thursday 11/15

[John Pensyl]

Got a late start by my normal standards and fished from 730 until 130 or so. Moved 2 mid 40s fish with the pounder and had another 45 or so follw a tube below the boat for a solid minute. She just swam behind it watching it, couldn't even get her to react. Had a solid 47-48 inch shovel headed fish chase a toothy to the surface in the east river, biggest fish I've seen on that side to date. She left my legs shaking and really got me frustrated. That was it for the day, 4 follows, all Niagara beasts and all being pricks. Cullen never moved a fish, but after yesterdays fish I don't think he minded. This weather blows.

6 days straight at work and then going all out musky mode for 8 days the 22nd to the 29th. If I happen to overdose on musky will someone please be nice enough to flip me over so I don't suffocate on my own vomit?

[Scott McKee]

Where the hell were these mid to upper forty inch fish all summer?  Tony?

[Tony Scime]

They grow faster in warm water. So all those low 40s caught in the summer probably grew 2 or 3 by fall. Now mid 40s? Upper 40s? Have any been caught?

[John Pensyl]

In the last 3 weeks Chris cinelli has 2 45s and a 46 on his boat. I know of 2 45s from another boat that does not belong to the nma who also claim to have lost a high 40s last sat. Cullen lost a 45 the day of the twmt, mike fortunate lost a mid to high 40s last Friday and I boated a 44.5 that same day. Then we landed a 45 on saterday. Go out and throw a big bulldawg through Frenchmans and around strawberry and you'll have all the proof you'll need.

I'm sorry but anybody that honestly believes these fish don't head out to the lake during the summer for cooler water and to feed on shad and huge perch schools is just kidding themselves. The perch leave, the pike leave, the walleye leave, but because we tagged a few muskies and recaught them in the same spot they never leave?? Of course they were caught in the same spot, its the only spot any one fishes and these fish are going to return to there spawning and winter feeding grounds. You get the temps right to attract big bait and big fish follow. Same thing happens on lake Ontario with big pike in the harbors. You can pound resident babies all summer but after a big North wind or in fall and erly spring every creek loads with big pike from the lake showing up to feed on an easy meal. Best shots at big fish are early before they head out to open water or late fall when they return. We saw a lot of BIG hooks out n that lake where cullen boated his 50. Maybe the sky isn't falling afterall? Get out and fish.

[jojo wilczewski]

Good Day

Tony do you remember how many fish we tagged? How many years we did the tagging?

How many crossed the Peace Bridge?

Good Luck to all. ALA BALA BALA

jojoout

[John Pensyl]

How many of those tagged fish were 45-50 inchers? I doubt the small fish ever leave just like the little pike. What makes everyone think this fishery is so different from any other big water/trib fishery? St. Clair and st. Larry too the same hits we did and are back on top. They also deal with these fish migrating to fall hunting grounds and lower numbers of big fish when conditions don't line up. Harbor tagged fish were recaptured in the harbor and river fish, in the river just like a lake roaming pike may be caught in olcott but never in Wilson. When u have a prime hunting spot u know well you go back to it. Looks like we can add a 47 incher caught Monday and word is Larry just boated another harbor slob. Sky isn't falling boys.

[jojo wilczewski]

Good Day

I do not think the fishery has any problems. I think it is in very good shape. If I remember right 300 something fish of many sizes where tagged both in the harbor and the river and only one or two crossed the bridge. I do not think the river fish move . Lake fish have to.

I hope to see some more nice gals this year. I wanna get some???

ALA BALA BALA

jojoout

[John Pensyl]

I'm sure there are resident fish that stay all year. Who is to say that these fish that have showed up now or the big fish that were around near the opener are resident fish? You talk to the divers and they don't see too many big fish after mid July. Water is gin clear, I don't see em. Plenty of electronics, not marking them, not the BIG hooks u see now. I've jigged shipping channels, deep holes, looked for untouched water. Only place i ever encounter big fish is adjacent to open and deep water, Thompson's hole for example. Who's to say these fish don't sit out near the shoals all summer, or follow the perch out deep. I've only caught a handful of pike out on the lake in 1000s of hours of trolling and casting for salmonoids. What makes us think we'd ever encounter a musky in open water let alone a tagged one. There's a whole bunch of mid 40s super clean spotted fish in that river that were not there 30 days ago.

[John Pensyl]

I'm just a rookie on the scene sharing observations from the last 2 season's. When conditions are right this fishery will hold the same monsters it did years ago. You guys don't fish the huntly outflow hard when its off? You don't fish it in the summer when it pumps 90 degree water? When river temps are low and it pumps warm water its a bait magnet and therefore its a fish magnet. When the power authority dumps warm resivour water into the lower in early June and the shad stack below it big muskies are all over the place and when the shad leave, so do the skiis. What is the harbors big attraction now without warm water? It's a massive hunting ground with nothing to draw in prey. Those fish are there, we just need mother natures help to make conditions right and pull them in and we all know how consistent she is. If its warm to early or too late they are in open water and good luck finding them there.

[Stephen Glassic]

It would be very interesting to see a radio tagging study done where a few large fish caught in the harbor and in the river are fixed with transmitters and tracked throughout the season to determine where they go in the summer and if they return to the waters where they were tagged.  That might also give us some information that would help to find and target them during the summer in the lake.

[John Pensyl]

Another 45 was just caught in the upper, 23in girth from what I hear.

[Scott McKee]

The Tagging Study I have puts the number of tagged fish at 749.  This is the only study I could find.  I'm sure Tom Page has the latest numbers.  After a quick glance, there were 67 fish 45" or better tagged in the River and 40 in the Harbor.  One question equals lots of activity. Nice.

jojo wilczewski said:

Good Day

I do not think the fishery has any problems. I think it is in very good shape. If I remember right 300 something fish of many sizes where tagged both in the harbor and the river and only one or two crossed the bridge. I do not think the river fish move . Lake fish have to.

I hope to see some more nice gals this year. I wanna get some???

ALA BALA BALA

jojoout

[Tony Scime]

There were three seperate studies made over a 20 year period. Two included harbor fish (Adrian Buff State Study and NMA). Many 45 to 50 inch fish were tagged in both the river and the harbor (they were relatively common then). Many fish were re-caught, but no fish tagged in the harbor was re-caught in the river, and no fish tagged in the river was re-caught in the harbor. There remains the possibility that fish do migrate to the Lake, but not the harbor. It was first theorized by Tom Page and is perhaps supported by a 50 incher tagged by MI around 1980 - tagged near Strawberry, re-caught 1 week later by walleye fisherman lakeside of the Peace Bridge - Ontario shoreline area, not the harbor.