Sabrespace Rod and Gun Club

[hsif]

17 hours ago, jsb said:

I'm going to have to stop by here more often, I notice in the last few posts you do mostly fresh water fishing. I'm trying to remember but it's been a long time since I fly-fished or was out on fresh water. The last few years I've been doing all salt water fishing. 

 

If you live around Buffalo, or Rochester, you've got some of the best freshwater fishing in the world on your doorstep. Lake Ontario Salmon and Trout fishing rivals any salmonid fishery in the country, bar none........ And Lake Erie's legal walleye population has exploded. The Eastern basin of Erie is giving up limits of mostly 18 - 21" fish that will continue to fill coolers for the next 5 years or so. The good old days for these 2 lakes are now!

[Brawndo]

I have never posted my ugly mug on here before, but damn this was fun to reel in. 

[3putt]

Nice fish.  What a fattie.

[North Buffalo]

Jeez nice fish... love the color too

[Weave]

Wow.  What a pig.

Noise among LO and StL anglers is that bass populations are down significantly, but size is way up.  Speculation is not many fish survive the gobie onslaught to reach adulthood, but the ones that do gorge themselves on all the gobies and are reaching ridiculous sizes.

[3putt]

7 hours ago, Weave said:

Wow.  What a pig.

Noise among LO and StL anglers is that bass populations are down significantly, but size is way up.  Speculation is not many fish survive the gobie onslaught to reach adulthood, but the ones that do gorge themselves on all the gobies and are reaching ridiculous sizes.

Same here on Lake Michigan.  Big boys can be had from shore.  But the perch are being decimated.

[hsif]

I lived in Niles, Mi for a year and fished the pier at Benton Harbor / St. Joe back in the mid 80's. Perch were so big, leeches could be used as bait for them......... unreal big. Sad to hear that the numbers are being impacted by gobies. The shipping industry has never been held accountable for the introduction of invasives.

[3putt]

1 hour ago, hsif said:

I lived in Niles, Mi for a year and fished the pier at Benton Harbor / St. Joe back in the mid 80's. Perch were so big, leeches could be used as bait for them......... unreal big. Sad to hear that the numbers are being impacted by gobies. The shipping industry has never been held accountable for the introduction of invasives.

ive heard some of the blame goes to the zebra mussels as well.  they are eating all the plankton that help the fry survive.  Either way the catches are fewer and far between. 

[Weave]

12 minutes ago, 3putt said:

ive heard some of the blame goes to the zebra mussels as well.  they are eating all the plankton that help the fry survive.  Either way the catches are fewer and far between. 

More invasives that our shipping industry has introduced.....

something, something, political, sensoring myself...

[spndnchz]

21 minutes ago, 3putt said:

ive heard some of the blame goes to the zebra mussels as well.  they are eating all the plankton that help the fry survive.  Either way the catches are fewer and far between. 

Spongebob?

[Brawndo]

16 hours ago, Weave said:

Wow.  What a pig.

Noise among LO and StL anglers is that bass populations are down significantly, but size is way up.  Speculation is not many fish survive the gobie onslaught to reach adulthood, but the ones that do gorge themselves on all the gobies and are reaching ridiculous sizes.

 

8 hours ago, 3putt said:

Same here on Lake Michigan.  Big boys can be had from shore.  But the perch are being decimated.

 

7 hours ago, hsif said:

I lived in Niles, Mi for a year and fished the pier at Benton Harbor / St. Joe back in the mid 80's. Perch were so big, leeches could be used as bait for them......... unreal big. Sad to hear that the numbers are being impacted by gobies. The shipping industry has never been held accountable for the introduction of invasives.

I have heard the same and seen similar results. We caught approximately 25 Bass this week only 3-4 were 1-2 pounders. There are videos of gobies cleaning out a bass nest, even as the male tries to eat as many as possible. 

And if the Asian Carp takes over the Great Lakes....

[sodbuster]

"A bad day fishing os better than a good day at work" my ass. Second worst morning I've ever had in the lake. One of our downriggers crapped the bed and we almost lost our probe on the bottom. While pulling it back from 200ft down by hand, the other one goes off. Turns out the three pound salmon that we hooked wasnt strong enough to pop the release, and just swam back and forth, tangling itself up with three other rigs. After losing about 200 ft of line on most of our rigs, we decide to just surrender and head in for breakfast. Halfway back, the engine shuts off from full throttle, and we had to call the neighbor to tow us in. Then, getting out of the boat, I dropped my lunchbox, it popped open, and my sandwich fell in the water.

I'd rather have gone to work.

Edited July 28, 2018 by sodbuster
Punctuation

[Weave]

That does sound like a bad day.  I don’t have a story to match that.

How were the waves?  Seems a bit breezy this morning for the big lakes.  I canceled my plans because of the wind forecast.

Tomorrow, however, is setting up nicely for a long day on the water.  Low winds and the only storms predicted are in the later afternoon along the lake breeze zones that run parallel to the lakes a bit inland.

[sodbuster]

The top of the water was great. <1 footers. I will say though, there is a tourmament going on out of Sandy this weekend. At 5am, there were 12 boats stacked up in the channel. When 5:01 hit, it was like Mad Max. We stayed in at 200 and it wasnt too crowded, but it looked like bumper boats further out.

Water temp is still screwed up, and there's still a lot of warm water down low. Bait is hugging the bottom.

[hsif]

Sod, that's a bad day for sure........ hopefully the boat repair isn't too involved and you can be back out on the water looking for a better day.

[hsif]

Speaking of better days..... 12 Lake Erie walleyes this morning. Beautiful day on the water. 

[sodbuster]

Took the morning and hit the water. Rained the whole time, but the fishing was great. Boated an 8lb steelhead, a 9lb brown, and about a dozen salmon. Kept the two kings that were over 24lbs. 40 ft down in 75 ft of water from Devil's Nose down to Bald Eagle. 

[North Buffalo]

Caught an 18 inch pickerel on a lake in Pennsylvania.  First on ever... basically a small northern pike so i was a little underwhelmed.  But at least I caught something before it started pouring again.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, sodbuster said:

Took the morning and hit the water. Rained the whole time, but the fishing was great. Boated an 8lb steelhead, a 9lb brown, and about a dozen salmon. Kept the two kings that were over 24lbs. 40 ft down in 75 ft of water from Devil's Nose down to Bald Eagle. 

That’s a hell of a morning.  The salmon fishery has been on fire this year.

And 75ft, eh?  They’ll be staging soon.  Heck, with this rain we might see a few porpoising at the pier heads.

[Weave]

Spent the morning fishing in my kayak.  Hit up a lake about 20 minutes south of me.  Had a helluva morning.  Drifted a mud flat in 14-18 feet of water.  Early in the AM the bluegills wouldn't leave my bait alone.  They were some of the biggest bluegills I've ever caught.  Couldn't stretch my hand to get a grip from back to belly on some of them.  Pigs.  Then the gills stopped hitting and the perch showed up.  All told I probably boated 30 fish this morning.  Really wish I had brought a cooler with me.  Would have made a helluva fish fry.

About 11 the rain moved in and a steady breeze picked up.  Of course, I was traveling into that breeze to get back to the launch.  By the time I made the dock my shoulders and triceps were burning. 

I'm hoping I'll be able to do it again tomorrow before the holiday crowds get on the lake.

[Weave]

Spent both mornings this weekend fishing out of my kayak in one of the western Finger Lakes. Had great mornings both days catching fish.

I’ve got 3 meal bags of fillets in the freezer.  And sore, tired shoulders from the paddling.  But it  was awesome.  Light breeze, sunny skies, calm seas, and willing fish.

If our cards play out correctly, next year we may be moving to one of those lakes for year round residence. 

[Ducky]

Man, it is hard to find ducks this year because of the lack of rain all summer. We managed to scratch out 8 this evening. We shut it down an hour early because of the rain and work tomorrow. Of the three dogs that we had with u,s one was a student, one was working and one was a retiree! We managed to get a blue Wing teal a green Wing teal 2 Widgeon a redhead 2 pintails and a mallard.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Ducky

[North Buffalo]

P.S. Come east, was on the Hudson north of Peekskill..  Literally had to shoo 2 dozen off the road just to drive thru today.  They were not moving even when I feigned kicking them...

[hsif]

Got a 2 person limit(12) of Lake Erie walleye out of Cattaraugus Creek yesterday. Beautiful day. This season has been such a good one on Lake Erie, you hate to see Summer come to an end. Saw a bald eagle at the creek mouth, and then another on the thru-way while heading back to Rochester. Seems to be more and more of them around Western New York. 

[Ducky]

23 hours ago, North Buffalo said:

P.S. Come east, was on the Hudson north of Peekskill..  Literally had to shoo 2 dozen off the road just to drive thru today.  They were not moving even when I feigned kicking them...

Ducks or geese?