Hey everybody.
Well, with what has historically been one of the best walleye fishing months behind us, I've made some personal observations. I get a sense (because of what I'm seeing on my fish finder) that the forage base in the Saginaw Bay is very much higher then the past few years. Large, dense clouds of baitfish are about everywhere you go on the bay. Yet the catch rate for everyone as compared to the last few seasons are coming harder and appears to be down for the most part. This high forage base may be part of the cause. When fiish are not that hungry, they don't/won't bite that well and only for short feeding windows. This train of thought combined with a recent E-mail correspondence I had with a friend in the DNR may shed some light on this, as well as give us some hope for the future of our fishery. My DNR friend writes, Quote:
Dan:
We saw that the catch rate in our survey nets was much lower (but still good numbers over all) last fall, so I'm not surprised to hear of these lower catch rate observations. There is evidence that survival rates are lower suggesting lots of extractions and maybe emigration from the bay. The good news is that we saw a record catch of young-of-the-year walleye in 2009 (yes even much bigger than 2003). Assuming they are surviving ok, we should have another huge pulse of fish in a year or two.
We have a new study starting next year; we'll be radio tagging a few hundred walleye in Saginaw Bay and setting up an array of hydrophone receivers on the bottom of parts of the bay and river mouths to track movement of walleye. Our main question is how many (and when) they out migrate from the bay (to the main basin and points beyond). They are doing the same thing in Lake Erie. Should be really interesting. There is also a study of commercial by-catch of walleye (& other species) in Saginaw Bay. That study is being done by MSU and should shed light on how many are by-caught in the trap nets and what their fate is (how many are released alive and how many don't survive). We'll be back again in September for our annual survey work. Un-Quote:
Of course the continuing winds don't help either, when stable weather would allow the walleyes to establish feeding patterns that last more then one day in one spot. I've also been doing a little better this season running cranks again versus harnesses. With all the bugs worked our of my boat (finally) I have quit a few good weekend dates left on my charter calendar. Also been doing pretty good using the smaller boat for near shore trips. Posting some recent pictures for your enjoyment and as always, be safe, fish smart and tight lines. Capt. Dan.
