Hey Dwight....

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Got any thoughts on these?

 

Saw them recommended on another site. I've got no personal experience with them but if they got down quick enough, do you think they'd get bit up there?

 

[slonezp]

Is that a jig or a swimbait? Seems it would work better as a jig since gobies are bottom dwellers.

[J Francho]

I know they must be eating them, but I never see any gobies (or sculpins) puked up.  It's weird.  Alewife, little white perch, and crabs are what I see.  Yet, the Goby imitator baits do get bit, so I don't see why these wouldn't select for larger fish.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Is that a jig or a swimbait? Seems it would work better as a jig since gobies are bottom dwellers.

 

Apparently kind of like both. Dragging, hopping on bottom. Swims while you drag it.

[Dwight Hottle]

Joe Balog baits? He is a pretty good smallie fisherman. It's a goby imatation of a tube. Drag it or work it slowly.  I passed on them based on the price.

 

Regular gobies have a straight fan tail. If you try one remember gobies do not have air bladders so they can only swim horizontally. They dart around the bottom. They are soft rayed & very fatty. I think that is the reason smallies don't puke them up. They most digest very quickly.

 

 

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Yeah, it's a Balog bait.

 

I'd only be buying one to try if I make a return trip to Erie. No gobies here (even though the bait would probably get bit.)

[J Francho]

 

They are soft rayed & very fatty. I think that is the reason smallies don't puke them up. They most digest very quickly.

 

That makes sense to me.  I know they are eating them....heck, I jig up a couple dozen on a spoon and kill them to create a "chum line."  I see smallies gobbling them up.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Can you guys enlighten me as to why gobies are "bad"?

[J Francho]

I haven't seen where they are bad.  Unless ":bad" like alewife that feed the fish, zebra mussels that cleaned up the water, or milfoil that provides cover...

[SPEEDBEAD.]

^ That's what I was thinking.

 

They reproduce prolificly as well, right?  Why aren't they used as a lower level baitfish in more places? Just kinda wondering...

[J Francho]

The feeling is that they decimate nests.  That's the common argument for many invasive spp.

[Catt]

Interesting...very interesting

[tomustang]

Yeah, it's a Balog bait.

 

I'd only be buying one to try if I make a return trip to Erie. No gobies here (even though the bait would probably get bit.)

I don't doubt it, my wife caught some smallies on the river here with goby imitations.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Maybe since the GL waterways are so vast, the gobies have less effect on the overall breeding?

 

I don't know, was just wondering.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

I don't doubt it, my wife caught some smallies on the river here with goby imitations.

 

And I can understand that approach too. Kinda looks like a big sculpin that we see around here.

[slonezp]

They reproduce multiple times a year. Their diet consists of fish eggs and zebra mussels. The fish eggs diet is obvious why it's bad. The zebra mussels filter micro organisms and toxins out of the water. The gobies eat the toxin filled mussels and the bass, trout, and perch eat the toxin filled gobies. What the toxin effect on the predator fish is I don't know.

[slonezp]

More goby info than you'll ever need https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/10174/inhscaev01996i00010_opt.pdf?sequence=2 Pages 19-25 cover reproduction, growth, and diet.

[Dwight Hottle]

They reproduce multiple times a year. Their diet consists of fish eggs and zebra mussels. The fish eggs diet is obvious why it's bad. The zebra mussels filter micro organisms and toxins out of the water. The gobies eat the toxin filled mussels and the bass, trout, and perch eat the toxin filled gobies. What the toxin effect on the predator fish is I don't know.

 

Almost all species are eating the gobies. Walleye, pike, steelhead, brown trout, etc. What the toxin effect on the predator fish is unknown but I'm sure it contributes to the fish eating advisories the great lakes issuses so often. The gobies have provided an additional food source for all the predators. All the site predators in the great lakes have bennefitted from the clearing water just look at the smallie & musky populations. Pa has only pay fish cleaning stations or bait shops. When you talk to one of the fish cleaners they say everthing is eating the gobies.

[J Francho]

The water snakes on Erie have made a comeback due to the abundance of the goby.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Ewwww!

 

Big words!! 

[MacP]

I'm not familiar with that brand, but I use the Storm Brand Sculpins and Goby's pretty regularly.  They kill in rivers and creeks around here.

 

[slonezp]

I'm positive the reason there are 30-40lb trout and 8lb smallies is because of the goby and zebra mussels. I'm no scientist, but our predator fish have adapted and benefited from the evasive species and made the best of it.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Wonder what happens in places that there are no Zebes?

 

What do they feed on at that point?

[Dwight Hottle]

Yeah, it's a Balog bait.

 

I'd only be buying one to try if I make a return trip to Erie. No gobies here (even though the bait would probably get bit.)

 

 

Better buy two, one for you & one for me. Cheaper than gas buddy.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Works for me.

 

Jeff should be up there soon, no? I know three can fit in that aircraft carrier of yours.