Support Iceshanty... Get some great gear and forum goodies... Join The Iceshanty Hardwater Militia
Thanks everyone. To answer the question about continuing to stock in spite of the smelt kill. The reason we tried steelhead was they are more flexible in their diet and should initially target zooplankton. The smelt kill appeared to be mostly one year class, so we thought the population would not be severely impacted. We discontinued the yearling Lake Trout stocking, but were not concerned with the limited predation from the adult Lake Trout (and wanted to keep this popular fishery going). It appears there may be fewer remaining smelt than we hoped. We paused the adult Lake Trout stocking this year after the winter smelt reports were so poor. I did see some smelt in the creek spawning this spring (very late due to the weather). That year class would have been the one that experienced the summer kill. It is a tough fish to manage as they are very boom and bust in inland lakes and there isn't an easy way to repopulate them. This creel is an attempt to get the most information this winter as possible and come up with a plan moving forward. Feel free to include any comments along with the cards or give me a call (269-204-7008).
Just wanted to report that I have caught several 5" or less bluegills with black spots in all the fins but not on the main body of the fish. Gills above this size do not have it at all.
Will the collected creel card results/info ever be made public or posted on the site? I'm all in for helping the Gull Lk fishery, I have fished it year round for 10+ years. However the case may be, I would not like Gull to get any more publicity than it's already getting. I can just imagine the circus if results of those lakers and steelhead get posted (Happened last year when the laker bite turned on and it made its way to Facebook, next day there were 5 times the people lol). I'm all for people fishing Gull, but trash and parking seems to be getting worse every year. Us local guys feel it the worst.
Navionics displays contours for Little Long Lake and it's not even close. The contours shown are not for that lake. The max depth shown is 25 feet deeper than Little Long. Must be some other Little Long Lake that Navionics decided to move here. :-) I have not found the contours to be accurate on Gull, either. The humps are not in the right location. It's like all the contours are shifted.
Just a reminder now that the ice is off, to send in your creel forms if you have any. I really appreciate all the help and glad to see smelt getting caught. I'll be monitoring the spawn. Also, I use the C-map Genesis maps for Gull. It is user generated data, so may not be perfect.
Hey Dianam, was there output from the 2018/19 study that you can share? Very interested in the data!Thanks
Curious as to what direction Gull is headed in now. I have noticed the Lake Trout stocking has slowed and we are now seeing plants for Rainbows once again. On a side note I am seeing a lot of juvenile smelt in the south bay at all depths. Keep in mind that this is the only part of the lake currently with safe ice.