GLF

Thanks for the report Ed!

Very Nice Ed! I had that Tom struting around the front of my house today.

You are not the only one who has made this mistake. Here is where I misidentified my fish http://www.greatlakesfisherman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1290 Turned into the hotest thread on this site BTW....Thats a really nice brown trout!!!

Sounds like the fish have a smorgashborg of baitfish and are not hungry. I have a feeling next time you will haul them in.

Yes....You did it! However....this is going to end up in another debate. I notice on this picture name in the gallery that it says Lake Trout. Everyone knows I know how to misidentify fish I think this is a Brown Trout. Still....its a very nice fish! Now if one of these fish identify experts on the site will identify it.....

A 90-year comeback for Detroit waterway Biologists have found evidence this spring that whitefish are spawning in the Detroit River for perhaps the first time in 90 years -- excellent news for the health of the international border waters. Until the early 1900s, millions of spawning whitefish from Lake Erie swarmed every fall to the enormous, shallow rapids of the Detroit River. By 1916, the whitefish had all but disappeared, victims of industrial pollution and channel dredging that dynamited the rapids to clear the river for big ships. "This is amazing. It's the cumulative effect of 35 years of pollution control, and we are beginning to see at least the beginning of the recovery of a sentinel species," said John Hartig, manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, where the spawning whitefish were discovered. Sentinel species are ones sensitive to pollution and habitat destruction. Whitefish remain the most popular commercial fish of the Great Lakes, though most are netted in the lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. More than 8 million pounds are netted from U.S. waters in those lakes each year. A relatively small commercial fishery exists toward the deeper, eastern end of Lake Erie. In the 1800s, so many whitefish ran the Detroit River rapids each fall and were so valuable as a commercial species that, by 1870, Michigan supplied most of the eggs for whitefish hatcheries around the Great Lakes. Thomas Todd, deputy director of the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, said researchers occasionally had found larval whitefish in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River in the 1970s, "but they assumed they were fish that had washed down from Lake Huron." "There's no question about the fish we found this spring. We were able to suck eggs out of the gravel, and we found larval whitefish so small that they had to have hatched near where they were found. The fish that produced them came out of Lake Erie," he said. "Maybe our next step is creating spawning habitat out there," he said. "Wouldn't it be incredible if we could play a role in rehabilitating Lake Erie's whitefish stocks?" Hartig said it would be a long time before there are enough whitefish in the Detroit River to be of significance to anglers or commercial fishing. The river already has excellent fishing for walleye, smallmouth bass and muskellunge and, to a lesser extent, perch, northern pike and white bass. Mike Zielinski, a former charter fishing guide who lives on Horse Island in Gibraltar near where the river enters Lake Erie, said anglers have caught the occasional whitefish in the river for 20 years. "At first I didn't know what they were. I thought they were mooneyes until I looked them up in a book," Zielinski said. Some walleye fishermen who use high-tech underwater television cameras also have seen the occasional whitefish for about 10 years. The whitefish eggs and larvae collected by the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor came from the Canadian side of the Detroit River opposite Grosse Ile near the area called Hole in the Wall. Dr. Leon Carl, director of the Great Lakes Science Center, said that, since 1972, oil and phosphorous discharges into the river have declined more than 95% and mercury contamination in fish has declined 70%. He said he hopes an artificial reef built near Belle Isle will help sturgeon successfully spawn.

CLEVELAND - The holiday weekend marks the traditional start of the Lake Erie fishing season, and wildlife experts say the fishing is safe despite recent scares involving a virus affecting sheepshead and a die-off of perch. "I don't see any problem with touching or handling or being exposed to any of those fish," said John Hageman, laboratory manager and Ohio Sea Grant extension agent at Put-in-Bay in the Lake Erie resort islands near Sandusky. The biggest issue for people who want to enjoy Lake Erie would be rotting fish that could make the lakeshore smell and raise bacteria levels in near the shore, Hageman said. "The sheer numbers (of dead fish) are going to cause problems as they decay," according to Hagemen. Last year Ohio sold 872,000 fishing licenses. This year's sales through April, at 272,600, were up more than 10 percent over last year. The traditional start of the season comes after back-to-back scares involving sheepshead, also called freshwater drum, and yellow perch, a Lake Erie favorite. Yellow perch have been dying off in Lake Erie's Central Basin area near Cleveland, but appear to be OK in the Sandusky area's Western Basin. Kevin Kayle, a state fish biology supervisor at Fairport Harbor northeast of Cleveland, said officials are observing from 50 to 500 dead yellow perch when they examine shores from the Vermilion-Lorain area extending east to Pennsylvania. Most are in the 5- to 8-inch range, indicating they are likely in their first spawning cycle and hatched three years ago. Yellow perch are the most valuable commercial fish harvested from Lake Erie and generally are rated the tastiest by anglers in Ohio. If properly cleaned and prepared, the perch remain safe to eat, Kayle said. Officials had initially suspected a virus was to blame for the deaths but some now believe they may have died in commercial trap nets. "We had our pilots fly over offshore waters to see if there was a perch kill related to commercial trap nets," said Gary Isbell, head of fisheries management for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. "They spotted plumes of dead perch coming from the side of the commercial fishing boats as they pulled their trap nets a few miles north of Lorain." Perch caught in deep-water nets and hauled to the surface can be harmed by a change in pressure. Fisheries experts say perch could also be stressed from being crowded in the trap nets. But fisheries biologist Chris Vandergoot in Sandusky said the perch deaths should not be blamed solely on commercial fishing. "Dead yellow perch have been reported in the Fairport Harbor and Conneaut areas, far east of where commercial nets have been set," he said. Perch sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service laboratories in La Crosse, Wis., for testing showed no signs of a virus. Fish experts tracking the yellow perch problems have identified a virus as the cause of an earlier die-off of the less-desirable sheepshead in the Sandusky-Huron area. The virus appears to have run its course, and the sheepshead population seems to be strong, biologists said.

Officials say a disease might be killing an invasive species of fish in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. The GLRC’s David Sommerstein reports. Where the lake and the river meet, people have been finding dead round gobies. “Dozens in some cases, hundreds of dead gobies that have been washing up on shores.” Steve Litwiler is with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. He says a change in water temperature or a poison could cause the die-off, but initial sampling suggests some kind of disease. “Is it a disease that could potentially affect other fish? Fortunately right now the only fish that are dying appear to be the round gobies.” If only the round gobies die, this could be a good news story. Round gobies hitched a ride from Europe in the ballast of foreign freighters. They’ve displaced native species across the Great Lakes by breeding faster and eating other fishes’ eggs and young. For the GLRC, I’m David Sommerstein.

Thanks for the report Joe. Sounds like they are getting them North and South. I have heard they are getting some bigger fish in 60-70 fow slightly North.

I love seeing members with pictures of kids and fish. Glad to see you getting the young one involved in a sport that we all love. Thanks for the fishing report!

Mike will be in town from Ontario. He and I will be teaming up with Heavy Action. This will be your chance to whip GLF

What is a "pumphandle"?

Thanks for the report Ben! What times dinner?

Nice mess of walleyes. What times dinner?

I have heard some charter captains guarantee $100. If they are tipped $100 the charter captain does not have to pay. If they are tipped less than $100, the charter captain will make up the difference. These are seasoned first mates or other charter captains running as a first mate.

Nope! You started a Great thread. Thanks!

Thanks for the report Eric. What size were the eyes?

We want to see pictures of the big ones you catch!

Thanks for the report Josh. I should have the rest of the Raider spoon smilies done by this weekend. How fast was you trolling? Whats the Antifreeze spoon look like? Do you have a sneak peak for us?

Have you heard a final date on when you will be heading to NY? Wish I could go with you.

Thanks for the report Terry. At what depth would you say you got the majority of your hits? What speed was you running on the gps?

Thanks for the useful information Tom. This gives me and others a very good idea on where to plan a trip.

That would be a hammerhead salmon.

I swung through South Haven today to pass out some cards at the boat ramp. I spoke with a boat that just came in. OK...I spoke with the people who was on the boat that came in They had 36 between the two of them. I was told there are some nice jumbo's being caught in 70 fow.

Look what Levi caught! He was fishing in front of the Cook Nuclear power plant when he caught this mutated salmon. Way to go Levi!