golby question?

[mark72]

We caught several lake trout out of south haven yesterday that had golby's in their stomachs. My question is do golbys live everyware in the lake, or just near shore. Do they suspend in the water, or stay on the bottom? Should I run baits that resemble golbys when we fish are riggers on the bottom? What spoons look like golbys? Thanks for the info

[mriversinco]

I was always under the impression that a Goby will mostly be in the shallower water and near bottom. Could be wrong, but several of the fish I've caught this year had them in their stomachs.

[kiltman]

Goby's don't have a swim bladder and can not suspend. They dart up and off bottom but spend bottom time propped on their pectoral fins. I'm not sure of how deep they are found in the Lake.

[Killin' It]

I will share my .02 on this subject.

Gobies have become a staple of the laker diet. I belive the lakers and browns (walleye as well) Will flurish because of the gobies on the bottom.

EVERY brown and laker we caugh this year was PACKED full of shiners alwife, perch and Gobys some as big as 9 inches.

I know the question everyone askes is how far out do the gobies go..... I know without a doubt they go out to 60 FOW in some places as we have caught them perch fishing on structure. This is a statement based on fishing out of Holland and I am unsure about other ports.

Should you run something that looks like a Goby, I did all spring and it works. Does it work any better or any worse than anything else... sometimes...

DW SS goby spoon on the bottom for lakers was good last year and so was Styrker by flinstone. Each had their days.

As I am sure we all know we give them what they want ( or at least try)

It is not going to hurt aything to put it down and see what happens.

One of my best 6 rod set ups last year for lakers went something like this.

80- 100 FOW Everything withing 15 feet of the bottom

Rigger Silver Streak Mag Lemon Ice

Fixed slider 10' up DW SS Lemon Ice cicle

Rigger Silver Streak Mag Lemon Ice

Fixed slider 10' up with the DW SS Goby

Diver

Silver tin can with a Blue water fly teaser rig mtdew or green and white

White tin can with glow tape on the back and a green and yellow spin glow.

I would run the 300 and 250 copper to just have 2 extra lines out with BLL Patirot and Green/yellow frozen frog.

Maybe yellow looks brown to a fish that far down I don't know.

[Priority1]

I have caught them perch fishing in 40 FOW.

[Consummate Sportsman]

I have caught them perch fishing in 40 FOW.

Yup, same here.

Browns sure do love the gobies too.

[jimcr]

I have caught browns packed with gobies, Like my son Nick said 2 camels in a compact car.

Some where on you tube the first time we were out , Nick filmed me cleaning a couple of Browns full of gobies.

I have also caught them when we were jigging for Kings in the harbor, 35ft down.

[Mushy's Dad]

"Likely to find suitable habitat throughout Lake Erie and in all Great Lakes waters at depths less than 60 meters"

Source: Gobie fact sheet

Its an ok read, nothing that is new or riviting.

[ekbelt]

Here's a quote from a USGS Survey:

"According to our bottom trawl survey, round goby

numeric density has shown an overall increasing

trend during 2003-2009, but with high inter-annual

variability (Figure 9b). Round goby numeric

density decreased from 158 fish per ha in 2008 to

25 fish per ha in 2009. Round gobies have now

been captured at all transects, at depths ranging 9

to 91 m, and will likely continue to contribute to

the diets of Lake Michigan piscivores into the

future. Given the importance of round gobies in

the diet of burbot, an offshore predator, and in the

diets of yellow perch and smallmouth bass

(Micropterus dolomieu), nearshore predators, we

may expect round goby abundance in Lake

Michigan to level off in the upcoming years as

predatory control begins to be exerted."

And its source:

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/reports/2009LakeMichiganPreyfish.pdf

Based on this they've got them in trawl nets as deep as 91 meters (roughly 180 feet).

[Twill23]

Here in my home port(Alpena). Goby are our main forage. Everyone knows of the salmon crash of 04. Gobies took over as a main forage species for our fish, which really made our Lake Trout and walleye fishery take off.

Gobies are found in our area in depths as great as 150fow.

As far as imitating a goby, that is tough. they're made to blend in with the bottom of the lake. Browns, golds, etc are all great baits if your looking to imitate.

Thankfully we've seen a significant increase in the number of smelt in the last 3 years, so much so smelt dipping is really taking off in certain areas around here. Things are definitely looking up!

[Knot Tellin]

We have been catching perch with them in their stomachs in 60FOW. So everything has been eating them. 2 years ago we caught a Goby in 105 FOW while fishing perch so I know they are atleast that deep.

[sherman51]

Here's a quote from a USGS Survey:

"According to our bottom trawl survey, round goby

numeric density has shown an overall increasing

trend during 2003-2009, but with high inter-annual

variability (Figure 9b). Round goby numeric

density decreased from 158 fish per ha in 2008 to

25 fish per ha in 2009. Round gobies have now

been captured at all transects, at depths ranging 9

to 91 m, and will likely continue to contribute to

the diets of Lake Michigan piscivores into the

future. Given the importance of round gobies in

the diet of burbot, an offshore predator, and in the

diets of yellow perch and smallmouth bass

(Micropterus dolomieu), nearshore predators, we

may expect round goby abundance in Lake

Michigan to level off in the upcoming years as

predatory control begins to be exerted."

And its source:

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/reports/2009LakeMichiganPreyfish.pdf

Based on this they've got them in trawl nets as deep as 91 meters (roughly 180 feet).

dont really mean to correct your math but a meter is approxamantly 1.3 yrds. so 91 meters would be somewhere around 100 yrds. that means they have found them down to somewhere around 300 ft. im not real good when it comes to math, much less meters. so if i am wrong please feel free to correct me.

but my point is that they are just about everywhere. i know they dont seem to have hurt our fishery any. and it seems everything down there wants to eat them. from the lowly white perch in lake erie to the lake trout in lake michigan.

sherman