Bass-1 Posted July 21, 2009 Posted July 21, 2009 Pro's and cons... The "GOOD", the "BAD" and the "REALLY UGLY".... As a Maine guide, I went through this back in the 80's at my home water body of the St. Croix river back in Baileyville. The guides wanted the alewife run "STOPPED" due to the lack of bass being caught by clients because of all the "bait" in the water system. Fishways were closed, and the alewifes were stopped up until the last couple of years where the state wanted the run to continue. Well, "THERE BACK" and all the tournaments up here are all showing the "lack of" weight because the bass are all feeding really well on them. Good for them, big bass, try and catch them... Anybody else think it's GREAT to have billions of bait in the water during a tournament???? > Quote
EdKras Posted July 21, 2009 Posted July 21, 2009 Look at it as an opportunity. Everybody else is having trouble too. You need to find either the right alewife pattern(topwater?), or find a spot where they are on a crawfish bite and fish a jig. Quote
RhodyBass Posted July 21, 2009 Posted July 21, 2009 The Feds are opening runs all along the east coast due to a significant drop in the population. Endangered species due to the lack of active spawning areas. Many of the ponds in RI have had active alewife runs for years the fish are still catchable you just gotta work a little harder for 'em Quote
hawgwalker Posted July 22, 2009 Posted July 22, 2009 plus it is much better to be fishing for 3s 4s and 5s rather than 1 1/2s especially on lakes with smallies Quote
Super User Grey Wolf Posted July 22, 2009 Super User Posted July 22, 2009 Why don't you want mother nature to do her thing ? Quote
bigtimfish Posted July 23, 2009 Posted July 23, 2009 I am not sure what an Alewife is, I am guessing it is like a shad. Why don't you get a lure that resembles them,fish under the school, and somehow make your bait standout as an injured one. We all know bass are oppertunistic feeders, they will prey on the weak and dying first. Once again, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A ALEWIFE IS so pardon me if this is totally stupid. Quote
Bass-1 Posted July 23, 2009 Author Posted July 23, 2009 An Alewife is a sea-run fish. They enter into fresh water from the ocean every spring around April by the millions to spawn. Once the spawn is complete, the adults head back to the ocean, and in about a week the young hatch. The young-of the-year will stay in fresh water until the late fall when they also return to the ocean. They number into the millions as well, and usually you can see them run the shorelines. They will be 1-2 inches. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, as it is feed for lots of things, I'm just saying the catch rate to hours spent fishing is going down quickly. I just fished a tournament this past Sunday on a lake with a 7 fish limit that usually takes over 25 pounds to win, and lunker is close to 7 pounds. It was won with 18 and lunker at 4.1. I could see all those young Alewife's all over the place. No matter how you look at it, it's good for the nature part of things, but for us, it's hard to catch fish on hamberg when they want steak... Quote
Super User J Francho Posted July 23, 2009 Super User Posted July 23, 2009 Alewife, blueback herring, sawbellies....get some Berkley Gulp! Alive 3' and 4" minnows, find the bait, and drop shot away. Been working great on Lake Ontario for years. Quote
RhodyBass Posted July 23, 2009 Posted July 23, 2009 7 1/2" slug go in rainbow trout pattern work well. Tandem gold blade colorado/indiana spinnerbaits. Cranks/swimmers in blueback herring are top producers all along the east coast for both stripers and LMB. Quote
Super User Matt Fly Posted July 27, 2009 Super User Posted July 27, 2009 I learned about Alewifes in Lake Michigan and Salmon fishing when stationed at Great Lakes Ill. No south winds, no alewifes, no salmon, Good southern winds, good alewifes, great salmon fishing. The test, if you could jig alewifes next to the jetty, pier, shoreline, you were gonna catch the coho's. No bait, no coho. Pretty simple. Pretty simple, 3 days of good winds positions the alewifes, and that positioned the coho's. The "key", was the wind positioning the bait fishes food source. Having too much bait is never a bad thing. It gives the bass fry a better chance to survive when they aren't the number one target on the menu. Take the annual alewife runs out of the equation and your fry becomes the top of the food chain most likely. Quote
JosephFisher16 Posted May 19, 2022 Posted May 19, 2022 My question here is why all the largemouth are dying, why it's killing the bass population. I recently prefished Webber Pond in Vassalboro, Maine, had a great day, very optimistic for tournament day. Come tournament day just over a month later we have 4-5-6lb largemouth floating, dead. My question is WHY?! Phosphorous overload? The explanation suggested these big females were in shallow water feeding and than by nightfall they were too stressed and full and couldn't make it back to deeper water in time, thus killing them. I've been researching for answers and I'm just not finding one that makes sense. Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted May 20, 2022 Super User Posted May 20, 2022 One dead fish isn't a crisis, fish die all the time from natural causes. 1 Quote
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