Visit the Team Iceshanty Proshop
We may not have a ice season for 2020!! This is some crazy weather for January.
I knew all the awesome stuff I got when gander went out was gonna be a jinx.
Went to Oliver Lake today with the boat. Had to break thin 1/4 ice in the channel. Only got to fish 1hr till water pump failed so i couldnt slow down enough to troll. I did mark big bait balls on the bottom in several locations. The bay right before you go into Owen lake was stacked full of pan fish. I should have anchored and fished them. Still cant believe I was fishing out of my boat on the Michigan line Jan 6.
I wonder what the bait balls were? Would be cool if the smelt made a come back.
A local pulled up in the lot and talked to me and said the cisco were coming back. Not sure what the bait balls were but they were large size minnows but not big enough to be cisco. My Lawrance 7x HDI showed stragglers very easy at 60 ft. Id say they were emerald shiners.
had to do a double take when i saw the pic but ^^^ hey i know that guy! ^^^
That state has been working on a cisco restoration plan and perhaps may have planted some or moved some around? I believe they were thinking of hatching and rearing some to bring them back. I volunteered to hatch some if it would help. The smelt would be a plus to produce large brown trout. Without a cold water forage the trophy potential of brown trout is greatly reduced. You can produce browns up to 4 pounds or so on invertebrates zooplankton but getting much bigger than that is not probable. Here is one the state gill netted in Olin back when the smelt were still abundant.(Image removed from quote.)
That fish was netted about 5-6 years ago. The smelt were gone by then by a long time. I would like to know who said that about cisco. It would be neat if the state would try and re-introduce them. The state said that bad quality water i.e. warmth and D.O. were to blame for cisco demise in the chain. My buddies that use to catch lakers in Oliver told me they never caught a laker with cisco in their bellies. They said that the lakers were stuffed full of smelt "like cord wood" but never saw a cisco in a laker. I think the cisco were declining in Oliver by smelt predation by that time. In 1986 a friend of mine caught a 12" smelt down rigging in Oliver. He didn't know what it was. He said it looked like a barracuda. I was told that the size of that smelt was indicative of smelt decline. I.E. trout predation and lack of cisco food. Would the state re-introduce cisco in Oliver? My guess is no since they stock browns in the lake. By the way did any one see an article in the South Bend Tribune this summer about the state record 38lb Laker that was caught in Lake Michigan? It said the state estimated that the trout was planted in the late '70s. The same time as the Lakers were planted in Oliver. There might still be a laker out there in Oliver!