = barrier. It was common to see people using them, we could also set our own minnow trap and use nets to catch them.

Caught a lot of fish 99.9 % pike on perch, I do recall catching a 6-8 pound bowfin on one there. My buddy always went with our family up there, he caught like 5 pike in a row slow rolling a perch, LOL it was slowing rolling in the water on his retrieve, didn't matter to the pike though, none were very big 4=6 pounds maybe.

Had tough bite trips up there, live bait saved trips at least from being blanked, other trips it wasn't needed much.

A blast from the past, same time period for me, I may have used them before him, I still have some around here somewhere. Had very good days throwing them at the pointe.

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by OhioFisherman

[AKRISONER]

without a doubt a buzzbait would be deadly for early spring pike. Theres usually a time in the spring that happens every year where the big pike are cruising shallow and slow rolled surface baits gets them fired up. We had such strange weather here this year that the bite went from being so cold that I couldnt get anything going because the fish were still wintering, to the water being so hot that the fish just moved the heck out. I honestly didnt get a consistent bite going until last weekend for the first time this year! Even then the biggest fish had already seemed to have moved off into their summer patterns for the most part. What a strange strange year...I have absolutely no clue what the smallmouth are going to be doing on opener. I imagine its going to be July off edge stuff this year vs the typical super shallow really funny top water stuff that ive grown accustomed to on opener. I imagine the mid day shallow sand flats bite will be gone by the time opener hits in zone 14. A shame because last year it was a riot throwing chatterbaits across 4 foot sand bays and just hammering huge smallmouth and even more strange big 5+lb walleye as well. How is that for a pattern though? Walleye in <5fow on at noon on bluebird sunny days on chatterbaits!

Edited June 11, 2020 by AKRISONER