The Fish Are Adapting To Feeding At A Buffet Table.

[cyclops2]

Well, where there are Gobies there are happy fish of ALL types.

A Scuba diver friend said the reason all of my fishing spots are dropping off is because of several reasons.

Daytime Cormorants have eaten up most of the fish that hunted in day light. Gene elimination.

The Gobies live on the bottom. That is pretty deep in the St. Lawrence River. The meat eaters are staying down there with no sunglasses on. They simply dive into a crowd of Gobies & munch away. It is a pot luck crowd down there according to him. He has dragged different lures to see if they will strike it.. Rarely was his finding.

It sort of confirms the aggressive nature of the Cormorants in the last summer. They are grouping up into hunting packs of about 4 to 6 birds. Then start fishing under the boats & docks. Our docks are attacked all day by them.The amount & size of our catch & release there for kids has dropped to almost zero. Even the Carp are disappearing from shallow water feeding around the docks.

Central sewage treatment plants along the river have REALLY pushed down the shallow spawning grounds. Some areas are bare as the dirt on them. Weed beds are gone. Just some slimy thin crap weeds.

A change is DEFINATELY underway.

Downriggers for all fish in the daytime is almost on us, where I have fished for years.

The GREEN PEOPLE are having a lot of effect on fishing. None of it is good for fishing as I knew it.

They like / love, the Cormorant. As long as it does not sleep , crap, & destroy several acres of their trees

Edit ...............Add in the Minks that are overrunning the areas. Green People have made them undesireable. Result. Those guys eat a HELL OF ALOT OF FISH all day.

Have a good day on the water. Enjoy the warm sun like I do as I drift off to sleep.

Rich

[Hooligan]

I guess I'm confused by your post. You're bemoaning something and have unsubstantiated evidence to do so. It sounds an awful lot like, "I'm not catching fish where I used to and I have to blame someone or something for that because fishing patterns and fish habits simply do not change on a yearly, or cyclical, basis." Learn to fish different areas, structure, cover, and environments and you'll catch those same fish that were once abundant on your docks.

If you think that mink and cormorant are solely responsible for the depletion of a fishery, you couldn't be more wrong. In many situations the predatory aspect of those animals will help to solidify a fishery, as well as strengthen the competition for the forage base. It enhances natural selection and creates stronger populations and genetics within that population.

[cyclops2]

The real collapse is the lack of weeds all over. They depended on the sewage from all the lake & riverfront homes all spring, summer & fall.

No sewage nutrients. No weeds. Few fish. Predators have a field day picking them off in open water areas. All the Bass, Pike, Musky, Perch & walleye areas are bare. The breeders probably moved farther down river to sewage areas.

It maybe poop to humans. But it is the food of great fishing areas.

[Lund Explorer]

We have a river system here in Western Michigan where an inch of rain can produce an overflow of up to a million gallons of raw untreated sewage being dumped into it. It is by far, the least popular of all the tournament stops on this side of the state because the fishing generally stinks almost as bad as the water when you dare go near it.

Every waterway if left in it's natural state can or is the home to certain species of fish that thrive in that environment. However, it is my humble opinion that introducing anything un-natural to those waters is wrong. It doesn't matter if it is an invasive such as a goby, zebra mussell, grass carp, or if it's something such as sewage, or another form of pollution such as fertilizer runoff from farms to front yards.

Some of the very best fishing I have ever witnessed came from Canadian Shield lakes while some of the worst came from a time when Lake Erie was considered a dead cesspool. The fact that the latter has come back to rival the former in productivity is the result of people embracing the Greens rather than what I would call the Browns.

[J Francho]

The real collapse is the lack of weeds all over. They depended on the sewage from all the lake & riverfront homes all spring, summer & fall. No sewage nutrients. No weeds. Few fish. Predators have a field day picking them off in open water areas. All the Bass, Pike, Musky, Perch & walleye areas are bare. The breeders probably moved farther down river to sewage areas. It maybe poop to humans. But it is the food of great fishing areas.

Are you nuts, or just pulling our legs? Nutrients don't have to come from sewage. If anything there is too much nutrients in the water, encouraging light blocking algae growth. It's coming from fertilizers. All those cottages with plush green lawns.

Isn't it odd that two of our local drinking water supply lakes have some of the BEST weedlines I have ever seen. The fishing is pretty incredible, too. You can bet, they aren't pumping sewage in there. And there isn't any cottages either. In fact, anything other than incidental human contact with the water is forbidden. Go figure.

[gobig]

This is an interesting topic. There is a lake that near by me that I would have to call my home lake. The property on the west side of the lake is state owned and at one point was leased out to the public. I know there was a problem with sewage seepage from more than one resort. Since the leases were not renewed by the state the lake has started fishing way bigger than it used to and the shad population has grown considerably. We have had some good conditions for spawning fish the last few years but I find it interesting that the time lines seem to line up.

[lmoore]

Change occurs constantly in every ecosystem. Leanr to adapt to the changes in fish behavior, or learn to be OK with an empty livewell at days end. Blaming birds and minnows just gives you an excuse not to learn.

[cyclops2]

Well can i blame the large amounts of Zebra Mussels alone for bare rock areas ?

Not really. As a result of central sewage treatment. The Zebras have peaked & are actually not noticeable like years ago.

The bays, shoals & shoreline ledges are now post card clean. Our August seaweed beds are tolally gone.

There is a complete change of housing status. Smaller houses being bulldozed & replaced by House & Garden beauties with full lush green lawns.Complete with lawn crews & fertilizers.

Could it be that pesticedes & herbicides are killing freshwater weedbeds directly downstream. Only the immediate USA side of the St. Lawrence River is affected. The center islands & Canadians have their usual weed beds & excellent fish counts.

The 70 & 80 year old fisherman & woman say the area is the worst they have ever seen. But what would a old person know about waters they have fished all their lives.

[Lund Explorer]

Well can i blame the large amounts of Zebra Mussels alone for bare rock areas ?

Not really. As a result of central sewage treatment. The Zebras have peaked & are actually not noticeable like years ago.

The bays, shoals & shoreline ledges are now post card clean. Our August seaweed beds are tolally gone.

There is a complete change of housing status. Smaller houses being bulldozed & replaced by House & Garden beauties with full lush green lawns.Complete with lawn crews & fertilizers.

Could it be that pesticedes & herbicides are killing freshwater weedbeds directly downstream. Only the immediate USA side of the St. Lawrence River is affected. The center islands & Canadians have their usual weed beds & excellent fish counts.

The 70 & 80 year old fisherman & woman say the area is the worst they have ever seen. But what would a old person know about waters they have fished all their lives.

The problem and possible causes you are describing simply don't make a whole lot of sense.

To begin with, the use of fertilizer along the shoreline should provide the nutrients plant life needs without the use of sewage. Unless the bottom of the waterway has been recently dredged, it should already be fertile enough to support the weed growth it used to support.

I suspect that what you are witnessing is the excessive use of weed killer by waterfront property owners. Your best bet would be to buy a Canadian license and start each trip with a boat ride to where the weeds are.